Outboard Up or Down When at the Dinghy Dock?

[tomfl]

When in Rome do as the Romanians do.

At Boot Key Harbor in the Keys if you raise your outboard at the dock the harbor master will not only lower it for you he will also lock your tender to the dock with a cable and you will have to see him to get it unlocked, and if he is busy you will have to wait till he is free.

[s/v 'Faith']

Originally Posted by jcapo

Long Island Breeze

was there 3 days ago. Michael is such a great guy he came down in the rain to lower the accom ramp for us. It is a ghost town there this year, Long Island Breeze is closing some days other then just Monday due to the lack of boats.

Cat island Bight had only 2 other boats... A bunch just showed up here in Georgetown so maybe it will pick up.

The comment I would like to addis that dingy painters really need to be left long.... Came into the dock at marsh Harbour last month and 5 boats were all tied on short painters or directly along side the dock.. It is a big dock there but I was forced to climb over a dingy and tie over the top of them just to get in!

[jcapo]

Last time in the Bahamas we went to Salt Pond for a few days and stayed for 6 weeks. Much rather be there than in Georgetown.

I'm in Titusville right now with a short dinghy dock with 6 cleats. Using long painters seems to be a unheard of practice for the locals and transient cruisers. Locals tie alongside with outboards up. :-(

Fortunately there are several slips close to shore that you can tie a dinghy to. Management seems not to care.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by jcapo

Last time in the Bahamas we went to Salt Pond for a few days and stayed for 6 weeks. Much rather be there than in Georgetown.

I'm in Titusville right now with a short dinghy dock with 6 cleats. Using long painters seems to be a unheard of practice for the locals and transient cruisers. Locals tie alongside with outboards up. :-(

Fortunately there are several slips close to shore that you can tie a dinghy to. Management seems not to care.

Westland or the Municipal marina?

[Horror Hotel]

The titusville dingy dock is a joke. They put a huge mooring field in but the dinghy dock is 10'. It works though because the mooring field is always mostly empty.

I've also noticed that liveaboard locals with the ruff looking dinks and kayak crowd have no concept of a long painter. They seem to always prefer the double side tie and taking up the space of multiple dinks. It's possible that since they never go anywhere, they don't grasp that their doing it wrong. And maybe have some contempt for us traveling folks.

[Jerry Woodward]

Originally Posted by s/v 'Faith'

The comment I would like to addis that dingy painters really need to be left long.... Came into the dock at marsh Harbour last month and 5 boats were all tied on short painters or directly along side the dock.. It is a big dock there but I was forced to climb over a dingy and tie over the top of them just to get in!

But what if you need to lock your dinghy?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Jerry Woodward

But what if you need to lock your dinghy?

Long cable (wire rope).

[jcapo]

Originally Posted by Vasco

Westland or the Municipal marina?

Municipal.

[s/v 'Faith']

Originally Posted by Jerry Woodward

But what if you need to lock your dinghy?

Jerry,

Yes, as was just mentioned a long cable works. My favorite chandlery WM (that would be Wal Mart, not West Marine) offers a very heavy cable lock in their pet section. It is 25' long, plastic covered cable and due to the miracle of the free market it is less then $30! Lasts long time, and allows the practice of courtesy for others.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by s/v 'Faith'

Jerry,

Yes, as was just mentioned a long cable works. My favorite chandlery WM (that would be Wal Mart, not West Marine) offers a very heavy cable lock in their pet section. It is 25' long, plastic covered cable and due to the miracle of the free market it is less then $30! Lasts long time, and allows the practice of courtesy for others.

That's funny.

Just a note: Beaufort, NC (coolest small town in the USA) has several dinghy docks but the main one on Front Street near Town Docks is apparently moving east 4 blocks, down to Gordon St. to accommodate the relocation of the barrier island ferry fleet.

Other than a longer walk when ashore, this is good news for transients because the main section of the anchorage has long been jammed up with private moorings while heading east some opens up anchoring possibilities near the dock. I wonder if the new dock will have a water spigot like the current location does? Time will tell. City Hall won't tho. Nobody knows nothing over there.

[georgec]

It's hard to believe there is an argument on the side of leaving the motor up if it is not shallow water. This past summer approaching a dinghy going between a dinghy with the motor up and another with the motor down the inexperienced person on the bow pushed off the engine down boat so I bumped the engine up very slightly. It didn't put a hole or sink my boat but put a nice 6" scrape from the skeg. I try to avoid engine up boats at all costs but the dock was packed. There were 2 other boats out of about 20 with engines up. I lowered everyone of them. I would like to see the person on the other side of th is argument have their boat move into position, while you were ashore, so that your boat went beam to someone's engine for a couple of hours. When I see engines up I feel it is either ignorance or stupidity.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

A motor up at the dock makes for a dangerous place!! Keep the prop down and ya hole a lot less rubber boats LOL

Yeah... it's a lot of people's hot button. Leave it down so it doesnt scrape others dingys. There may be 3 dinks at the dock when you arrive and may be 20 when you leave.
Dingy docks are at a premium... so we all have to get along!

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Horror Hotel

I've also noticed that liveaboard locals with the ruff looking dinks and kayak crowd have no concept of a long painter. They seem to always prefer the double side tie and taking up the space of multiple dinks.

They probably learned that behavior from most of the boaters in the PNW !

Any dinghy dock around here is usually full when there are 4 or 5 inflatables tied to it.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Jerry Woodward

But what if you need to lock your dinghy?

Very long cable! I got some old lifeline and nicropressed a couple of loops in the ends. Use a combination lock as I don't carry any keys when cruising.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by georgec

It's hard to believe there is an argument on the side of leaving the motor up if it is not shallow water. .............

And yet, when the water is shallow, we can agree on the need to raise the prop. Let's start a trend that solves everything. Just make sure that the small bailing bucket that you keep in the dinghy is large enough to fit over your prop. We could all have a piece of line on this bailer/bucket that can hold it secure over the prop when the outboard foot needs to be raised. Do it and others will copy the act. It's a good practice for anyone that wants to raise their outboard prop and remain a good neighbor.