Boat Docking Guide

Who this is for: boats with a single outboard or a single sterndrive. Twin engines, inboards with a rudder and jet drives handle differently at low speed, so check your owner's manual before you copy a move from here.

• Basics
• Wind on the dock
• Wind off the dock
• Between two boats
• Leaving when pinned
• Leaving in calm water
• Current
• Spring lines
• Solo
• Slips
• Cleat hitch
• Fenders
• Line length

Before any approach

• Read the wind and current first. Look at flags, ripples and water moving past pilings. Boats on moorings point into whatever is winning; boats tied to a dock tell you little. Then, in clear water nearby, shift to neutral for a few seconds and watch which way your boat drifts.
• Get ready early. Fenders hung on the docking side and dock lines cleated on the boat, coiled and ready, before you get close.
• Tell the crew their jobs. Who takes the bow line, who takes the stern, and which dock cleat each one goes to. Keep loose line aboard and out of the water so it cannot foul the prop. Crew step onto the dock on the helm's word, once the boat has stopped alongside. Nobody jumps.
• Steer with short bursts. An outboard or sterndrive steers by pointing its thrust. Set the wheel first, then give a short burst of forward or reverse at idle, with a pause in neutral between shifts. With little way on there is almost no steering in neutral, and neutral does not stop a swing that has already started, so shift early.
• Know which way the stern goes. In forward, the bow follows the wheel and the stern swings the other way. In reverse, the stern goes the way the wheel is turned. That is why you never drive off a dock forward with the wheel turned away from it: the stern swings straight into the dock. Some boats also pull the stern sideways in reverse (prop walk, usually to port with a right-hand prop). It is small on most outboards and stronger on some sterndrives, so try reverse in open water to learn yours, and steer the stern with the wheel rather than counting on it.
• If it is going wrong, back off and go around, early, while your way out is still open. A second approach costs a minute. A crunched gelcoat costs a lot more.

Wind blowing you onto the dock

In a light to moderate breeze this is the easy one, as long as you let the wind do the work.

1. Hang fenders on the dock side before the approach.
2. Come in slowly, nearly parallel to the dock.
3. Stop level with your spot, a little off the dock (about a boat width is a good start; farther off in a strong wind), and shift to neutral.
4. Let the wind push the boat in gently. If the bow drifts in faster (it often does), a short burst of reverse with the wheel toward the dock brings the stern in to match. If the stern drifts in faster, a short burst of forward with the wheel toward the dock pushes it back out. Either burst also moves the boat a little astern or ahead, so keep them short.
5. Get the lines on once the boat is alongside and stopped.

Wind blowing you off the dock

Now the wind is working against you. If you come in parallel and stop, you will blow away before anyone can get a line on. Use a steeper angle and one line to do the pulling.

1. Fenders out on the dock side, especially forward where the boat touches first.
2. Approach slowly at roughly 20 to 30 degrees to the dock. That is a starting point: more wind or less room changes it.
3. Stop before the bow touches. Get a midship line (or a line from a forward cleat) onto a dock cleat a bit aft of where it leaves the boat: hand it to a helper, or drop its loop over the cleat from aboard. Crew step off only from a spot alongside the dock, never across a gap.
4. Idle ahead with the wheel turned away from the dock. The line stops the boat moving forward, and the thrust swings the stern in until the boat lies flat against the fenders.
5. Someone stays at the helm and holds it there at idle while the bow and stern lines go on, then shifts to neutral.

Docking between two boats

A gap between two tied-up boats is the wind-off method in a smaller space: one line and the engine bring the stern in, so the boat never has to slide in sideways.

1. Look at the gap first. It should be well longer than your boat, with a clear way out. If it is tight, get a helper on the dock or pick another spot.
2. Fenders on the dock side, with an extra one forward.
3. Come in slowly at a shallow angle, aiming at the forward part of the gap, and stop well short of the boat ahead.
4. Get a midship line onto a dock cleat a bit aft of the midship cleat, from a helper or from aboard.
5. Idle ahead with the wheel turned away from the dock. The line holds the boat and the stern walks in alongside, without swinging toward the boat astern.
6. Bow and stern lines on, then neutral.

Leaving when the wind pins you on

With the wind pressing you against the dock, powering straight off usually drags the hull down the dock and the stern back into it. Spring the stern out instead, then back away.

1. Put a fender at the bow's forward corner, where it will be squeezed against the dock.
2. Rig a bow spring: a line from the bow cleat led aft to a dock cleat behind it. Run it around the dock cleat and back aboard (both ends on the boat) so you can let it go from aboard, or have a helper on the dock. Once it is on, take off every other line.
3. Shift to forward at idle and turn the wheel toward the dock. The spring stops the boat going ahead, the bow pivots on the fender and the stern swings out into the wind.
4. When the stern points well out into clear water, shift to neutral and center the wheel. Let the spring go and pull it aboard, clear of the prop. Then back straight out in reverse.
5. Once you are well clear of the dock and the boats around it, shift to forward and turn away.

Stronger wind means you need the stern swung out farther before you back off, or the wind pushes you straight back onto the dock. If idle thrust cannot swing it out far enough, stay tied up and get help or wait for the wind to ease. Keep everyone's hands off the bow while it is working against the fender.

Leaving a dock in calm water

The mistake is driving off forward with the wheel turned away from the dock, like a car pulling out of a parking space. The boat pivots well forward, so the stern swings into the dock and drags along it. Back the stern out first instead.

1. Fenders on the dock side, with one at the bow's forward corner: the bow swings toward the dock as the stern comes out.
2. Check astern for traffic and take in all the lines.
3. Turn the wheel away from the dock, then give a short burst of reverse. In reverse the stern goes the way the wheel is turned, so it pulls away from the dock.
4. Shift to neutral before the bow gets close to the dock. When the boat settles, another short burst of reverse. Reverse, neutral, reverse, neutral.
5. Once the stern points well out and the water astern is clear, center the wheel and back straight out.
6. When the whole boat is clear of the dock and any boats near it, shift through neutral to forward and turn away.

Wind blowing you off the dock makes leaving easy: take the lines in, keeping the one at the end that would blow off first until last, let the wind open a gap in neutral, then back or idle straight out and turn once clear. Wind pinning you on: use the spring method above.

Docking in current

In rivers and tidal water, current often matters more than wind, especially on a low boat with little for the wind to catch. The rule: make your final approach heading into the current.

• Bow into the current. The current becomes your brake. You can creep in at idle, or even hold still over the ground, while the engine still gives you thrust to steer with.
• Avoid finishing with the current behind you whenever there is room to turn around. It keeps pushing you ahead after you shift to neutral, and the only brake is reverse.
• Read it first. Water piling up on one side of a piling, crab pot floats leaning over and boats on moorings all show the way it runs.
• Wind against current? Watch how boats of your type are lying on their moorings and approach the way they point. That is the force winning today.
• First line on is the bow line, led up current to a dock cleat ahead of the bow, so the current cannot push the boat back. Then the stern line.

Spring lines explained

Bow and stern lines hold the boat in to the dock. Spring lines stop it sliding forward and back. With bow and stern lines plus both springs set, the boat stays put, which keeps the fenders where you hung them.

Chapman's names for the two springs are the after bow spring (bow, led aft) and the forward quarter spring (stern, led forward). Same lines, same jobs.

• Longer springs hold better on a fixed dock. A long spring changes its angle less as the boat rises and falls, so it keeps the boat in position through the tide.
• At a fixed dock, leave slack for the tide. Lines tight at high water can hang the boat off its cleats at low water, and lines tight at low water get overloaded as it rises. Set every line for the full tide range before you walk away.
• A single midship spring is the solo docker's friend. See the next section.

Tying up alone

Single-handing is about doing everything before you arrive, so nothing has to happen fast once you are there.

1. Set up well away from the dock: fenders on the docking side, bow and stern lines cleated on the boat, and a midship line (from the midship cleat) led back where you can reach it from the helm.
2. Come in slow and stop alongside. Use the wind or current rules above to pick your angle.
3. Shift to neutral before you leave the helm. Never step off with the engine in gear.
4. Step (do not jump) onto the dock with the midship line and make it fast to a dock cleat a little aft of the midship cleat. Pick that cleat before you come in. One midship line holds the boat for a moment, not for good.
5. Then the bow line and the stern line straight away, whichever end is drifting off first, then springs if you are staying. Watch both ends while you work.

If the boat starts drifting off before you can step across, stay aboard and go around. Reaching or leaping for a dock is how people end up in the water between hull and pilings.

Slips: backing out, backing in, bow in

Backing out

1. Fenders on both sides. Check the fairway behind you for traffic. Take off the lines, leaving the one that holds you against the wind or current until last.
2. Center the wheel and back out slowly in short bursts of reverse, with small corrections to stay straight.
3. Keep it straight until the bow, and anything sticking out ahead of it, is well clear of the finger piers and pilings. Turning early swings the bow into them.
4. Now turn the wheel the way you want the stern to go and keep backing briefly. When the boat lines up with the fairway, shift to neutral, center the wheel, then shift to forward to stop the sternway and idle out.

Backing in

1. Fenders on both sides and lines ready. Crew stay aboard, never between the boat and a piling.
2. Idle along the fairway and stop with the boat's pivot point, about a third of the way back from the bow, level with the middle of the slip.
3. Turn the stern toward the opening: wheel hard over away from the slip and a short burst of forward, then neutral, wheel hard the other way and a short burst of reverse. Repeat until the stern points into the slip.
4. Center the wheel and back in slowly in short bursts, clear of the corners of the finger piers and the boats next door. Aim a little upwind or up current of the slip.
5. Before the motor gets near the dock, a short burst of forward stops the boat. Neutral, then lines.
6. If it goes wrong, shift to forward and pull out while the way ahead is clear, then set up again.

Bow in

1. Fenders on both sides and bow and stern lines ready.
2. Swing wide in the fairway so the boat is lined up straight with the slip before the bow passes the ends of the finger piers. As the bow turns in, the stern swings the other way, so watch it.
3. Center the wheel and coast in slowly, in neutral between short bursts of forward.
4. Stop with a short burst of reverse, wheel centered, before the bow reaches the dock. Neutral, then the lines that stop the boat moving ahead, then the rest.

The cleat hitch

A cleat hitch holds under load and still comes off in seconds. Done wrong, it jams or slips.

1. Lead the line to the far horn of the cleat first, the one farthest from where the line comes in.
2. Take a full turn around the base, under both horns.
3. Cross over the top and under the other horn, then back across the top to the first horn: that is one figure eight. One or two is plenty on most line; add one on slippery new line.
4. Finish with a locking hitch: make an underhand loop, flip it over the horn and pull it snug so the tail lies alongside the last turn.

A pile of extra wraps rarely adds holding power and makes the line harder to release in a hurry. Coil the leftover tail neatly on the dock so nobody trips on it.

Fenders: where and how high

• Where the boat touches. Start at the widest point of the hull, then add fenders fore and aft of it. When you pivot on a spring line, a fender goes right at the pivot point.
• How high. The fender has to cover the spot where hull meets dock. At a low floating dock that is usually near the waterline; at a high fixed dock it is up near the rub rail. Look at the gap once you are tied up and adjust.
• Fixed docks and pilings. With the tide, the contact point moves up and down. Check the fenders at both ends of the tide, or ask the marina about a fender board for a piling.
• How many. A common guide is one fender for every 10 feet of boat length, plus one, and never fewer than three.
• How big. A common rule of thumb is 1 inch of fender diameter for every 4 to 5 feet of boat length. Bigger is safer than smaller.
• Tie them to something solid: a cleat hitch on a cleat, or a clove hitch finished with a half hitch on a sturdy rail. Bring them aboard once you are clear of the dock and it is safe to move around.

Gear for this step

Better Boat FendersInflatable ribbed fenders, 23 inches long and 6.5 inches wide, with fender lines and an inflation pump...View productSee current price at betterboat.comBetter Boat Fender LinesSpare or replacement 6 ft lines with a ready-made eye, sold as a 2 packView productSee current price at betterboat.com

Fenders come in black or white 2 packs. At 6.5 inches wide, the 4 feet per inch rule puts them on boats up to about 26 feet; heavy boats and rough berths want bigger. With three fenders as the minimum, most boats need two packs.

Dock line length rule of thumb

• Nylon is the usual choice for dock lines because it stretches and softens the jerk when a wake rolls through.
• Longer is easier to work with than shorter. You can always cleat off extra line; you cannot stretch a line that falls short of the dock cleat.
• Go up a size for a heavy boat, a windy berth or big cleats.
• Carry a spare or two, including one long line. Transient slips and fuel docks rarely put cleats where you want them, and a line doubled back aboard to leave on a spring needs twice the length.

Gear for this step

Better Boat 3/8" Dock LinesDouble braided nylon, 15 ft per line, with a 12 inch eye at one end, in 2 and 4 packsView productSee current price at betterboat.com

Pick a black 2 pack, sky blue 2 pack, black 4 pack or sky blue 4 pack. By the rules above, 15 ft lines work as bow and stern lines on boats up to about 22 ft, and as spring lines on boats up to about 15 ft.