I know this started out as a tipping topic where we are all going to do as
we please; and I know Charles Culotta said it once (actually, he has said it
a number of times) about what to end of a mooring line to give to the
dockhand; but I want to hammer his point home.  To the extent that you can
(given infirmities, et. al.) I suggest you DO NOT cede control of your boat
to a dockhand.  I don't care if he is an Unlimited Tonnage Master like me or
some kid fresh off the street; a person ashore has no inkling of your skill
or intentions if things start to go wrong, and you likely have no time to
communicate detailed instruction when something is going wrong.  If a boat
gets banged up in mooring and I have been assisting, I don't want there to
be anybody for the skipper to blame but him/herself.  If I am ashore, I will
gladly drop a line over whatever I am told, but I will not attempt any
active control of the vessel like snubbing a line short to help brake a
boat - that's for the skipper and his crew to do.

When I started trawlering in 1986, I was quite content to do all my own line
handling from this little bitty 42-footer.  In fact, the last thing I
generally want to see on a pier is a line handling assistant because most
times they seem to want to take control of my boat away from me - something
you will only get when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.  I am the
captain, and I am in control at all times, AND I am the one who has to patch
and repair when the boat gets scraped up.  :)

My ideas on this topic likely arise from my naval and merchant marine
experience where the lines are too big to handle for the few shore side
folks assigned.    I just naturally continued the practice of handing the
eye-spliced end of lines ashore (when there seemed no way out of accepting
proffered assistance) and telling the person helping to place it on whatever
cleat or piling I wanted it on.

An illustrative example:

On our last trip up the Tennessee, at Hales Bar Marina, a fellow boater came
over to take a spring line from Mary for a very short slip with a lot of
wind/current pushing us away from the pier.  It was so short, I had to have
the spring line rigged from the bow chock.  Mary was going to snub the line
of our cleat as soon as I got well into the slip and had an idea of how much
spring line I actually wanted.

This was one of the few times I was pleased to have help ashore, but he had
his own idea (after Mary told him what to do with the line) about where he
wanted my line to go and was not to happy to hear me (I was polite, I
thought) tell him to stop pulling on my line and to just drop it on the end
cleat so I could put some REAL tension on it to walk in with the engines.
He was busy attempting to pull my bow to the pier when that is exactly want
I did not want.  He ended up sullenly walking away back to his cocktail
crowd gathered nearby on a houseboat - maybe he'd had one or two too many or
he was used to dragging light houseboats around.

Another point I want to make about this particular situation is this:  the
line he had in hand was NOT secured on board CALYPSO - he was pulling
against Mary.  NONE of our mooring lines are ever secured to a cleat on
board until we have the line ashore to a cleat or piling, and they are
always clear to run and not bunch up in a ball at the chock if we have to
abort the landing.  So this " helper" had no real chance of gaining control
of the bow because we could have just backed clear letting the line go.
Then we'd have had to break out and rig another line, blah, blah.  As it
was, we salvaged the landing.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL

Sounds a little "control-freakish" to me.

As a boater my entire life as well as an airline pilot for many years, we
are taught to use "all available resources" to help us achieve a successful
conclusion to a mission.  Be it a simple offshore jaunt on the boat or a
trans-atlantic crossing in a 747, we rely on many people not actually on
board the vessel to assist in the mission.

The study of "Resource Management" both in marine as well as aviation
applications has shown over and over again that the "control freak" types
are among the worst captains there are and they have a much greater
propensity to be involved in a serious accident.

The captain who uses all of his available resources, including that of a
properly briefed ground crew / dockhand are better, safer captains overall.

Naturally, I have no problems tossing a line to a dockhand.  If there is any
doubt as to what he may do, I will call ahead and speak with him to discuss
my arrival and how I wish for it to be conducted.  And I have never had a
dockhand usurp my authority as the master of my vessel, nor attempt to
assume control while dockside.  If there is any doubt as to what the
dockhand may do, we will simply pass him a line NOT secured to our vessel.
He can cleat his end and if his work was satisfactory, we will cleat our end
from on board.  If I don't like what he did, or if he acted out of phase
with how I am maneuvering my vessel, I can just power away from the
situation and the dockhand is left holding a wet line.  Simple, huh?

Rich ... If you have problems with dockhands you encounter, may I suggest a
quick 2 minute phone or radio conversation on approach to discuss your
plans, intentions and how you wish for the dockhands to assist?  You may
find your job a lot easier if you take advantage of the resources you have
available to you.

-Ryan

-----Original Message-----
From: great-loop-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of Rich Gano
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 1:01 PM
To: Great Loop List
Subject: GL: Mooring - DO NOT Give up control of your vessel to shore side
folks

I know this started out as a tipping topic where we are all going to do as
we please; and I know Charles Culotta said it once (actually, he has said it
a number of times) about what to end of a mooring line to give to the
dockhand; but I want to hammer his point home.  To the extent that you can
(given infirmities, et. al.) I suggest you DO NOT cede control of your boat
to a dockhand.

When I started trawlering in 1986, I was quite content to do all my own line
handling from this little bitty 42-footer.  In fact, the last thing I
generally want to see on a pier is a line handling assistant because most
times they seem to want to take control of my boat away from me - something
you will only get when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.  I am the
captain, and I am in control at all times, AND I am the one who has to patch
and repair when the boat gets scraped up.  :)

Rich, and those supporting his post, are absolutely correct.
Steve, I guess this topic will end when the last person realizes the correct
and safest manner of tying a boat to a dock.

Please read the article that I wrote for  PASSAGEMAKER mag. It is on my web
site so I will not go into all the REASONS to do it right.

Docking a boat is not flying an airplane nor parallel parking a car.

I can honestly say that the only bad docking incidents that my wife and I
have had have been when the " help" on the dock would not follow my wife or
my request as to what we NEEDED done with our lines.

We stop , dead stop, well off the dock and plan the procedure that we intend
to use. No matter what we tell the " help" , invariably they will not do as
requested.

I could relate a no. of instances of such. Why this is I don't know, it just
is.We do not turn down help out of hand but do SPECIFICALLY REQUEST  what we
need done.

In closing, note how real ships and boat are tied by the professionals, the
eye is on the dock or piling.

A FOUR FOOT DIAMETER eye can be walked up and off of a piling 15 feet high
from 20 ft or more away with little effort-----by my wife.

CCC
CHARLES C., JR. & PAT CULOTTA
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
M/V CCRIDER
PATTERSON, LA.
http://geocities.com/charlesculotta
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