GL: Dock lines

[thataway4 at cox.net]

3/4" or 1" is over kill for the vast majority of boats doing the loop.  Even when we owned a 62 foot boat most of our primary docking lines were only 3/4 we often used 5/8 or even lighter as our initial lines coming into a dock, and in the med, use 3/8 double braid as a working line to bring the stern to, when there was a crowded dock.  We would set the anchor, then my wife would take the dinghy with the 3/8" line to the cay, and bring the end back to the boat.  using this and the bow anchor to control the single screw boat as we backed in.  For our.  46 footer 5/8" were the normal size docking lines.    

For "home dock" lines, we always made up lines with eye splices on both ends.  But for traveling lines, we often used lines without any splices.  Double braid is much easier to handle when docking.  We would set up green lines to Stb, Red lines for port Breast lines.  Foreward spring lines would be gold, aft spring lines would be black.  That way it is very easy to tell either a person on the dock or a stranger on your boat exactly what line to use.  We prefer to adjust the lines from the deck of the boat, after we are tied up.  For safety often this means that we double the lines back to the boat, so when we leave we just have to let one end of the line go--and then pull it in, without going onto the dock.  
Bob Austin