Really, in windy times things are sort of nuts. In my case I don't even need wind to make the boat go crazy into a dock. Reversing the motor to slow down often makes the back of the boat turn catty whompus and then I find myself furiously winding up the wheel in one direction or the other like an organ grinder (that's why they call the trimmer guy on the sailboat a grinder; on your boats the only thing missing is the monkey but on MY boat the monkey is right there in charge when under power
), so to make matters even harder the MAC spins around on its narrow DB pretty darn good. That means the less wheel work the better. Under power I usually try to coast up slowly to the dock.
Something that works real well for me but many of you might think is nuts: often on a windy day I will unfurl just a little bit of the headsail – just enough to make the boat move slowly – then I will hold the jib sheet in my hand directly (I remove the jib sheet from the turn block on the track) and I just hold the jib sheet in my hand so I have total control over the clew. This is how you dock a dinghy – so many years sailing my little dinghy when I was a kid sort of put this habit in me.
With the clew in my hand (so to speak) I can gently control the speed of the boat very effectively and find it easy to dock this way sometimes, (as long as there is someone else around to grab the dock or the boat), because my hands are full with clew (jib sheet) and wheel. (When my genoa is mostly furled I call the Genoa a ‘jib’) and if I let it fly it's like a set of breaks that will stop the boat pretty good too when you get to the dock. This is what helps me in cross winds. If the wind is directly FROM the dock the motor works pretty good because the wind slows you down an I find I can steer in on an idle. (I have a pretty big prop).
Well, that’s just the way I do it sometimes. Probably not for everyone.
It's also handy for making sure the entrance and exit is as easy as possible for boarders. When not in use, I leave it loose.
