I use the midship SS toe rail cleat without issue. With just a spring line decelerating the boat, how do you stop the bow from swinging into the finger and the stern from swinging out? This is the reason I have a stern/spring line combo for my setup. Tightening the stern line from the cockpit (or dock) once the spring is loaded stops that.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: robert <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: Bcc: Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2018 09:36:58 -0300 Subject: Stus-List Docking seamanship Dennis: One guy at our club single hands his J120 regularly.....he installed a deck cleat about mid ship....he approaches the finger pier at approx. 1 to 2 knts, steps off the boat as the starboard gate meets the pier, picks up his spring line which has a 'snubber' and attaches to the mid ship cleat....if he wind is strong to blow him off the pier, he leaves the engine in gear at idle speed and the boat just lays up against the pier. Like you, he has little room for forward movement once the spring line is attached. The big Nonsuch 36 next to me does the same thing. Another member has a 'line catcher' at the end of his pier where he hangs his spring line when he leaves. On approach, he either reaches out or uses a pole to grab the spring line and attaches to his mid ship deck cleat....once attached and the boat comes to a stop leaving the engine in gear at idle speed, he gets off the boat and attaches his lines. He doesn't step off his boat to attach the spring line as there is too much freeboard and he is not comfortable making a jump to the pier from that height.....it's a big boat, centre cockpit and no one is going to 'man handle' it the way we can with our C&C's My method, earlier described, is similar however I use my main winch because I don't have a mid ship deck cleat.....I have one of those SS toe rail cleats which I don't think was designed to stop the forward movement of the boat, at least I am not going to experiment to find out. Rob Abbott AZURA C&C 32-84 Halifax, N.S.
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