Boat Docking

Boat Lists

-on this page:

1. Leaving Dock
2. Arriving at Dock
3. Heavy Weather
4. Departing the Boat
5. Refuelling
6. Departing Home
7. Anchoring or Mooring
8. Guests
9. A few useful formulas and rules of thumb

Disclaimer and Copyright

I provide all information on this page on a liability-free basis. Please use at your own risk, and verify anything critical to your boating safety with other authoritative sources. I designed these lists for my own personal use, and I do not intend to imply any special knowledge beyond that. I find them to be useful tools in my boating, and I hope that you do to. You may wish to modify them for your particular needs. Suggestions always welcome, although I cannot make the lists exhaustive or they become too large to be of practical use.

This Boat Lists web page is Copyright © 2001-2004 ctLow. Please feel free to copy and distribute it, but only in its entirety and without modification (so including this notice). Thank you. Charles T. Low

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8/ - Information for Guests

• Only two rules:
  • Number Two: have as much fun as possible at all times, except that:
  • Number One: safety is always the first priority.
  Everything else flows from these.
• Things often happen quickly on boats: kindly follow the skipper's "orders" first and find out why later; you just have to trust (and say, "Aye-aye, Captain")!
• Apart from that, if you have questions: ask!
• Always keep all body parts out from between the boat and anything else; protecting the boat is not worth the serious risk of personal injury.
• Always step on and off the boat - no jumping!
• A boat can move unexpectedly and violently. Always be ready to steady yourself. In whatever you do: one hand for yourself, one for the boat.
• If the thought crosses your mind than perhaps you would be safer, doing whatever you're doing, with a PFD on, then put a PFD on!
• Learn the location of the PFD's. (Fire extinguishers and life ring too.)
• Lines (a.k.a. "ropes" for landlubbers): generally a line is much easier to handle if you simply take a turn around a cleat or piling, rather than holding it freehand. There are several useful things you can do with a line:
  1. pull it in;
  2. ease it (i.e. let it out a bit);
  3. snub it (i.e. take a turn or two around a cleat or piling, then apply some tension to stop it from sliding);
  4. secure or cleat it (i.e. tie a knot so that it stays put - let the skipper show you, the first time, a good, non-slipping but quick-release knot).
• A few other useful nautical terms to learn:
  1. directions: fore and aft, port and starboard, ahead, astern and abeam;
  2. locations: cockpit, cabin, companionway, foredeck, bow, transom, quarter.
• Use as little of the boats tanked water as possible, and
• learn how operate the head ("toilet") before using - and then flush as little as possible, but enough.
• Tidiness matters in a small space - please keep all of your belongings together and preferably stowed in your luggage when not in use.

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9/ - A few useful formulas and rules of thumb

• hull speed, in knots, from waterline length:
  s=K*SQR(length)
  • if length is in feet, K=1.34
  • in metres, K=2.43
• distance to horizon, in nautical miles, from height of eye:
  d=K*SQR(h)
  • if h is in feet, K=1.17
  • in metres, K=2.1
• distance from measured angle, in nautical miles, from minutes of arc:
  d=K*h/angle
  • if h is in feet, K=0.56
  • in metres, K=1.85
• dip to horizon, in minutes of arc, from height of eye:
  dip=K*SQR(H.E.)
  • if H.E. is in feet, K=-0.97
  • in metres, K=-1.76
• echoes, from time in seconds:
  d=K*time
  • if d is in feet, K=550
  • in metres, K=167
  • in nautical miles, K=0.1
• speed of current, in knots, from boat speed (up- and downstream) in knots:
  S_c=S_b*(t_u-t_d)/(t_u+t_d)
• distance off formulas:
  • doubling angle on bow:
    distance at second angle equals distance run between the two angles
    (bow and beam bearing being a simple example)
  • 7/10 Rule:
    distance travelled between 22.5° & 45° equals 10/7's of distance off when abeam
  • 26.5/45 Rule:
    distance run between these angles equals distance off when abeam
• useful approximations:
  
  • 1 thumb's width (at arm's length) = visual angle of 1.5°
  • 1 fist-width (from thumb to little finger knuckles) = visual angle of 10°
  • 3 horizontal fingers (at arm's length) = distance 10 times the charted height
  • a small buoy will be visible at 1.5 miles, its colour and shape at 1 mile
  • a moving person looks like a limbless black dot at a distance of 1 mile
  • faces without features can be seen at a distance of 300 metres
  • shore visible at 4 miles
  • building windows visible at 2 miles