Docking Your Boat Under Sail

Or, Are you sure you're ready for that?

I guarantee you that someone – probably more than one person – will someday look at you knowingly and say, “You should sail the boat into the slip.” Now, I’m not talking about little sailing dinghies and boats like BCYC’s 16.5' Catalinas. Those boats are intended to be sailed into the slip. They don’t have engines. I’m talking about slightly larger (or markedly larger) boats that have motors or engines to aid them in things like docking.

Sailing a larger boat into a slip or up to a dock is a good and useful skill – when you’re ready for it! But is a still, small voice hollering inside your head – “DON’T DO THAT!!!!” ?

If so, listen to that voice. If you don’t think you’re ready to do something, you probably aren’t. There’s a “Code of Pride” among many experienced sailors. There are two things those sailors never, ever want to do: turn the engine on to solve a problem, or call Boat US or SeaTow for assistance.

But you aren’t sailing on pride – not yet. You were smart, and you have tow insurance (please tell me you have tow insurance!) If your engine fails you can call your tow company, and they will come and get you back into your slip.

I probably have the sailing skills to sail a boat up to the size of mine (about 30 feet) up to a T-dock at the proper speed, get her secured quickly and avoid hitting any other boats – but not on my boat. My boat has a badly designed roller furling system and would not cooperate during such a maneuver. No matter how good I get at sailing, performing this maneuver with my boat would be a very bad idea unless I win the lottery and can replace that roller furler (will someone please buy me a lottery ticket?)

The people suggesting that you try things you aren’t ready for aren’t being malicious. Most of the time they aren’t even braggarts. But – they have been sailing for decades and have completely forgotten what it’s like to be on the less experienced side of sailing. Their sailing skills are so automatic that they don’t think about how many fine judgments they are making as they bring that boat in under sail.

LESSON LEARNED: If you’re still working on docking under power, if docking under power still makes your heart pound, you aren’t ready to do it under sail. Listen to that voice in your head, and always make your own judgments about what you -- and your boat -- are ready to do.