Sailing to and from a dock
Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 5:12 am
There are many situations where you can sail directly from or back to the dock. Here's the basic technique:
Sailing from the dock: When you rig your boat, you have it pointed into the wind, so that the sails don't catch the wind until you are ready. With tiller fixed, sails raised, and centerboard down, you push off the dock with a bit of forward momentum so that there's flow over CB and rudder and you can steer away from the dock (or if the wind serves, just push the bow out). Sheet in, accelerate and you are off.
Sailing back to the dock: The trick here is that you need to slow down and take the wind out of the sails as you approach the dock. You may have to do a U-turn to do it. I've shown fenders out, but the older DS1s with their rub rail may not even need that, depending on the dock (at least not right away). You set up your approach so you can coast upwind with the sails slack. With a bit of practice you'll know how far you need to coast to slow down in the conditions. You can further slow down with rapid tiller movements, or even setting the tiller at full 90 degrees, or by sticking a paddle into the water and holding it still (the same paddle, or pumping the tiller, will work if your approach fell short).
The DS doesn't need all that much space for a U turn, so this technique works often even for docks that are at the end of a sort of cul-de-sac. If you need to make a U-turn right after leaving the dock, just make sure that you have good flow over centerboard and rudder blade and that you don't stall the rudder by giving too much tiller. If you stall your foils, you'll find yourself sailing sideways when that's not your intention (same if forget to drop your CB).
Other wind directions: If the wind isn't nicely parallel to the dock, that's usually not too much of a problem, as long as the wind isn't blowing directly onto the dock. If it blows away from the dock, you may have to rig your boat with only the bow tied on so it can weathervane, and sailing back to the dock you'll approach at right angles and perhaps also tie up only the bow until the sails are down.
If the wind blows squarely onto the dock, you may be able to still sail off (especially if the dock space isn't as tight as in the diagram, so you can sail parallel to the dock for a bit). However, there's no way you can set up to coast against the wind coming in. There are techniques that work, but they require knowing how to "heave to" (a useful concept in and of itself). Or you could drop your sails a bit further out and have the wind drift you to the dock (best with a paddle handy).
Finally, if you are in a place that has multiple parallel docks, you may be able to use a line and helpers to maneuver your boat in spaces that are too tight to sail out of. (Getting into such places sometimes just requires a bit of momentum)
Sailing from the dock: When you rig your boat, you have it pointed into the wind, so that the sails don't catch the wind until you are ready. With tiller fixed, sails raised, and centerboard down, you push off the dock with a bit of forward momentum so that there's flow over CB and rudder and you can steer away from the dock (or if the wind serves, just push the bow out). Sheet in, accelerate and you are off.
Sailing back to the dock: The trick here is that you need to slow down and take the wind out of the sails as you approach the dock. You may have to do a U-turn to do it. I've shown fenders out, but the older DS1s with their rub rail may not even need that, depending on the dock (at least not right away). You set up your approach so you can coast upwind with the sails slack. With a bit of practice you'll know how far you need to coast to slow down in the conditions. You can further slow down with rapid tiller movements, or even setting the tiller at full 90 degrees, or by sticking a paddle into the water and holding it still (the same paddle, or pumping the tiller, will work if your approach fell short).
The DS doesn't need all that much space for a U turn, so this technique works often even for docks that are at the end of a sort of cul-de-sac. If you need to make a U-turn right after leaving the dock, just make sure that you have good flow over centerboard and rudder blade and that you don't stall the rudder by giving too much tiller. If you stall your foils, you'll find yourself sailing sideways when that's not your intention (same if forget to drop your CB).
Other wind directions: If the wind isn't nicely parallel to the dock, that's usually not too much of a problem, as long as the wind isn't blowing directly onto the dock. If it blows away from the dock, you may have to rig your boat with only the bow tied on so it can weathervane, and sailing back to the dock you'll approach at right angles and perhaps also tie up only the bow until the sails are down.
If the wind blows squarely onto the dock, you may be able to still sail off (especially if the dock space isn't as tight as in the diagram, so you can sail parallel to the dock for a bit). However, there's no way you can set up to coast against the wind coming in. There are techniques that work, but they require knowing how to "heave to" (a useful concept in and of itself). Or you could drop your sails a bit further out and have the wind drift you to the dock (best with a paddle handy).
Finally, if you are in a place that has multiple parallel docks, you may be able to use a line and helpers to maneuver your boat in spaces that are too tight to sail out of. (Getting into such places sometimes just requires a bit of momentum)