Securing to a piling
Line handling · moderate
Used for
- Tying up in a slip or at a fixed dock that has pilings instead of cleats
- Getting ready for a storm at a fixed dock
- Rafting or short stops beside pilings
How to tie it
- Decide whether to drop an eye over the piling or tie a hitch around it.
- For an eye, use a spliced eye or a bowline and drop or throw it over the top, then adjust and cleat the other end aboard.
- If another boat's eye is already on the piling, pass your eye up through theirs before dropping it on, so either one can be lifted off first.
- To tie directly to the piling, use a round turn and two half hitches, or a clove hitch backed up with half hitches.
- Where the pull runs along the piling, a rolling hitch with one more turn and half hitches on the standing part resists sliding up or down.
- At a fixed dock, leave enough slack for the tide, and more ahead of a storm surge.
- Put chafe gear on the line wherever it rubs the piling or passes through a chock.
Check it: You can adjust or release the line from aboard, and at both high and low water the line still has some give without letting the boat reach the dock or the pilings.
Cautions
- Longer lines to farther pilings cope with tide and surge better than short ones.
- A clove hitch alone can loosen as the load comes and goes; back it up.
- Old, rotten or cracked pilings may not hold in a storm; look them over before you rely on them.
- At a floating dock, a storm surge can lift the dock over short pilings; check piling height before a storm.
Sources (7)
boatus.com · boatingcompass.org · boatingcompass.org · boatingcompass.org · higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com · waterwayguide.com · media.defense.gov
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.