Occasionally it is necessary to tie to commercial docks in areas with high tidal ranges. The West Coast of the UK is one such area where tides can range from ten feet (3m) on the low end to 40 feet (12m) or more in parts of Bristol Bay.
Unless you want to be continually adjusting lines, very long bow and stern lines are used as in the photo above. They will be slack at high tide, but as long as the wind is off the end of the boat, or blowing you onto the dock, you will be fine.
If the breeze is off the dock an adjustable breast line is used when going ashore. Much more on this subject will be found in Practical Seamanship.
Posted by Steve Dashew (January 29, 2010)
April 21st, 2010 at 1:20 pm
The other consideration is too take the mooring warps to the outboard bitts. The weight in the cateneries will help keep the vessel along side. One could also add a few metres of chain to the shore end to assist the process. We use this when using 38m and more barge moorings with our 22m vessel.
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