New boat owners often ask how to dock a boat at a floating dock. Docking at a floating dock works a little differently from docking at a fixed pier, mainly because the dock moves up and down with the water instead of staying at one height.
A floating dock sits on sealed floats, and the deck rises and falls with the tide, so the gap between the deck and the boat stays about the same all day. At a fixed pier, that gap grows when the water drops, and lines that were set at high tide can pull tight at low tide.
The approach starts well away from the dock, where dock lines get tied to the cleats on the side of the boat that will touch the dock. Fenders hang from the rail at the height where the hull meets the dock edge, which on most small boats is just below the rub rail.
Wind and current push the boat sideways as it slows down. A flag, ripples on the water and the angle of nearby boats show which way that push is going. Wind blowing toward the dock carries the boat in, so a shallow approach works, while wind blowing away from the dock calls for a steeper angle and a bit more power.
Most outboard and sterndrive boats come in at an angle of about thirty to forty-five degrees. The motor goes into gear for a second or two and then back to neutral, which lets the boat glide toward the dock under control. Just before the bow reaches the dock, turning the wheel away from the dock swings the stern in. The boat ends up parallel to the dock, and the crew steps off only after it has fully stopped.
The bow line usually goes on first, followed by the stern line, and spring lines then run at an angle from the middle of the boat to stop it from sliding forward or back.
Cleat spacing, freeboard and overall dock length all affect how easy this process turns out to be. Supreme Floating Docks builds floating docks in South Florida and sets cleat positions and dock length around the boat that will use them.
