For the benefit of those people on the list unfamiliar with this >term, a bull-rail is made up of heavy timbers, usually 6 X 6, bolted the >length of the edge of a dock on top of short blocks made of the same size >timber. The blocks are spaced every eight to ten feet. The end result is >like a giant toe-rail the length of the dock. If boats can moor on both >sides of the dock, there will be a bull-rail down each side. Mooring lines >are simply passed around the bull-rail and led back to the boat or are tied >off around the bull-rail itself. > >Bull-rails are strong, simple, and cheap, and they don't rust or corrode >(the bolts holding them can, though....) And because they run the length >of the dock, any combination of boat lengths and mooring line arrangements >can be accomodated. We usually try to pass the lines, especially the >spring lines, around the bull-rail next to one of the blocks. The block >will keep the line from slipping down the rail if the boat pulls against >it. Taking several turns of the line around the rail also helps prevent >the line from sliding. The timbers are rough-finished, so there is a lot >of friction between the rail and a line wound around it a couple of times. > >In my observation and experience, this is by far the most common mooring >system used on docks in the Pacific Northwest and up the Inside Passage >into SE Alaska. A dock with bull-rails can accomodate small boats, big >boats, and floatplanes. Our home dock is the last wooden dock in our >marina, and it is fitted with bull-rails. What most of us on this dock >have done is bolt cleats through the top of the bull-rail alongside our >slip. It's faster to secure a line to a cleat, but a bull-rail offers an >almost infinite range of mooring possibilities. > >Bull-rail is the term I have always heard used, but there may be other >names used as well. ========================================================== In New England this is known as a cap rail and the guys that hung around the dock were the Cap Rail gang......... . Captain Al Pilvinis "M/V Driftwood"--Prairie 47 2630 N.E. 41st Street Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064 Voice 954-941-2556 Fax 954 788-2666 Email yourcaptain@earthlink.net Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain