Docking Bungles
 

Yup...first time out, botched the docking at my marina. I get it, if you have a boat and done it long enough everyone botches a docking but...

New marina, on a river mouth/harbor that gets tidal movement. Went down to the boat (30 Pursuit DC) to start outfitting it for the summer, the guys wanted to move me to a new spot, a better spot, so they came down and said if I can bring it out of the alley they'll move the boat in front of me down and I can have his spot, wasn't really prepared to screw around with it but what the heck. I didn't really get the lay of the new location, had only seen it once but I heard it could be a bit tricky from the guys depending on the wind, tide, river flow etc. It's a parallel docking situation, sort of tight in front and back.

Well I took it out of the alley while they moved the boat in front of me back, I brought it back in thinking I was going to spin it in the alley even though it's tight and go forward to parallel it like any other situation. Not really knowing the dynamics of the location I just went in like I would normally, well the tide must have been roaring in and it pushed my to the opposite side of the alley and now I'm like WTF? It happened so fast I was caught off guard and my hull side scraped along the anchor of the boat opposite of where I wanted to be...total panic set in, all I could hear was a horrible scraping sound that seemed like an eternity. Then I turned total noob fumbling with the controls, didn't know WTF I was doing, meanwhile these two dockhands are staring at me like I'm the new moron in the marina. I finally managed to get it paralleled in after much fumbling.

How friggin embarrassing, after they tied it off I leaned over the side to see what I thought would be 15' of gouge on a perfect hullside...fortunately the other boat's anchor hit my rub rail instead and all was well. Sheesh...gotta give this some thought before I go out next time. The dock hand tried to make me feel better telling me one of the members took 25 minutes to dock in his new Regulator the day before...I guess when they said it could be tricky they weren't kidding.

Does anyone else have some embarrassing docking experiences? I need to hear something so I don't feel like the only one. Geez...what a start to the season lol.

The brain freeze can happen to anyone when others are watching! :D
i was backing in my old Scarab at a marina when visiting some friends....done it a million times before....for some odd reason when you have more then 1 person watching you the pressure goes exponentially up! :D
i was slowly backing in and wanted to just flip it into forward and burp the throttles to slow the boat down some.....brain said one thing...the hand did another and i didnt put it into forward but when right to burping the throttle.....boat hit the dock kinda hard (thankfully no damage anywhere) but i almost sent 3 guys into the drink that were standing there watching me :D
Then you get to have them poke fun and rib ya the rest of the day :(

I've had a couple terrible follies while docking. My favorite was docking my 26' Sonic somewhere near Kent Island, MD, in a wicked current and a breeze. I was pretty much on my own, as my GF at the time wasn't 'boat trained'. I went up on the bow to tie off on the pilings to finish backing into the slip. I mistook the edge of the boat for what I thought was the edge of the raised bow, (I thought I still had the grip rail to step onto). I literally just teetered and cartwheeled into the water. The problem was the engine was still running, extremely loud as the sound was bouncing off the breakwall. Everyone was looking, my GF couldn't see nor hear where I went. I swam to the back of the boat and had to pull down the ladder, and climb back aboard, absolutely praying that she didn't somehow accidentally put the boat in gear.

Many years later, I was with the owners of a brand new boat, getting them familiar with it as we ran the Miami Boat Show FPC poker run. If you haven't docked at the backside of the Islamorada Tiki Bar, it's REALLY tight. We had the slip literally next to the bar/pool table, so there was always a crowd, and you had to back all the way down the fairway, and bang a backing in turn to port and done. I was charged with docking that weekend due to how sketchy it was; and nailed it perfectly every time. The whole starboard side of the alley heading in/out was lined with flatboat skiffs up on lifts, so the only thing sticking out were props. Well, someone 'higher in the company' :D came down to drive the boat for the day, I jumped on the bow to fend off of the sharp props if needed. I was instructed back into the cockpit. Immediately afterward the starboard side of the bow hit a prop and dinged the brand new boat and paint with a gouge about 6" long. :eek: I didn't say a word. :D Later, I found a permanent marker to color in the gouge for the rest of the weekend. :D

We were in a poker run a few years ago on a fairly windy day in our single engine 25' Checkmate. One of the stops was at a restaurant/marina pictured below. The wind was blowing from top to bottom and I figured it would be best to dock with the bow into the wind for easier departure. Idea was to enter this "box" area, make 270 degree turn, come back upwind near the dead end of the skinny dock and tie up on the port side. There were two boats at the top of this box (twin engines) and two boats (singles) at the bottom. Nobody on the sides. I got in, started my turn and made it 180 degrees, which put the SB side perpendicular to the wind, and I figured out later, the tide. With the 10-15 mph wind and the tide, we took off like a rocket toward the bottom of this box with the two boats there. I was already wheel hard to SB, so I goosed the throttle but it just went straight, then quickly ran out of room. Hard to port in reverse, no help. One more time SB/forward with a lot of throttle and again it just went straight. It was like the wind and tide had us locked to only go forward and backwards, with not enough room to complete the turn. It felt like we were doing 15 mph sideways, and by now I was faced with crashing into one of the boats at the bottom. There was, however, a small open space at the bottom right corner. I ordered wife and daughter # 1 to be ready with feet out yelling "don't let us crash into them." At this point I was just aiming with forward/reverse of the shifter. It was like playing Tetris. Our 25' boat came to rest against the dock, which luckily has nice soft cushions, in a 27' space. My prop was practically under the dock behind us, and my bow was over to the guys swim platform in front of me. I was very lucky it all worked out without a scratch to our boat or others.

Twin engine boat owners, don't forget this story when you see a single engine boat docking like an idot....LOL

Every docking is a leaning experience....


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I do the gear shifts to control around docks.
but all it takes is that blink
And your hands over react
Add in wind gusts, and weird flows around the docks
wind deciding the last second that shifts 90 or 180 degrees.
instead of gentle touch on your bumpers..you are jammed in or blown off
Practice..
I do a few practices in open water
if i am feeling tired from sun etc
I have been blown off the perfect approach
And been spun by mother nature
And spun when my hand shifted wrong gear
We are human
Best case is zero damage
And nobody gets bounced into the water
and when we get peanut gallery or a crowd and busy docks or ranps
mr. Murphy will appear

Guys,

Mine was a product of wind not prepared for, too many hands in the pot, one hand not enough, and a learning curve not yet taken.

Shortly after upgrading from our 23' Rinker to our 28' PowerQuest, we were at our local overgrown mud puddle, and we were meeting with the friends who bought our Rinker at the marina. As I made my approach, someone on our boat suggested I dock a little further up. Without thinking about my approach, I made a course correction to that advise. Normally I am in commanding control of my vessel. But... As I closed in on our old Rinker, the wind picked up just ever so slightly at just the wrong time and pushed the bow toward the Rinker. As it happened, someone was sitting on the sundeck of the Rinker, feet on the swim deck. I called out to her and said, "Hey! push me off, would you?" to which, she just stared at me, blank-eyed. I had already put it in reverse to suck the transom toward the dock, but it wasn't going to be enough, so I tapped the throttle just a bit. It worked, and I didn't hit our old Rinker. But what didn't work was that I was new to the offshore shifter, and I forgot to put my hand back on the shifter lever and take it out of reverse. I ended up bumping a conspicuously sharp corner of a seemingly useless protrusion on the dock, which punched a thumb sized hole in the corner of our swimdeck, then I continued on backwards and bumped swimdeck to swimdeck with another boat, which punched a snap-sized hole in the face of our swimdeck, as the guy who initially told me to change course is screaming at me to take it out of reverse. We did no damage to the other boat. I'm just glad we didn't get the outdrives involved. We hadn't had our new, virtually perfect boat a month, and I had already put two holes in the hull. :picard1:

I've since become very accustomed to the offshore shifter and can't imagine going back to a single-lever throttle/shifter.

Thanks. Brad.

Sometimes you`re the hero , sometimes you`re the zero. I have plenty of the zero part. Especially in LOTO where everyone backs in for some reason. In the midwest everyone pulls in bow first so I`m not used to that.

One time I had to hit the bathroon really bad, pulled up to the dock, girls had the ropes and in my hurry to get to the bathroom I slipped, one foot fell between boat and dock and I $hit my pants while my other foot was still in the boat. Yeah so there`s that :hitfan:
Good news, I didn`t have to go to the bathroom anymore.

ok
I just hurt myself laughing
Then imagining the incident
And laughing again
Release the brown trout:eek:
I am a sailor. I have a demented sense of humor

Dan,

I don't believe I've ever pulled into a dock slip. I can't get tied off in most of them, as they're too short. And I'm only 28' long. Do they pull into dock slips in Chiraq?

Thanks. Brad.

Jammin' on the James Poker Run, 2004 time frame: I had just docked at the end of event stop, cracked open my first beer, and slipped on the Trex docking while exiting my 37AT. I ended up bouncing between the boat and dock, and went into the water. My two good friends Bill Rippel (RIP) and Ty Young were standing right there, and I swear they pulled me out of the harbor before my hair got wet. :D Trying to dry off, I discovered that I was bleeding profusely from my knee. I had a giant gash, and our fellow boater Greg Barber, heart surgeon said "I can't fix that here." So, ambulance ride, hospital, stiches, taxi back to the hotel, made the party, danced on one leg, STILL had a blast!

The following day, we had about a 90 mile ride back up the river to the trailers. Well, it rained profusely on the way home, so much so that it soaked my bandage and wound, I started bleeding through the stiches, (blood may have been a little thin from the beer the night before!), and I'll never forget the bloody water running down the wavy Lonseal flooring in the cockpit of the AT, and into the bilge drains. Then when I got home, I had to drain that red water out of the bilge. Yuck!
What a trip!

[youtube] [/youtube]

^^^^^^ OMG, that is funnier than ship! Kmart was ahead of the curve on mail order, too bad they did not survive.

Not surprised to hear a lot of single engine stories popping up. Much more difficult than twins. I’ve done many of the reverse of shame to get out of a bind. Luckily have only put a few rashes on my boat.

Have noticed that a bigger prop and external steering affects the singles a lot. My buddy’s 25OL with a 23p prop and no external steering handles docking much better than my 266 with external and a 29p prop. Must be turning radius and less slip at idle.

Happens to the best of us.

Oh gee...did the same thing. I slipped off the dock, got wedged between the boat and the dock, took my right shoulder and ripped everything inside it, I looked like Drew from Deliverance after the rapids scene. Right arm was useless, tried to swim with one arm, couldn't get out of the water, finally managed to get the swim ladder down from the boat (which are POS's with Pursuits) and had to reach over to grab the grab handle on the side on the injured side, not easy...took at least 10 minutes, nobody around, the thought of drowning did cross my mind as I was getting tired.

Finally got out with a bloody knee like yours, got to the car and with my luck I took my manual shift Mustang to the boat that day which I never do, had to steer and shift with my left hand to get to help.

Surgery and months of therapy. I'd have rather pooped my pants like ICDEDPPL.

Apex,

I lost a small amount of steering throw when I did the hydraulic steering conversion this winter. I can tell when I'm making my spin-around approach to retrieve the CFO, but it's not so much I can't learn and accommodate. I just have to approach at a slightly lesser angle and start my swing a bit earlier.

Thanks. Brad.

I had an embarrassing moment a few seasons back in my 29 Fountain. Pulled the boat off the trailer and docked it so I could park the truck. Family and guests boarded the boat and when I got back, I jumped in started the engs and untied the dock lines.

There was a strong cross wind right to left and I had docked the starboard side against the dock. I was expecting the wind to blow me away from the dock so all I had to worry abt was backing up then use the shifters to spin the bow to the starboard once I cleared the dock and pull away.

When I put both engs in reverse, the boat started going backwards. I was expecting the wind to push the boat to the left but it seemed it was moving to the left faster than I was expecting. To my left abt 50' was another private dock only used for the party boats. After I cleared my dock, I put port eng into fwd and the starboard eng in reverse to swing the bow to the right into the wind. To my surprise, the bow didn't swing to the starboard. Instead the boat just seemed to be accelerating to the left. Tried going back to both engs in reverse so I would at least clear the neighbors dock, but that just made things worse. Finally realized I was going to hit the neighbors dock where there were 2 party boats were tied-up. Put both engs into neutral and ran back to try and cushion the collision. Wasn't able to climb over people fast enough and smacked into the dock broadside. Both party boat captains heard the thud and came up from below yelling at me to "slow-down".:rolleyes:

About this time, I finally realized the steering wheel was turned fully to the left. Apparently someone was playing with the steering wheel while I was parking the truck.
Luckily. the rub rail absorbed the impact and there was no damage to the boat, just my pride.. I just barely missed hitting one of the party boats.

Since that day, I try to get a visual on the drives from the dock and verify they are straight before jumping in the boat.

Hold my beer
last October
Pulled boat up onto trailer
Wife was watching the winch
But it stuck in nuetral
I had to keep engines in gear or it would slide back off trailer

Being the great husband I am
Instead of going through cabin and popping out a hatch then leaning over to help
I went up and over windshield , the boat pic is for reference of windshield to deck journey:evilb:
Cool
Except coming back...my foot slipped on cockpit side of windshield and i fell hard to the deck
broke my foot, pic is from January. It says march but that was march office visit..taking forever to heal.
Omg
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Think we're proving here how hazardous boating is to our health (not to mention the bank accounts lol)
Why do I do this again??

because it gives us joy
🤣🤣
Plus our parts houses like our green

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^^^ haha yup!

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Still Laughing
 

Back in 1995 we were rigging a 33 ft Hydratech triple 2.4 engine cat called the Beast. My customer had it painted pink and white with matching pink and white interior with lounges that made you feel like you were sitting in a strip club. The owner was a great guy and big big musclehead and former Mr. NJ bodybuilder. He also had installed a super loud stereo for its day. He was anxious to get the boat in the water although the rigging wasn’t complete. For some reason we only had reverse gear on 1 engine.

Since triples are a challenge to drive and he had no experience I drove up to silver bay with him so he could show off to his buddies that were anchored, with the stereo booming. Life was good and my client was happy. We decided to go back to the marina and back on the trailer. Here’s were life wasn’t too good. I go position the boat parallel to the dock. As we got close the wind started to push the bow out and the starboard motor was about to hit the dock piling. My client was screwing with the remote for the stereo and wasn’t paying attention so I jumped up and ran to the stern to push off so we wouldn’t hit. In doing so I lost my balance and I had to jump off the boat to the dock.

Now he has to drive and circle back and dock. As he turns around the motor that has reverse stalls. Now he has to make a 2 point turn and is heading right for this 20 ft white and blue welcraft eclipse caddy cabin that was docked. He says over the blaring music and mosquito smoke screen of the 2.4 NO REVERSE, NO REVERSE while pulling the quadrant of the motor that is stalled while the other 2 were in forward. I jumped onto the bow of the welcraft to fend him off but he was coming in Hot. Like an F18 coming into a carrier landing. . That boat was a heavy sled. Momentum was not our friend. His approach to contact was at about a 75 degree angle to the welcraft bow. He yells again NO REVERSE NO REVERSE as the starboard pickle fork goes through the cabin with 2 feet of penetration. He then says for a final time no reverse. That hydratec,went through that cabin like a steel battering ram through balsa wood.

I jumped onto the bow and started the stalled motor and backed it out as it made a creaking snap crackle pop sound. Fiberglass was floating in the water and you could see the cuddys cabin boat cushions from the 2 1/2 ft diameter hole. We docked and tied up. The hydrateck has minimal scrapes on the rub rail. Pink paint on the welcraft was damming evidence.

Im laughing now just recalling this story.

Haha, been there done that!

Great stories...it reminded me of another...not exactly a docking blunder but more of a deck hand blunder that we still laugh about to this day.
I was down in LOTO with a bunch of friends as a semi early bachelor party and we were hanging out in Party Cove all day. (i dont drink so theres never any problems with the law)
So three girls were hanging out on my boat most of the day and they asked if i could give them a ride back to the condos they were staying at. No problem of course! :D
so we get all the way back to their place and as we are leaving the bachelor is trying to hit on this girl hard as he's on the bow of the boat hanging onto the pier post.
I tell him we are shoving off and hit the stbd drive in rev and prt dive into forward and start swinging the boats bow out away from the dock. He for what ever reason is still not paying attention and is still holding onto the piling of the pier.....next thing ya know its like a cartoon scene where he is full horizontal hanging onto the boat with his toes and the post with his finger tips before dropping into the drink! :D Its been some 20+ years since that and we still rib him about it to this day :D

ha - I have a similar story where my wife didn’t let go and then slid down the piling like a fireman. Barnacles tore her legs up. It looked like a murder scene with blood and water. It took a few years for all the scars to disappear but she never made that mistake again.

honesly if any logon on this site doesn’t have a dozen docking gone wrong stories they are either AI or lying through their teeth

Ain't that the truth!