Slip Size

A

ALKA2710

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Mar 5, 2007
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25407
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Thoughts on slip size for a 13ft beam boat. It seems that there are lots of 14ft slips around but after that the picking get slim. What say the experts. How much trouble am I asking for if I did that. Thanks
Al
 
If you don't have any current, wind, wave action or other boats sticking out into the fairway, it will work.
 
I do it every time I take my boat out. 14 foot slip. 13 foot beam.. If the wind is strong, I lay on the piling in and out.
 
It is fine in a sheltered marina. Problem is that if the is any wave or wind, you can't keep the boat of the pilings.
 
Does the slip have a piling? I don't I have a finger and then another boat if it were tight it would be a nightmare!
 
My beam is 13'. My slip is 13' 8" pole to pole. I pull tight to one pole and ride it on a fender to keep off finger pier. No issues.
 
A boat's beam is measured at it widest point which is usually mid ship once you get the stern started in the into a tight slip the rest follows pretty easy if you have two pole or even better two fingers.
 
Floating or fixed docks? As noted a boats beam is widest up at the gunwhale, but at the waterline it is typically much more narrow. Especially if you have floating docks which will consistently be close to the waterline.

I've put a 12 foot beam boat into an 11 foot slip and found I had tons of room, much more than expected. There are other considerations, but it's worth doing a bi of measuring to see what it would really look like.
 
Most likely a fixed dock with a piling in between. Thanks for all the suggestions. Guess I am going to see how efficient and confident I become with handling her.
Al
 
As said above, it depends on how protected it is, my boat is 13`4", my slip is about as unprotected as you could find, exposed to the north,four ft boat wakes, 3 knot current, (both directions). The slip is 20` wide, the boat hangs in there with plenty of scope on the lines and never touches a pile or dock. A narrower one would be a problem.
 
Also I would consider it a protected slip from current and waves but wind might be a factor
Al
 
Al,
If you want to try my slip for size, let me know. Or just go to a marina and try a few and measure once in.
If you get into AYC and you go for D Dock, wind is normally at stern, which makes docking easier.
C Dock is a little trickier. A and B don't have as much wind, but wind is normally to your side, which can also be tricky.
If slip has 4 poles, then it's easy because as you back in normally your between the poles sooner and your boat neighbors become less of a issue then. As I stated in other post, your boat has a narrower than boat swim platform, which makes it easier to get swim platform into tight slip, but then you need to line up rest of boat which is a quick walk over. Can have passenger hold fender on those rounded corners to help.
 
Poles are your friends. Don't be afraid to use them to help you dock.
 
I had just a few inches clearance between the poles at my old slip in a boatyard. The tight slip never posed a problem once I was in, But I was pretty far up a canal and it was pretty protected up there.
Docking the boat in the slip was OK until the slip to my port side changed hands. It was a narrower slip than mine and a smaller center console boat with twin outboards took it over. The boat was pulled bow in with the motors up and it was tied kind of loosely. Depending on the tide and the slack in his lines, I often found it blocking my slip a bit when I returned. There were no fingers, and there was no way for the owner of the center console to get on and off of it if he backed it in to the slip.
Backing in to the narrow slip with those two spears staring at me was a little daunting.
It got to the point where I had to have someone in my cockpit with a pole push the smaller boat over and hold it there while I backed in to my slip.
The owner of the boatyard was really a good guy, saw the problem, would tighten the lines on the smaller boat if he saw it, and offered several times to try to move me to another slip as soon as one opened up.
I never made a big deal of it because shortly after the smaller boat took the slip I bought my current dock space anyway.
The point is that the boat fitting between the poles is only part of the equation. The other thing to consider when the slip is a little tight is what is on either side of you. My boat has an 11 ft. beam, and if my old slip was 14 ft. wide it would have been a lot easier getting around that center console.
 
Thanks for all the advice and Dave thanks for the offer of your slip to try. I have the survey tomorrow and hope to get the boat by next week. The first thing I am going to do is practice getting into different slips. Right now I think I could use a 20 ft slip but am sure I can get that number down to a respectable 18 or 19 with a few days practice. Thanks for the advice everyone.
Al
 
Oh...so your one of the few actually WILLING to practice. Take your time. Have fun. With your attitude, I have no worries.
 
Too be honest until I am comfortable docking I will not take anyone out with me. Not sure about everyone else but my stress level goes up when others are on board or watching me dock from land. I try and go out on a weekday and find a place that does not have a lot of pedestrian or boat traffic.
Al
 
If you are by yourself, watch those 2 corners on the platform that I told you about.
You can try hanging fenders there but they tend to move.
Not a issue on a wide slip, but when tight you will hit them as it is hard to see them.
 
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