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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: The Ubiquitous Docking Committee
Posted By: Peter In Response To: Re: The Ubiquitous Docking Committee (Dug)
Date: Friday, 17 June 2005, at 5:28 p.m.
OK I started this thread, so I'll add one of my own;
Several summers ago I was standing on a local floating dock talking to the hired dock hand as I waited for a pick up by a friend. A clasiic New England gaff rigged cat boat, about 22 feet long, skippered by a woman obviously well past the retirement age made a low pass by the dock. In a clipped New England accent she made her intentions perfectly clear: She was going to land on the dock under sail and we were to stand by to assist.
Fine, I'm only too happy to help, and the dock hand? well of course that was his job.
The dock in question consisted of a number of floating segments between permanent pilings arranged in a sort of backward "L" . A couple of segments sticking straight out into the harbor making the vertical leg of the L and a couple at the inshore end of those set at a right angle making the base.
The wind at the time was blowing about 12 knots straight down the leg, and perpendicular to the base. Naturally we thought she would make a big arc, reach along the base of the L and luff into the wind beside the "vertical" leg. The dock hand positioned himself at the base and I took up station on the leg to catch the bow line, or so we thought, but this Lady Skipper had other ideas.She approached the dock straight downwind close aboard the vertical leg section making a good 6 or 7 knots, (Now here is a point that an old pilot will recognize the saying 'When you have to say 'Oh S*it' on approach, its time to go around.') The dock hand and I watched in horror. I'm sure he was thinking the same thing as I was which translates into 'Go around'. Alas, not to be.
As the boat seemed assured of slamming into the base part of the L and I was cringing and bracing for impact the Lady Skipper put her helm hard over spinning the boat parallel to the base, At the same moment she tossed (maybe more like fired) a stern line at me with the simple and terse command "MAKE FAST!" and not waiting to see if I even made the catch spun around and let fly the main sheet.
The cat boat was now still going a good 6 knots along the base of the L. The boom, which on a 22 foot gaff rigged cat is about 23 feet long, was out clean accross the floating dock and now in between the pilings, sweeping clear everything in its path. Dock boxes, loose gear, everything swept away, and the dock hand running ahead of the wave of destruction trying to escape from getting swept overboard himself, but quickly running out of floating real estate upon which to make his retreat.
I had only a fraction of a second to think about it, but what went through my mind is that if I make that stern line fast it's going to act like a big spring line and bring the boat up hard against the dock..not pretty. But if I don't make the line fast the boom is going to sweep into the next piling, the forward momentum of the boat is going to continue, and the sail will effectively be getting trimmed in making matters worse. In that instant I decided the lesser of two evils was to do as I had been told. I dropped a loop over the nearest cleat and tried to make it all as gentle as possible, which wasn't gentle at all.
Meanwhile the Lady Skipper had pounced forward to the halyards and let run both the peak and the throat. The peak of the gaff crashed down onto the dock scandalizing the mainsail, but the throat jambed on the mast as they often do. Things were ugly there for a minute as lines and sails and spars and dock gear all bumped and ground and tangled.
The dock hand, narrowly saved from being swept overboard, quickly regained his composure and lent a hand maneuvering the gaff down onto the dock. The immediate excitement was over. For the next couple of minutes we all quietly set about cleaning up the mess.I didn't find it amusing. I didn't chuckle at all. In truth I was a bit horrified. It had been a poorly planned maneuver that resulted in a lot of minor damage and had been potentially dangerous. I think the dock hand shared my sentiments exactly.
After a bit all was put ship-shape and the Lady Skipper stepped onto the dock. In about one heartbeat she took the measure of each of her dock-hand-draftees in turn with ice blue eyes that glittered with keen intelligence and an air of command. Then in a strong voice, not shouting but projected well enough for anyone in the vacinity to hear, she declared in her clipped New England Waterman's accent,
"...Hull's sound; Stick's still in it; I'm calling it a Good Landing!"
and spinning on her heel she strode confidently up the dock.
Now THAT was funny!
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