Captain's Blog
Transient Slip and Dock Lessons Learned from Camelot 10/30/2007 8:28:57 PM (0 comments) Login to Add a CommentOkay, so I've been sailing since I was 16 or so. We've gone incrementally from an O'Day Day Sailer up to the current Ericson E31. So, sure, I do have a fair amount of experience on the water.
However, this is my first boat that's really been able to sail to different harbors. Sure, the Seaward 23 could handle Lake Michigan (in general, not extremely rough conditions) but I never really did much harbor hopping. Add the fact that my only non-trailering experiences in harbors is primarily in Monroe Harbor in Chicago on a buoy.
Well, we got the dreaded call from the Waukegan Port District on Friday late in the afternoon. Just a voice mail saying that "another boater noticed we had a line come loose and the bowsprit was hitting the dock". Okay, that can't be terribly bad, I'll just hop in the truck and secure it.
What they failed to mention was that three of the 5 dock lines had completely frayed through - all 3 on the starboard side. The bowsprit had been bent downwards at a 90 degree angle - I've uploaded a picture you can see in my profile.
All three of the lines were cleated on the dock. Two of the lines passed over cement (I should have known better) and the third passed over a wooden board secured to the cement (I never would have thought 5-ish days in a harbor would chew through that one).
A quick survey of the few remaining boats in the harbor, and of the empty slips, revealed that, indeed, everyone else had thought about it with solutions ranging from chains secured to the cleats for tying lines to, chafe guards, and more elaborate low hanging chain configurations underneath the docks.
I was able to come up with my own chafe guard mechanism, given the resources at hand: slip a length of extra hot water hose from the engine over a line and tie a bowline with the hose secured within the loop. Slip that over the pilings and away we go (there's another picture in my profile page). Nothing fancy, but it'll get the job done. Wish I would have realized or thought of that up front!
All is well now and the boat is secured, but lesson learned. Would have been nice if they had given me a transient slip with some left-for-the-winter and ready-to-use chains on the cleats (or a heads up), but it's truly not their fault.
21 some odd years later, there's always more to learn!
Login to Add a Comment
