Bareboating: Docking Tips for Catamaran

The idea of bareboating for a week or so with your whole family, some friends, or even on your own is surely great. If you are going to charter a catamaran, you have to learn how to handle the wide, two-hulled boats around the docks. Check out the following helpful tips and gudelines:

1. Use the double engines to their best advantages in order to get dock or undock the boat in tight situations. Often, the vessel will be moored stern-to-dock when you arrive so that leaving would not be a huge issue. You just have to drop the mooring lines and ride ahead. Once free, you may have to execute a tight turn; make use of the engine on the outside of the turn in forward and then add revs. Put the inside engine in reverse. When necessary, you can spin the vessel in its own length, with the two engines opposing themselves.

2. You may have to dock the cat alongside at a certain point to take some supplies such as groceries, fuel, and water. Try to get near the dock from the leeward side and with your bow as close to the direction of the wind as possible. Get the docking lines and fenders rigged early and see to it that the members of your crew understands their duties and responsibilities. You could make the cat crab sideways with the two engines and rudders; put the inside engine in slow reverse and the outside engine in slow forward, and turn the rudders slightly away from the dock. The vessel will move sideways and you could adjust the angle of the motion and the forward motion by adjusting thrust on the rudder angles and the engines.

3. Mooring stern-to-dock will be tough for first timers. However, with the double engines, it shouldn't be too hard even for the less experienced (unless you have a cross wind). During calmer conditions, position the cat so the stern is squarely in the middle of the slip you like to occupy and then back gently in. See to it that you get your forward springs and bow lines on the pilings and under control prior to backing into the end of the slip. Then tie off your stern lines, crossed to the cleats or bollards on the dock.

When there is a cross wind, you will have to use rudder angles and engine revs, much as you would when docking side on. This is to offset the side force of the wind. You could make the boat crab slightly to windward while you are backing. This is to keep to keep the hull at the center of the slip. With enough practice, you will find that handling a huge cruising cat around the docks is almost easier than handling a single-crew monohull.

Keep in mind that safety always comes first. Don't rush. Slow but surely does the trick in bareboating. Make sure you double check everything to avoid costly damages. And remember, practice is the key to sucessful docking.

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