, my dock space at my yacht club on the Hudson river was fully exposed to the river, tides and the river flowed 23 hours a day. Big windage on boats play a part but so does hull shape , my boat had a substantial keel that would take you the way the tide was flowing, north if tide was coming in or south when tide was going out, my boat was oriented East west, tides north south! unless the wind was realy blowing, the tide flow ruled, over my many years of boating and docking and watching others dock I have some suggestions you may want to consider to lower the stress of docking!I see captains overload themselves by constant adjustments to throttles and shifters and helm while the boat is blowing past that slot he wants to back into. We all have different docks that may demand tons of fussing to get into, but in many cases I see PIT ( pilot induced turbulence), I will always try to set up my boat in docking configuration just like pilots are taught to put their aircraft in landing configuration, when a pilot is on short final to land , he does not need to be fussing with lots of configuration controls , nor does a boater need to be try to adjust variables as he is about to dock!
A normal docking routine, dead slow to dockage space, past space if wind on bow but not too far, now in neutral ,center helm, place throttles in high idle rpm (inboards can shift at high rpm without damage) if the winds are blowing higher rpm, if low breeze less but still high (this is for gas motors), now I face back of boat , i never turn around while docking, I try never to touch the helm or throttles once I face aft, I hold both shift levers and do not let them go until I am in the spot or I decide to abort, I am willing to abort, don't make a bad situation real bad by banging up your boat or your neighbors boat, just be a good pilot and GO AROUND!
too many people go past their dock too far, they do a great job turning their boat so they can back in to their slip as the wind blows them to the slip, but he finds himself going so fast sideways he usually gets his stern barely in and his bow is still heading on by (sound familiar)
If your boat has single levers , that helps most of the time if you don't over control, if you don't have them and you have two stations, you may want to consider electronic single lever controls, they are great but not cheap. Bow thruster helps but a poor boat handler will still have his problems and maybe more as he is trying to figure how to fuss with more controls.
Ok not for the beginner, I watched a feller dock next to me in high winds one day many years ago, I was so impressed that I bought him a cold one after he got his 46 Pacemaker tied up next to my 41 CC Commander, we talked at length about his routine, I have now used his routine more times that I can remember, as follows.
lets say long row of boats both side at a dock, wind coming at 90 degrees to your spot, instead of bow into the wind and going past your dock, I back into the wind up between the rows of boats, as I get to my slot I rotate at speed, 90 degrees and head for the slip never stopping stern in, if all goes well I am at lest half way into my slip and my bow is still going past spot into the wind (momentum), as it stops I continue backing in, the wind never gets the bow moving before I am in my spot. I practiced docking allot in open water. This routine works best with diesels in my opinion, I back up at about 5 mph before I rotate with my shifters only without changing throttles, its not hard but knowing your boats handling characteristics is a must.
Told you I am long winded!
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