43 DCMY and Short Pilings

[Freestyle]

For the second time a piling managed to evade fenders and quietly slip up the side of the hull and place part of itself between the toe rail and the hull. Hydrology did the rest and snapped my toe rail off but only after I sat on the dock watching this from 4-7 AM. Made all of the repairs today.

Anyone have some tricks to deal with these evil short pilings.

Bruce

Freestyle
1976 43 DCMY
Tampa

 

[Traveler 45C]

Would a fender board help? Perhaps behind the board you could use 2 large Round Fenders http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...Primary Search/mode matchallpartial/0/0?N=377
Might help to keep the boat away.

Maybe you can make use of one of these:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...reId=10001&Ntk=Primary+Searc&ddkey=SiteSearch

Short pilings ruined my portlights. The PO never figured out how to keep the boat away from them.

 

[Walter P]

Your best defense with those short pilings is to bolt some extra long 4 x 4's to the pilings so as to extend their length. You should not really be relying on pilings against your gunwale molding to hold the boat however. Rub rails are just that --- to rub occasionally. If you don't have lines on the other side of the boat or any place to secure them if you did, then you're relegated to rely on fenders which in your case would require the use of fender boards. They are very easy to make with some 2 x 8's from home cheapo and a few pieces of line.

Remember we (HOFers) have been entrusted with the care of our beautiful old Hatteras'. We owe it to future generations to enjoy them as well.

Walt

 

[DCMY #92]

Over the years I have had several long term slips where no outboard pilings were possible. I installed some relatively long and heavy fiberglass mooring whips to keep the boat off of the dock pilings. I think they were made by Monarch. They worked very well and required little to no maintenance. I used the same pair of whips for about 20 years. I did have to fabricate a removable extended attachment point for the stern bit/chock to keep the whip's line from fouling the handrails. It was easy to make up from 1" SS hand rail tubing and plastic coated wire rope.

Only if a storm was forecast did I hang fenders between the boat and dock when the whips were in use. It's easy to adjust the whips' tension and distance between the boat and the dock when more is needed.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

I have the same problem where I dock. Altho theres no tide on the river here, when it rains the USACOE raises the level. On my port side there are only cleats, so I need to run extra long lines for flood stage. The boat rides well, but comes to rest on the guest dock pipe on the starboard side. At rest, they are 3 feet below the gun'l.
Next year I'll be slipping either Sch 80 PVC or steel pipe over those and extending them to about 10 feet. Steel is good, but then I hafta paint them as well...
Right now there are war wounds on that side and it PsMO!! ws

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Another alternative is to find a new slip.