Docking and undocking in wind and current

Boat handling · Power & sail

Wind and current do much of the work when docking, for you or against you. Know how prop walk, twin engines or a thruster move your boat, approach slowly into the stronger of wind or current, and let spring lines do the heavy lifting.

Read the conditions first

• Before you approach, note where the wind and current are coming from, how much room you have and what other boats are doing. Wind and current are the biggest forces in close quarters; use them rather than fight them.
• You get the most control heading into the stronger of wind or current, and a boat turns more slowly into wind and sea than away from them. With the set on one bow you can crab sideways.
• Wind blowing you off the dock: come in at a steeper angle and turn late. Wind pushing you on: come in at a shallow angle and let the wind set you alongside.
• Keep speed to what you need for steerage, apply power in short bursts, and have lines ready before you get close.

Single screw and prop walk

• A turning propeller also pushes the stern sideways. With a right-handed propeller the stern kicks to port when backing and slightly to starboard going ahead; a left-handed propeller does the opposite.
• Backing is the hard part. The rudder does little until the boat has sternway, and many single-screw boats back into the wind whatever you do. Learn which way yours goes and at what wind speed it stops listening.
• The USCG method for backing a single-screw boat: rudder over first, a short burst astern to get moving, then less power and steer with the rudder. If the stern swings too far, a brief burst ahead kicks it back.
• A burst ahead with the rudder hard over, then a burst astern with it hard the other way, turns a single-screw boat almost in its own length without gaining way (back and fill).

Twin screws

• With twin engines, backing both evenly cancels prop walk; more power on one side steers the stern.
• Splitting the throttles, one ahead and one astern, pivots the boat and can turn it almost in its own length. Learn the feel first in calm, open water at low speed.
• To hold a course in a strong crosswind without fighting the wheel, run the leeward engine at slightly higher rpm than the windward one.

Bow thrusters

• Most electric thrusters are built for short bursts. One maker designs its standard on/off thrusters to run about three minutes before a thermal switch shuts them off, and repeated trips can make the switch cut out sooner. Check the limit for your own model.
• Plan the approach so you don't depend on the thruster the whole way; if it cuts out halfway through, you need another way out.
• A running thruster draws in objects and people. Make sure no one is swimming near the bow before you use it.

Spring lines

• A spring line is simply a line the boat can work against. Get one made fast ashore early and the rest gets much easier.
• Coming alongside with the wind blowing you off: run a line from a forward cleat to a point on the dock aft of where you want to lie, turn the wheel away from the dock and go ahead at idle. The boat moves sideways onto the dock.
• Leaving with the wind pinning you on: to swing the bow out, lead a spring from a stern cleat forward to the dock and back gently against it. To swing the stern out, lead a spring from the bow aft and go ahead gently with the wheel turned toward the dock.
• Rig springs 'on the bight', with both ends aboard and looped around the piling or cleat, so you can let go from the boat. Keep every line clear of the propeller.

General guidance for recreational boaters, researched from the sources listed and written in our own words. Your equipment manuals, local knowledge, the Navigation Rules and a qualified instructor come first.