Big catamaran 45+ single hand friendly

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Chotu

dagger boards, which I kept retracted ....

I’m trying to learn how to tame the beast when docking.

Start by putting the boards down as far as you can when parking.

[PineyWoodsPete]

Originally Posted by mark_morwood

With our boat we would have done it slightly differently, approaching with the bow not our stern, but similar principal.
- daggerboards down about 1/2 to reduce wind effect
- crew on port bow with doubled short bow line
- approach at whatever angle you can manage, maybe 45 degrees, port side towards dock as our engine controls were at the port helm
- bring port bow to dock so crew is beside and above a cleat on the dock
- crew drops/lassoes doubled line over cleat and secures it back onboard
- once line is secured (this is very important) firmly fwd on port engine, reverse on stbd engine, and for additional effect wheel turned to the right if your prop is ahead of your rudder
- play the engines to keep forward and reverse balanced so the bow line is tense and roughly perpendicular to the dock. There will be lots of pressure on the bow line so it must be secured not held. For this reason it is usually best managed from the boat, not handed to someone on the dock.
- the stern will now walk in, even against quite a strong breeze
- drop a doubled stern line over a suitable cleat on the dock and if the bow is too far out, reverse the engines and pivot it in using the stern line
- engines in neutral, add extra lines as desired

We all practiced lassoing cleats from the deck of the boat. It doesn't take long to learn. If we missed the cleat, we would just back out and try again. I do not let crew jump off the boat to secure it. Too many ways for someone to get hurt. They step off once we are secured. (This is not aimed at the previous post where they backed in so the crew could step off. This is aimed at all the skippers whose only plan is to have the crew do heroics because they haven't learnt out how to put the boat where they want it using engines and lines.)

The physics here is a lot like using a spring line on a single engined vessel, except movement along the dock is controlled by the other engine rather than the spring line, and the line is only holding the bow in so it can be short and right at the bow.

You can reverse this procedure to get off a dock, except now the bow will press against the dock (with a fender) and the stern will pivot off. If you get good at the engines, and the fender and bow shapes co-operate, you can do that without any lines as the bow is being pressed straight into the dock, not forwards or backwards.

And depending on the shape of your sterns and bows and the location of your deck cleats, you may want to do it stern first rather than bow first. In our case with vertical bows and long sterns, it was safer to go in bow first.

Well, backing straight into the wind holds a fendered stern scoop - even a long one - against the dock quite easily and safely for getting your crew off with a long MIDSHIP line to cleat nearby, which you simply motor Fwd against with outboard hull engine, bringing the whole fendered hull to dock. The wind keeps the bow very docile straight downwind until motoring against the midship line.

[mark_morwood]

Originally Posted by PineyWoodsPete

Well, backing straight into the wind holds a fendered stern scoop - even a long one - against the dock quite easily and safely for getting your crew off with a long MIDSHIP line to cleat nearby, which you simply motor Fwd against with outboard hull engine, bringing the whole fendered hull to dock. The wind keeps the bow very docile straight downwind until motoring against the midship line.

Yep, there are many ways to skin this particular cat. Sounds like you have a process that works for you, I was just sharing the one that worked for us. I personally like keeping my crew on the boat and taking advantage of two engines and using one engine against the other as it means the dock line is securing the boat against a rotational force rather than a linear force along the dock, but each to their own. The key is working out a process that you are comfortable with which the poster was looking for ideas on.

[Sos]

We dock the same as Mark. We have a big round fender which we put right at the bows and rotate around that. If I get it right not much pressure on the fender!
However I can't get my wife to lasso a cleat because she likes to jump off. Our freeboard is not too high so not a problem. It does mean I can throw the stern line to her. It's what works for you, your crew and your boat

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by Sos

We dock the same as Mark. We have a big round fender which we put right at the bows and rotate around that. If I get it right not much pressure on the fender!

We use the bows to method as well. Our kick up rudders make the stern vulnerable and it is difficult to position a fender there.

I once delivered a Crowther with tulip bows a la Catana that makes using a bow fender very awkward. This would be a major issue with trendy reverse bows.

[Shane450]

One of the reasons I bought our Perry 57 is the dual helms , also very good vision from both helms to all corners of the boat , docking is quite easy but in some conditions the bow thruster is very handy when I m docking alone , which I do on occasion . My better half is still mastering the line throw to loop around a cleat and she is quite little so even stepping off the scoop is sometimes a challenge , but we manage quite well .

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I did. Mine’s 50 LWL. 25’ beam.

It’s high windage due to high freeboard and a beast to handle docking in a blow because it has dagger boards, which I kept retracted and weighs next to nothing. My 90lbs girlfriend pushes it around at the dock in calm weather like it’s nothing. So... when the wind picks up, it is a quite a handful.

It does 3-4 knots with no motors, no rig, no sails in a blow.

That’s why this thread is so interesting to me.

I’m trying to learn how to tame the beast when docking.

a friend of mine has a 50ft lifting keel yacht that she single hands.

where shallower depth allows she just comes alongside or reverses into a pen then drops the keel that draws 10ft,the keel holds the boat in place when it hits the bottom,then she tie;s up at her leisure!

i have heard of daggerboard cats doing the same

[GILow]

Originally Posted by atoll

a friend of mine has a 50ft lifting keel yacht that she single hands.

where shallower depth allows she just comes alongside or reverses into a pen then drops the keel that draws 10ft,the keel holds the boat in place when it hits the bottom,then she tie;s up at her leisure!

i have heard of daggerboard cats doing the same

I did much the same with my last boat. I referred to it as “setting the handbrake”.

I miss it sometimes.

[Grimgrak]

A 55 bigboy for singlehanding so they say
Catamaran Details | Catamarans For Sale

[jdazey]

Originally Posted by Grimgrak

A 55 bigboy for singlehanding so they say
Catamaran Details | Catamarans For Sale

No problem assuming you have some experience or are a very fast learner. Chris White's boats are designed with shorthanded cruising in mind.


Cheers,

[Grimgrak]

Even looking at bigger ones like a lagoon 570s with remote throttle /bow thrust controls makes single handing and picking up buoy's fairly easy.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Grimgrak

Even looking at bigger ones like a lagoon 570s with remote throttle /bow thrust controls makes single handing and picking up buoy's fairly easy.

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

[PineyWoodsPete]

Originally Posted by jdazey

No problem assuming you have some experience or are a very fast learner. Chris White's boats are designed with shorthanded cruising in mind.


Cheers,

I just don't get his Atlantic designs, with the unprotected fwd cockpit hung out in the wind, wave, rain and spray, small "pilot house" salon, and none to tiny aft cockpit that in conventional cats such as my old FP Antigua 37 had sail controls led aft to cockpit, full-width dodger w/ bimini and total enclosure available with room to hang out with a bunch inside the ample salon or large cockpit.

In bad weather going in and out the salon front door to fwd cockpit could be hazardous in the original 42' I went aboard at the Annapolis show in the 90's. Inside helm also, but outside only for sail control. No back door or aft cockpit at all. - where's the dingy? I can see why at least two have flipped in adverse conditions -? with helmsman inside recovering from drenched hypothermia far from the sheets?

[jdazey]

Lots of people love them, and the central cockpit format has been copied by, among others, Gunboat. I have to admit it's handy for a singlehander.


Presto does not have the central cockpit, but otherwise it's similar to the Atlantics - hull shape, sailplan, etc.. We prefer the aft cockpit.


Cheers,

[PineyWoodsPete]

Man, I dunno - maybe for day sailing singlehanded, but for voyaging as in our 20,000+nm from 50 N on west coast USA to 48 N E coast and back to FL gulf coast over several years - including two years in the tropics - we'd have ended up frozen, wet, windburned and/or sunburned to a crisp as well as claustrophobic in an Atlantic 42. And no doubt wifeless!