Docking

My wife and I traveled the Great Loop aboard a 50ft Trawler with a freeboard over 5 ft. Many of the freshwater docks are floating and therefore well beyond her reach and there was no quick way to get off the boat and on the dock safely. The best way to handle a docking situation like that is for me, the Captain, to get the boat where it is supposed to be and not expect her to be a magician with the lines and bail me out of some nightmare I had gotten us into by a bad docking maneuver. I wish I could say that never happened! However, the goal of achieving that was always there. She did however become somewhat proficent at lassoing the dock cleats. Although no two docking situations are ever the same, most should be at least somewhat predictable and with time you may even find it to become almost automatic. Having said all that we found that our move from a trailerable 26 ft cruiser to a 24 ton Trawler to be quite intimidating and had many questions as to how we would manage as well. Our decision was to pay Chapmans Boating school, located in Stuart Fl., for a 1 week private instruction aboard a boat similar in size to the one we expected to buy. They will even do it aboard your boat as well. One of the things we requested to be covered was docking for us both. (my wife had seldom been behind the wheel of anything larger than a ski boat)Our instructor (Captain) drilled us both with hundreds of dockings. The experience was invaluable! The price of the course was acceptable when balanced against the cost of our trawler.