Climbing on to Your Boat at High Tide

     Or, You can make this one yourself if you want

My boat has what is called "high freeboard." "Freeboard" is the distance between the deck and the surface of the water. Because of this high freeboard, my boat can be hard to get on to at high tide.

To solve this problem, I got a nifty gadget called a "portable step." In the current West Marine Catalog it is item no. 1829522, listed as "DOYLE#STEP," also known as a "quickstep."

My sailboat has a very strong perforated toe rail, so I can hang this step anywhere I want. Where I hang it is in front of the shrouds, which just happens to be within an openable gate in the lifelines and right by a stanchion. There is a great advantage to hanging it below the shrouds, because the shrouds are strong. You can safely grab the shrouds as you climb up.

You may have to add hardware to your deck if you don't have a toe rail in order to be able to clip it on.

The point of this step, of course, is to get you safely on or off the boat, and there is a trick to that. When you step on the "quickstep," immediately stand up straight and push your weight against the side of the boat (my step has never left a mark on the boat). Grab the shrouds. Keep moving the whole time, and put your other foot on the deck of the boat. If you do this in one smooth motion, the step will be stable and secure and you will have no trouble getting on and off.

But as you can see from the picture above, at high tide in particular, you may have a line crossing the step. Take note of that obstacle before you use the step.

As you can see, my "quickstep" is not perfectly level. It doesn't have to be perfect for it to work well. You can see by the line hanging below it that I had to shorten its length. That's not hard to do, and perhaps one day I will get very particular and even the lines out, but it is perfectly stable as it is.

I don't often recommend making something when it already exists, but I'm going to make an exception here. The design of this item is quite simple and anyone who can use a drill at a basic level should be able to duplicate it with a piece of strong, water-resistant wood. I paid $10 for my portable step on sale. The price now is $32.95, which seems awfully high to me. Just don't go cheap on the hardware. Get marine-quality snaphooks. You may want to put a rubrail on the wood, as wood might leave marks on the side of your boat otherwise.

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