Snubbers

[bshillam]

Do you use them? If so how many lines do you use to tie up? I am new to tieing up at the dock and currently use two lines - I usually tie up in a protected bay so this isn't a problem. However, I know we're going to be heading into rougher waters and thought snubbers would be a good idea. ?. If you have purchased what type of snubber? Pics and links are good too. Thanks brats!

[patrick and linda]

I THINK MOST CAPTAINS USE THREE LINES TO TIE UP. FORWARD, AFT AND SPRING LINE. AS FOR FENDERS, MORE IS BETTER.
PAT

[lloyds]

I wouldn't be without snubbers. Don't have make or model but they are the black rubber ones that are hard to snake your dock lines through. I use two (technically) lines to tie off. Stern line, bow line, and the tail of the bow line is the springline. At a lot of state parks and open areas where you tie to a public dock you can get a lot of wave action. Without snubbers your cleats, and the deck holding them, will take a horrible beating. I spent a night aboard in high winds and the wave action was horrible. Without the snubbers it snapped the boat so bad I was afraid the deck was going to fracture. Snubbers stop almost all of that.

[CatyMae n Steve]

I have snubbers for tuna handlines, snubbers for kokanee, snubbers for salmon.....no snubbers for docking...show me! please

Caty

[bshillam]

For docking lines like this,

http://www.iboats.com/3_8_Line_17_Snubber_length/dm/keywords.snubber--cart_id.572856984--session_id.815764046--view_id.131234

[CatyMae n Steve]

Hmmmmmmmm looks very much like the snubber we use for tuna...double duty item!

Caty

[bshillam]

How far out do you have to go for tuna? Why do you use a snubber? Is it because they hit so hard? I've heard they hit about 50 mph? Where do you go to fish for tuna? I've heard it's great when they are on.

[lloyds]

Those be the ones. Horribly overpriced, but worth their weight in gold under the right circumstances.

[thataway]

I have owned a couple of those types of snubbers, but never had an occasion to use them. In slips, we tied off two bow lines and two stern lines, usually at least one spring line. No reason for snubbers, unless you are at a dock which is exposed to surges or wakes. Even with hurricanes, we did not use snubbers.

Anchoring, we use light nylon lines between the chain or anchor rode and the foreward cleats as snubbers.

I have used both snubbers and surgical rubber tubing as a shock absorber when hand line trolling--which we often do on a passage. I do feel that is very important, since the heavy fishing line, does not have much shock absorption.

[CatyMae n Steve]

[tsturm]

[timflan]

Just don't get any recalled snubbers! A friend had some, unknown to him, and it chafed right through his dock line overnight, resulting in some gelcoat damage to the hull. Hmmm, THAT doesn't seem like an improvement over plain old rope!

I don't use 'em at all. Rope I understand. Adding additional components of unknown quality, and forcing the rope to take additional twists and turns...I just start to lose interest pretty fast.

Also, every tie-up is different, so I don't want semi-permanent fittings attached to my line, constraining my options. As others have indicated here, I also use a stern line and a long bow line, the tail of which comes back to the mid-ship cleat as a spring. In my home slip, I add a bowline to the other side, as well. I'm south-facing near the entrance to the marina, so we can get a nasty wind through there every time a storm comes through. (For those from other regions, big wind storms in Puget Sound virtually always blow from the south).

But then I see how other people tie up their boats, and after a look around the marina, I stop worrying about my NOT worn-out line tied up with PROPER cleat hitches. I keep thinking about publishing a "rogue's gallery" of badly tied cleat hitches! It's amazing what folks come up with to tie up their fancy boats. Boats don't seem to go floating off all over the marina during wind storms, though, and the marina management, normally conscientous about safety issues, doesn't seem to publish any reminders about proper cleat hitches. So I've concluded that the loads on dock lines just aren't that significant.

I've slept aboard during storms, and I know that awful jerking around feeling. Once this summer, at Sucia Island during a blow right up through Fossil Bay, I even got up in the middle of the night to double up the lines, but in retrospect, I don't think I needed to bother.

Of course, it helps that the previous owner (Hiya Mac!) put stainless steel backing plates under the bow and stern cleats for CG Aux. towing duty. Midship cleats are still stock, but I don't worry about them.

Them's my two bits, anyway!

[flapbreaker]

[Sea Wolf]

If you have a rented slip, you should have separate mooring lines for the slip, and other ones for the boat during travel times (IMHO).

The ones for the slip should be semi-permanently tied to the slips cleats or other solid ties, and be adjusted to the correct length for the boat at rest in the slip. I even have stainless clips/hooks on the ones that can be attached to the boat that way.

The boat itself will/should have its own set of lines always attached for use cruising out of the slip.

A line doubled around the bow cleat and led back along both sides of the hull and secured inside the cockpit will serve as an instantly available bowline. Be sure you make it short enough that if it falls overboard, it can't get back into the prop(s).

A pair lines tied to the stern corners of the transom will serve as stern lines. I just let the middle sections and ends lay down in 5-gallon buckets in the corner of the transom, and have not had any difficulties with them going overboard accidentally or fouling anything.

These two sets of lines, one in the slip and the other on the boat, will make tying up to docks and the slip a lot easier.

Joe.