Docking, how should my lines be?

[Toyelectroman]

Have a question about keeping your boat docked in the water for the season. The dock that I keep my boat at the marina is the last dock in the slip. So I have nothing in front or behind me. So for a floating dock should I keep the lines tight against the dock or should there be some slack in the lines? Being that my dock is closest to the entrance of the marina I do get a little bit of waves on windy days

 

[mr 88]

You should use 8 lines , 2 for the bow , 2 midship ,1 line holding it forward and the other pulls toward the stern . 2 at the stern and if you can criss cross them ( stern ) that's better as the more line you use the better as it absorbs more of the " shock " when the boat is being tossed around. You set them up so the boat will move as much as possible without touching any part of the dock , the looser the lines the better .

 

[alldodge]

Being on the end with nothing on the other side to tie to will be an issue.

I would use more fenders and leave them a bit loose, but not so loose that a wave could pick the boat up higher then the dock before the wave hits the dock. Depending on the size of the boat might think about the mooring poles or whips

https://www.amazon.com/mooring-pole/s?k=mooring+pole