HOW TO ... dock in a pen with crosswinds
An easy guide to handling beam-on winds when entering confined spaces
Parking up in a marina is never straightforward.
Today, I finished up a day of coaching with what was going to be an easy docking procedure. On the helm, was one of the students.
I can assure you - if you are a soon-to-be-owner of 1.5 million euros worth of boat - you take parking practice seriously. So, I had to regularly remind the white-knuckled helmsperson to breathe… “you are going to nail this.”
— Side note — a friend recommended ‘The Expectation Effect’. Anyone read it?
Feels apt; for all parking audience members; give us a smile and a cheer rather than a concerned look! We are more scared than you are…
Back to the story.
We were going to park on a hammerhead - the outside pontoon. It was set to be a simple side slip with tons of space.
Except … we had to change the plan. Of course. Expect the unexpected. I think I might have used that phrase before!
We then ended up having to park one bay in. Now in a U shaped ‘pen’ a bit like this.
Leave it too late - we would end up in the shallows to leeward of the docks.
Go too slow - we might end up pinned on the sharp end-corner of our dock.
Go into the pen too fast - we might hit the identical (equally expensive) boat inside the pen.
Hmm… a challenge! And not an uncommon one. It’s fresh on my mind, so I thought I’d break down for you.
Read on for my pointers of how to park in this situation.
This guide for parking catamarans is a good compliment to this HOW TO guide.
1. Warm up with a side slip
The longer the approach, the more time you have to get to know how the boat is behaving. The wind too! Pay attention for the gust patterns, and how the boat responds.
So, use the wind to slide you into the park.
If possible, get parallel to your park as early as you can and use the wind to slide you in. The throttle - or in this case throttles - are only for maintaining the angle of the boat to the wind, and keeping her forward or backwards enough.