Just about to swear off Shelter Island ramp in San Diego

[mastreb]

Had a great day sailing today. Left from the public docks, motored out into the bay, sailed to Coronado Glorietta bay and tied up to a restaurant pier for lunch. Sailed back to the the Shelter Island launch ramp, and had the second most difficult time loading the boat ever, after my first attempt when the boat was new.

The ramp is notoriously bad. It's 60 years old and was built for launching 14 foot skiffs. The Mac is too large to maneuver within the quay walls, so we come up to the dock that's right by the narrow (literally 20 foot) mouth. Problem number two is that the dock is 20 feet away from the edge of the ramp. Why this is the case is a complete mystery, but unlike every other ramp on the planet, the dock is not adjacent to the ramp, it's separated by massive rocks.

In any case, I've unloaded and loaded many times. Power loading is generally out of the question because the ramp has a circular current most of the time which will twist the boat as you go on the trailer, and if you miss, the quay walls are too small to swing a 26' boat around and make a second attempt or even to reverse out and re-align. This is also by far the busiest ramp in San Diego, so there are always jet skis and skiffs running around you as you load.

We line-handle the boat from the dock, across the 20 foot divide, onto the ramp. We do this with 100' dock lines, and it's usually quite smooth--pull the bow dock-line across the trailer, push off from the dock, and pull it into the trailer as the boat drifts across.

This time the tide was going out fast, and this created a very strong 4 knot current that pushed the boat directly into the dock. I couldn't for the life of me pull the boat against this current and keep it parallel to the trailer. It took four attempts, eight people, and an hour to trailer the boat, and the successful attempt saw the boat rotate between the goalposts 90 degrees, shear off one of the posts, and I just manhandled it onto the trailer and we got in the water and pushed it onto the bunks, re-seating it every foot or so as we pulled it out. I'm sure there's already video of it on YouTube, and we had hecklers calling from the restrooms "It's going to be an expensive day!"

I inspected the bottom of the boat once we got it out and couldn't find even a scratch. I need to replace a goalpost, the trailer fender is cracked but serviceable, and otherwise I got out of it damage free. But it was one hull of a hassle.

So my question is this: I considered powerloading by reversing off the dock at low speed hard over to port (the direction of the trailer) and having a line handler guide the bow onto the trailer, pulling it on so that the boat couldn't miss the trailer. The motor would pull against the tide, and the line handler would control the bow to ensure that the boat gets onto the trailer.

My concern was that the motor could easily overwhelm the line handler and this would be unsafe.

Has anyone done this, or line handled against a motor pulling in similar conditions? Would you consider it reasonable or unsafe? I'd appreciate hearing people's experience with any kind of guided power loading.

[Catigale]

I am having a little trouble getting the visual on this. Can you post a sat image from above and maybe we can come up with a new strategy?

On edit... Found this... If it makes you feel any better that is a real Charlie Foxtrot of a design

http://www.sdboating.com/ramps.htm

[mastreb]

Here's a google maps image:

http://goo.gl/maps/7Bsw

The Dock you're looking at is 50 feet long. That's right: A Mac takes well more than 1/2 of the length. The mouth of the quay wall is not as wide as a mac is long. the rocks between the dock and the edge of the ramp and the dock are about 15.. feet wide. So you have to line handle the boat from the dock to the trailer.

The solution I've come up with in my mind is this (try to imagine):

0. Bring the boat to the dock bow-in.
1. Tie a dockline to the trailer at or near the trailer winch. Could use a bowline knot to the winch hook.
2. Walk this dockline over to the boat, through a (new) ring chock on the nose of the bow pulpit, and straight back to the cockpit, around one of the winches for extra grip, and cleat it off on the aft port cleat.
3. Put the motor to port in reverse, just enough throttle to gently pull the boat against the tide current.
4. Because the dockline is cleated off, the boat will reverse and walk to port in the water, but pulling against the dockline and going no further back than the dockline length allows. Essentially it will swing out in an arc defined by the length of the dockline.
5. In the cockpit, while managing the motor angle, heave the dockline usin the cabintop winch, which pulls the boat towards the trailer. Because the the dockline goes through a ring chock on the bow pulpit, the tensioned dockline keeps the bow pointed directly at the trailer at all times.
6. Keeping the motor always in reverse to keep the tension on the dockline, use the wheel to move the boat side-to-side as necessary to keept the boat lined up with the trailer as you heave.
7. Heave the dockline to move ever closer to the trailer, until such time as you are bunked and can either kill or reverse the motor as you please.

The idea here is that the dockline keeps the bow pointed directly at the trailer no matter what, as long as its under tension. The reversed motor keeps the dockline under tension, and the wheel allows you to swing the stern of the boat in an arc defined by the dockline in order to keep the boat aligned with the trailer.

Cleating off the dockline limits its length, which prevents the boat from reversing all the way to the quay wall even if you completely lose your grip on the dockline.

You'd manage power and helm to aim the boat, and this should work under any current or wind conditions, and should be easily single-hand-able.

I'm going to practice the maneuver at the public docks cleated off to determine (a) if the forces work the way I'm imagining they will and (b) if I can actually heave against the reversed motor in idle and against a current.

If it works, it could solve any close quarters trailering problem. I'll report back.

[Catigale]

....or recover only at slack tide.....I know that's not always convenient, but backing lines against motors as described can get snarly PDQ.....

[flbkroxie]

If you do swear off Shelter Island ramp, where would you launch? We have had similar experiences with our Macgregor 26S at that ramp. Strong winds, currents, sight seeing boats, personal water craft, you name it, everyone trying to get in and out of the water at the same time. We used the dock once, but it was a hassle. We had an underpowered motor and were blown to the dock, as you mentioned. We had to buy a new outboard which seems to have solved the problem. We now just motor directly from and to the trailer without using the dock. But the ramp is a major pain. Chula vista has a nice ramp, but way too far away. Any suggestions on other places to launch?

[mastreb]

If you do swear off Shelter Island ramp, where would you launch? We have had similar experiences with our Macgregor 26S at that ramp. Strong winds, currents, sight seeing boats, personal water craft, you name it, everyone trying to get in and out of the water at the same time. We used the dock once, but it was a hassle. We had an underpowered motor and were blown to the dock, as you mentioned. We had to buy a new outboard which seems to have solved the problem. We now just motor directly from and to the trailer without using the dock. But the ramp is a major pain. Chula vista has a nice ramp, but way too far away. Any suggestions on other places to launch?

The new Pier 32 marina and boat ramp next to pepper park in National City is the next best bet. It's right off the 5 and launches into sweet water channel. The only problem is there's no nearby storage available. I'm putting back in at Shelter the weekend and I'll try some other techniques to find something that works.

[mastreb]

So I spent yesterday and this morning practicing maneuvering against a 3 knot current and 10 knot wind at the public docks in San Diego. Had to let the harbor police know what I was doing, and even so they still came out and watched for about a half an hour, occasionally offering suggestions.

I installed a fairlead on the bow pulpit with a johnson clamp http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... ber=273441

I then ran a 100' 3/8ths dockline from a dock cleat, through the bow pulpit fairlead, across to the starboard cabin-top winch, and then into the jib cam cleat. With both the wind and current pushing the boat hard against the dock, the idea was to attempt to maneuver directly up to the cleat, which was about 20 feet windward of the boat and 15 feet forward. A fairly close approximation of where the trailer would be in relation to the shelter island docks.

With everything in place, I put the boat into an idle reverse with the motor hard to starboard pulling against the current and wind. It wasn't enough power to move against the wind and tide, so I reved up to about 1300rpm, which would be a good 4 knots in normal use. This got the boat moving against the tide and current and I was able to get directly out in front of the cleat and beyond.

I asked my wife to pull against the cleated line from the dock. She allowed that it was difficult but possible, so I estimate I was pulling about 50 foot/lbs. of force against the cleat.

Once I had the boat lined up directly in front of the cleat with about 30' of dockline between the cleat and the bow, I throttled down to the point where the engine was barely holding against the tide, still hard to starboard. I never quite was able to get down to idle in this particular current.

I then began heaving the dockline to come in, keeping it in the cam cleat so I would not lose way. I was only able to make about 1' at a time, and then I had to wait for the boat to move forward. It seemed like I was really just stretching the dockline and waiting for the stretch to pull in. Catigale's intuition was correct--pulling against the reversed motor was damned difficult.

About 10 feet from the cleat, where the trailer bunks would start, I found myself 4' to leeward, parallel to what would have been the trailer, and no longer able to pull against the motor. Shutting off the motor meant the the stern would go hard to leeward, which would mean twisting on the aft trailer bunks and likely shearing off my other goal post.

I let out the dockline and let the motor pull me back out. It was here that I realize that while getting exactly where I wanted to be manually was difficult, that with 20' of dockline between the boat and the cleat that I could put the boat exactly in alignment with the cleat easily, irrespective of what the wind and current were doing. It was only when I got close that it became difficult to align perfectly.

So I used the motor to get about 5' windward of the cleat, 20' out, and then went to an idle straight forward, while hauling on the dockline. So this time I'm not hauling against the reversed motor, I'm drifting with the wind and current. This got the bow right up into the cleat where I wanted it. I likely could have just put the motor in neutral and done the same thing.

Once I was close to the dock, rather than hit it I again reversed the motor a little above idle, and let the dockline out to go back out into the water, and make another attempt at it.

Same tactic worked again: Get a feel for the current and wind, use the motor in reverse to go against it about as much as you're going to need to drift, then idle forward while hauling on the line to keep the bow pointed directly at the target as you go.

Most importantly, the whole operation is completely under control by the motor and the dockline. If I ever got out of shape, I could just let out some dockline and reverse back, steering until I was in good shape again. I'm quite confident I can get the boat directly onto the trailer tomorrow using this tactic irrespective of conditions, and likely in the first shot.