Making Fast

The Art of Making Fast Entropy is an inescapable principle of physics: All systems move from states of organization toward states of chaos. The sea often seems like the demon of entropy, jostling, tugging, tossing, rusting, bleaching, and shifting at every moment to attack our boats—our hopeful little bits of order. Yet we wouldn’t get anywhere unless we were damned clever at kicking back entropy temporarily. We know we will lose to entropy in the long voyage, but our ways of dissuading it for a bit, of making fast to keep our boats securely tied to their docks or moorings, is a basic sailor’s skill. The old sailor’s (temporary) victory cry over entropy is “All a’tanto!” All lines taut and secure! There’s an ancient saying in the British Royal Navy, and it provides a reliable basic premise: “A round turn saved Her Majesty’s ship.” With one hand, a 10-year-old child can arrest the pulling might of 10 men and a burro if the intelligent moppet takes a few turns around a tree—or a cleat, or a bollard. The logical youngster allows the friction of round turns to diminish forces out of proportion to his strength. When you make fast, remember what saved Her Majesty’s ship; go thou and do likewise. Fenders, Chafing Gear, and Surge Protection Among the most annoying characteristics of the sea is that it just won’t be still. You thus must protect your hull against the ravages of dock-bite with good fenders. You must also mitigate the shock on lines and hardware with chafing gear and surge protection—so-called “line snubbers.” Fenders Choosing fenders shouldn’t be a temptation to economy: You need at least three comfortably hefty cushions between you and the rough wood or concrete of the dock. Determine over time, trial, and error, what the vulnerable tangents of your hull are, and place your fenders accordingly. In addition, you might consider one large, round, “roving” fender to be used in close-quarters maneuvering—a what-if fender to drop between you and another boat, a dock, or a piling. The condition of your fenders and their pennants, and the way you handle them, is a mark of your seamanship. Setting off with your fenders cavorting in your lee wake is unsightly and slovenly. Un-whipped and casually hitched pennants reveal a lazy, heedless side of your command. Tie off fenders close to the water’s surface but not touching it—unless the structure of the dock demands a higher position. Don’t tie fenders to lifelines; if they’re caught between hull and dock, a wave-shift can snap the lifelines. Tie them to stanchions or hard-points, and use consistent hitches to do so, as you will not always be the one untying them, and it will not always be in daylight. Chafe and Surge Protection Anywhere your dockline crosses an edge or passes through a fairlead or makes a sharp turn, it needs chafing gear to protect it from the friction of the boat’s constant shifting. In any kind of seaway, a dockline may need surge dampers t