....and sometimes the wind helps keep your boat from tapping other boats
while docking, even while it makes the docking a bit harder. It all depends
on the place, your mood, the skill level of your helpers, if any, and about
a dozen other unknowable factors which vary from day to day.

Sometimes it is necessary to dock downwind or down stream, but general rule of
thumb would be to avoid it if you have a choice.

Consider a landing in neutral conditions:
Every move the boat makes is effected only by the helmsman's decisions.

We seldom find neutral conditions and have to adjust for wind or current.
Sometimes both. And different boats will have to be more concerned about the
current that the wind and vice versa, depending on windage, draft, amount of
current vs amount of wind, etc.

Imagine trying to walk slowly in to the corner of a room and stopping without
whacking the wall. If nobody pushes or pulls on you in the process, it's easy.

If somebody is pushing you toward the wall, (docking downwind or down stream)
its much harder to stop in time. If somebody is tugging steadily on your belt
to bull you away from the wall, it's possible to muscle in with better control.

Those of us with single screw inboards have another reason for docking upwind
or upstream. We may want to leave the dock again before conditions change.
"Fun" could never be defined as side-tied in a line of boats with a moderate to
strong cross dock wind pinning you against, rather than pushing you off the
dock. Has been known to make getting away really hair raising.

One final reason for docking upwind, generally.....You may be staying on the
boat for a while with the wind remaining out of that particular quarter. If the
wind is blowing you off the dock, you won't bang into it every time another
boat passes and tosses up a wake or a stronger than usual gust blows through.
Even with fenders out, you're still aware of the jarring around whle trying to
sleep or relax.

"Gene Kearns" wrote in message

Given a 10 knot wind away from the dock and a 10 knot current heading
toward the dock, I'm going with the current. The heck with the
wind....

I see your point wrt to the aircraft analogy. In an airplane, the wind is
generally your only "current." In a boat, your "ground speed" is a function
of wind and current, but you still almost always dock bow into the current,
just as you land a plane into the wind.

Before I dock at some place that I'm not familiar with, I point upstream and
idle and see what the current is going to do. To my recollection the wind
has never pushed me forward into a significant current, but I like to sit 10
or 20 feet off the dock and figure out which way I'm going to be drifting
and how much power I'm going to require to remain stationary and all of that
before I try docking.

It may take 1500 rpm to remain abeam a pylon or docked boat or some other
fixed location and if I know that beforehand, I know what to expect when I'm
slipping in between two docked boats. ('Cause you can't assume much based on
how somebody else is docked.) It's not as elegant as the guy who drives
right up to the dock and parks, but I've never bumped into anybody else's
boat, either.

-c

G There "is" something to be said for docking stern too the wind/current.
A high percentage of boats will want to back into the wind/current and
this fact can be used to advantage under some conditions.
I know that whenever I want to hold position some place, I rarely do it
with my bow into the wind/current ..... generally, always, stern too
....depending on the boat, one (wind/current) will have more effect than
the other and can even overcome the normal "prop walk"

otn

gatt wrote:
"Gene Kearns" wrote in message

Given a 10 knot wind away from the dock and a 10 knot current heading
toward the dock, I'm going with the current. The heck with the
wind....


I see your point wrt to the aircraft analogy. In an airplane, the wind is
generally your only "current." In a boat, your "ground speed" is a function
of wind and current, but you still almost always dock bow into the current,
just as you land a plane into the wind.

Before I dock at some place that I'm not familiar with, I point upstream and
idle and see what the current is going to do. To my recollection the wind
has never pushed me forward into a significant current, but I like to sit 10
or 20 feet off the dock and figure out which way I'm going to be drifting
and how much power I'm going to require to remain stationary and all of that
before I try docking.

It may take 1500 rpm to remain abeam a pylon or docked boat or some other
fixed location and if I know that beforehand, I know what to expect when I'm
slipping in between two docked boats. ('Cause you can't assume much based on
how somebody else is docked.) It's not as elegant as the guy who drives
right up to the dock and parks, but I've never bumped into anybody else's
boat, either.

-c