Dock lines, to eye or not

[LadyInBed]

Eyes or not makes no odds to me.
I tie up with all the slack line on the boat so the lines can be adjusted without leaving the boat.
When leaving I double my lines so I can slip from onboard.

 

[alant]

Use loops in the end & crew can fix to deck cleats ready for sending line ashore. If you have to tie bowlines on you often find a person at each end of the line faffing. You only need one person with the other end fixed. One each end & one can pull the other in the drink.

Use longer lines for the springs. you can see if these fall in as you approach a pontoon & can act before it gets caught in the prop.
The bow ones need to be short enough not to catch the prop because you may not see one drop overboard from the cockpit
i personally think lines need not be long. If you sit in the marina at a place like St Peter port & watch the idiots trying to tie to pontoons with very long lines that they are trying to sort you would understand why. Especially so with french hoops. Most crews end up with a wadge of rope jammed in the loops.

Thats why, you should arrange your lines beforehand & only step ashore with the amount you need.
I was taught (passed onto others), to take a mooring line end, pass through the approprate fairlead (can be bow or stern) & outside all rails, until you reach middle of boat (about where the shrouds are), then tie it off onto a shroud. Then go back to the other end & place on a cleat, using OXO (if you tie the OXO first, you will not be able to adjust it if needed). Then the crew (both at middle of boat, one with sternline & other with bow line) can step off, when alongside a pontoon, without getting tangled in loads of 'knitting'. When crew are on the pontoon (one walking toward the bow & t'other toward the stern), they must pass the line around a cleat (not just stand with the line, hoping to hold the boat), but under no circumstances, pull in hard, unless instructed/asked to do so by the helm. The OXO, allows the line to be adjusted easily.
After you have landed, then you can rearrange any lines as necessary.

 

[bedouin]

In my experience 6m is a bit short for anything - I would make it 7 or 8.

I am not a fan of eyes myself. For a start which end does it go in? When I approach the berth I want the ends attached to the boat - then once tied up I want to reverse it so the spare is on the boat. I also like to be able to tie a bowline in the warp with a turn around the dock cleat to minimise chafe (admittedly not a priority if you are only staying a night.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

I think that eyes and, for that matter, short lines are fine if you only ever use marinas. If you rarely use marinas eyes are a waste of time and longer lines are essential.

 

[rivonia]

Ahh Bowlines they be best oright.

 

[bromleybysea]

My skipper when I sailed as mate on the OYC ketches always deplored warps with eyes. I have always followed that practice but having sailed briefly on a friend's boat a couple of times, which had spliced eyes in the warps, I thought I would put splices in one end of my new mooring warps. Having lived with them for a season last year I now realise that my old OYC skipper was, as in all things, right about this. His point was that you need to be able, wherever possible, to adjust the warps at either end and under load. An eye dropped over a cleat, or cow-hitched around the cleat's horns, can't be adjusted. He didn't like the end being "cheesed" on deck either.

 

[TonyBuckley]

My skipper when I sailed as mate on the OYC ketches always deplored warps with eyes. I have always followed that practice but having sailed briefly on a friend's boat a couple of times, which had spliced eyes in the warps, I thought I would put splices in one end of my new mooring warps. Having lived with them for a season last year I now realise that my old OYC skipper was, as in all things, right about this. His point was that you need to be able, wherever possible, to adjust the warps at either end and under load. An eye dropped over a cleat, or cow-hitched around the cleat's horns, can't be adjusted. He didn't like the end being "cheesed" on deck either.

Never understood the point of cheesing a line. Is it just to be pretty (which it is not) or is there a sound reason to do it sometimes.

 

[alant]

Never understood the point of cheesing a line. Is it just to be pretty (which it is not) or is there a sound reason to do it sometimes.

I was told, that cheesing spoiled the lay of a rope.
RN can/could afford it.

 

[Seajet]

Cheesing is strictly for canal boats with painted flower pots, IMO !

 

[Chris_Robb]

You don't need a spliced eye. Right Pain if there is any tension in the line and you want to let it go at that end. And if you try to pull it through (as in letting go a singled (ie double) line while everyone is on the boat) it will get stuck.

If you need a loop, make a bowline.

A bowline can also be a right pain if you want to let go under load. Perhaps a round turn and 2 half hitches? Can be undone under load.

 

[Seajet]

As well as avoiding eyes on berthing lines ( Post ~14 ) my little experience taught me to always have a good knife handy; as well as sometimes carrying one - which could be a pain if going ashore and I forgot it's on me - on my boat there's one in the cockpit and one in the anchor locker whenever under way...

 

[andygc]

... I am not a fan of eyes myself. For a start which end does it go in? ...

The shore end. You can secure to a dock cleat without using the eye when you arrive, and then when you take the slack aboard you secure to the dock cleat with the eye. Frankly, it doesn't matter a toss whether the eye is spliced or made with a bowline. I happen to like a longish spliced eye on one end of each of my lines just because it's easy and quick to secure to a dock cleat, but if I had plain ends I'd tie a bowline. I don't think there's any need to have a strong opinion either way - it's easy to slip when you've singled up as long as you let go of the end without the eye, and it's easy to slip if you untie a bowline. It's actually quite easy to jam a line without an eye if you are unlucky and the end drops in the gap between two of the deck boards on a pontoon. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. So never use the eye to secure the end of a line to your boat.

Eye or no eye, the folk who dump half a coil of rope on the dock or pontoon rather than on deck are the troublesome ones.

 

[SHUG]

I think the eyes have it! Motion carried!

 

[TonyBuckley]

Eye or no eye, the folk who dump half a coil of rope on the dock or pontoon rather than on deck are the troublesome ones.

Why?

 

[Aurai]

Fascinating

To read the variety of mooring techniques, if I could chip in with support for Alant's OXO, mid ships routine, then OXO on shore. When ready, work in pairs to convert shore end to Round Turn and two half hitches, undoes under load, and take surplus line on board with OXO and never a locking loop!

On departure, converting lines to slips from Round Turns, is part of routine and all of this tends to make eyes redundant.

Thank you

 

[andygc]

Why?

Because it makes it difficult for other people to use the same cleat and it provides a handy trip hazard for anybody walking by. Not all berths are finger pontoons with cleats dedicated to one boat. Boats berthing to long pontoons or docksides should always moor with an eye (bowline or splice) and should pass their eye up through all other eyes on the post or cleat before dropping it over the post or cleat. Round turn and two half hitches to dock rings, of course. A real pain in the SW is people who stack a pile of turns on a cleat and then use the end for a spring. It makes it pretty hard for the next boat along to get onto a cleat, and for the outside boats in a raft to secure shore lines.

 

[Andrew G]

Ok I'll bite (or is it bight) - what's an OXO? (over here it is a beef flavoured gravy cube). Andrew

 

[Daydream believer]

Ok I'll bite (or is it bight) - what's an OXO? (over here it is a beef flavoured gravy cube). Andrew

It's what you use when you do not know how to splice eyes in your docklines properly

 

[andygc]

Ok I'll bite (or is it bight) - what's an OXO? (over here it is a beef flavoured gravy cube). Andrew

It's a beef stock cube.
Or, once round the cleat, one figure-of-8, once round the cleat

 

[TonyBuckley]

Because it makes it difficult for other people to use the same cleat and it provides a handy trip hazard for anybody walking by. Not all berths are finger pontoons with cleats dedicated to one boat. Boats berthing to long pontoons or docksides should always moor with an eye (bowline or splice) and should pass their eye up through all other eyes on the post or cleat before dropping it over the post or cleat. Round turn and two half hitches to dock rings, of course. A real pain in the SW is people who stack a pile of turns on a cleat and then use the end for a spring. It makes it pretty hard for the next boat along to get onto a cleat, and for the outside boats in a raft to secure shore lines.

Thank you for the sensible reply. Must admit to leaving MY lines a bit of a mess on MY cleats sometimes, but as you say always careful to be tidy on anything likely to be shared.