Docking and mooring: slow, upwind and planned.

Why it is taught early

US Sailing's Basic Keelboat includes leaving and returning to the dock among its practical skills, and ASA 101 includes leaving a dock or mooring.

Approach into the wind where you can

ASA's "Docking Made Easy" series, presented by Peter Isler, says an upwind approach to the dock is always preferred and a downwind docking should be avoided when possible.

ASA also recommends building up to it:

• Practise slow-speed handling in open water first, away from anything you can hit.
• Make your first docking attempts on a light-wind day with the wind blowing parallel to the dock.

What turns the boat besides the rudder

ASA notes that at low speed the rudder is not the only thing turning the boat. Wind, prop walk and prop wash all play a part.

Prop walk

Prop walk is the sideways push a propeller gives the stern, caused by the blades producing uneven thrust. Sail Magazine (Tor Pinney) says it is strongest in reverse at low speed.

• Direction. A right-hand propeller walks the stern to port in reverse; a left-hand propeller walks it to starboard. Sail Magazine and a US Coast Guard Auxiliary handout agree on this, and note it is why boats with right-hand props find docking port side to the dock easier.
• Propeller type. Pinney says two-blade props walk less than three-blade, and folding or feathering props walk less still.
• Saildrives. Pinney says saildrives, whose shafts run parallel to the water, do not experience prop walk.

Fenders and lines

ASA recommends hanging fenders amidships from the lifelines, set so they just touch the water. The knots used for this are on knots.

Spring lines

Instructors describe using spring lines together with gentle engine power to hold a boat alongside or to bring it in:

• Steve Colgate (Offshore Sailing School) advises getting the aft amidships spring on first, powering very slowly into the dock, and then motoring gently against the spring to hold the boat alongside.
• Grant Headifen (NauticEd) describes using a stern spring with forward power and the wheel turned toward the dock to bring the bow in, and a forward spring with the wheel turned away from the dock when the wind is pushing the boat off.

These are techniques to learn on the water with an instructor.

Picking up a mooring

SailTrain, an RYA training centre, sets out the principles for approaching a mooring buoy under sail.

• Read how the moored boats are lying. Set your boat at the same angle to your buoy as they are to theirs. With no boats to go by, position the boat down-tide of the buoy, or downwind of it if there is no tide.
• Choose the sail. Use the mainsail when wind and tide run the same way. When the wind is against the tide, SailTrain says to use the headsail, approaching from upwind of the buoy, and not to come from downwind of it under the mainsail, because you would not be able to depower the main.
• Plan an escape route in case the pick-up fails.
• Pick the buoy up amidships or at the shrouds.
• Brief the crew on who does what and on the units they will use to call the distance to the buoy.

Aids to navigation are not moorings

The US Coast Guard notes that it is illegal to tie a vessel to an aid to navigation. Buoyage is explained on navigation.