Adding an entrance gate near the bow

[Breakin Away]

Hi all,

We've purchased a waterfront property that includes a deeded slip on a private community pier. This spring I'll be leaving my marina (which has nice full-length finger piers) and moving to my own slip, which has a relatively short finger pier. If I back my boat into the slip, the entrance gate will need to be 10-12' down the finger pier thanks to the dinghy that hangs on davits and stern seats on the pushpit. That distance is probably too far (I still need to measure the finger dock). Because of this, I will likely need to pull the boat forward into the slip.

My C34 currently lacks a forward entrance gate, and I need to figure something out. As a temporary measure, I'm considering replacing the lifeline clevis pins at the bow pulpit with quick-release pins to allow easy access to the bow aft of the pulpit (which ends about 6' aft of the anchor on its roller). Obviously I'll have to reduce the tension a bit to allow for removing/replacing the pin. In order to keep the entire lifeline from going slack, I'm thinking of attaching a cable clamp just in front of the forward stanchion to retain tension on the rest of the lifelines. (Unfortunately, the lifeline is not long enough for a pelican hook, and I've been unable to find coupling nuts to extend the threads enough for the pelican hook.)

If things work well with this temporary arrangement, I'll consider replacing the lifelines (which are due for replacement anyway) with ones that are appropriately sized for pelican hooks.

Any other thoughts on this? Have any of you had to add a forward gate to your C34?

[Jim Hardesty]

Any other thoughts on this? Have any of you had to add a forward gate to your C34?

My two cents.  Traveling around I've been in short slips.  Didn't like them at all.  You didn't say how long the slip is, I'm guessing 15 feet.  That doesn't leave much space for properly lead dock lines.  Also the pointy end docks further from the dock.
Maybe you could swap your existing pelican hook with the existing forward tang on the life lines, or just remove the life lines and reinstall with the pelican hook forward.   Or have new lifelines made up with a midship gate.
Is there and chance of extending the existing dock?   IMHO that would be the best way to go.
Hope it all works out for you,
Jim

[Oldlaxer1]

Consider Dyneema life lines.  Simple to make.  Colligo marine has some info that may be helpful. 
https://www.colligomarine.com/lifelines-gallery

[Breakin Away]

Any other thoughts on this? Have any of you had to add a forward gate to your C34?

My two cents.  Traveling around I've been in short slips.  Didn't like them at all.  You didn't say how long the slip is, I'm guessing 15 feet.  That doesn't leave much space for properly lead dock lines.  Also the pointy end docks further from the dock.
Maybe you could swap your existing pelican hook with the existing forward tang on the life lines, or just remove the life lines and reinstall with the pelican hook forward.   Or have new lifelines made up with a midship gate.
Is there and chance of extending the existing dock?   IMHO that would be the best way to go.
Hope it all works out for you,
Jim

Thanks for the comments. Let me clarify a bit. The slip is huge - about 45' long and 18' wide. The finger pier is short, maybe 10-12' long (I still have to measure), and it gets very narrow at the end. Extending it would require removing the piling that supports it and placing a new piling further out.

A midship gate would be in the wrong place whether pulling in forward or reverse.

With an 18' wide slip, it's pretty simple to adjust the lines to angle the bow over close to the finger pier for boarding, then re-adjust the lines for safe docking while we're away from the boat.

The current lifeline design will not allow reversing them. There's a eye-swage just aft of the double stanchion that retains tension when the aft gate is opened. Reversing the lifeline would put that eye-swage in the wrong place where it would just dangle. I assume that most C34s come from the factory with a similar design for their lifelines.

[lazybone]

Any other thoughts on this? Have any of you had to add a forward gate to your C34?

My two cents.  Traveling around I've been in short slips.  Didn't like them at all.  You didn't say how long the slip is, I'm guessing 15 feet.  That doesn't leave much space for properly lead dock lines.  Also the pointy end docks further from the dock.
Maybe you could swap your existing pelican hook with the existing forward tang on the life lines, or just remove the life lines and reinstall with the pelican hook forward.   Or have new lifelines made up with a midship gate.
Is there and chance of extending the existing dock?   IMHO that would be the best way to go.
Hope it all works out for you,
Jim

Thanks for the comments. Let me clarify a bit. The slip is huge - about 45' long and 18' wide. The finger pier is short, maybe 10-12' long (I still have to measure), and it gets very narrow at the end. Extending it would require removing the piling that supports it and placing a new piling further out.

A midship gate would be in the wrong place whether pulling in forward or reverse.

With an 18' wide slip, it's pretty simple to adjust the lines to angle the bow over close to the finger pier for boarding, then re-adjust the lines for safe docking while we're away from the boat.

The current lifeline design will not allow reversing them. There's a eye-swage just aft of the double stanchion that retains tension when the aft gate is opened. Reversing the lifeline would put that eye-swage in the wrong place where it would just dangle. I assume that most C34s come from the factory with a similar design for their lifelines.

Leave the existing finger pier piling in place but have it cut down to just below the height of the deck boards. 
You will need to add a one new piling.   Extend the finger pier from the cut down pile to the new further piling.   
Hope that makes sense to you.

[Jim Hardesty]

The slip is huge - about 45' long and 18' wide.

Any chance of docking to the 45' long side to.  You didn't say what was opposite the 18' side.  Wouldn't be much different than docking between 2 boats on a long pier.  Don't remember where, have seen boats docking in similar situations.  If I recall correctly they backed in about to mid dock, had a line or two hanging there, grabbed them with a boat pole and sprung and pulled the boat into position.  Really didn't look all that difficult with 2 people.  Single handing may be something else.
Jim

[KWKloeber]

Congratulations on the new abode.  Everything's a compromise, 'eh?

Did you look @ McMaster for coupling nuts to give you enough length for a pelican hook?  What thread?

Maybe Garhauer could make up something?  My PO had a turnbuckle welded up to extend/rework the lifeline at the pulpit attachment.

Wow that's about the most difficult to conveniently board but as you say you can make do by angling.  A friend had a similar situation and he kept a wide plywood carpeted gangplank on the dock to board.  Coming in/deboarding wasn't too much an issue because he'd adjust lines after everyone de-boated.

[Ron Hill]

Breaking : Here's an idea.  Get another stanchion from Gaurhauer that has the extra foot, make it into a vented stanchion and replace the original port side vented stanchion.

Make a new detachable life line so your boarding gate is between the two stanchions with the extra foot.  Make adjustments to the life lines accordingly.  Just leave the old boarding gate in place.      Clear as mud???

A thought   

[Breakin Away]

Sorry for the delay responding. Business travel (yes, I'm considered essential and have to do it), preparations for a tax appeal on the new property, and boat preps have me a little too busy these days:

Leave the existing finger pier piling in place but have it cut down to just below the height of the deck boards. 
You will need to add a one new piling.   Extend the finger pier from the cut down pile to the new further piling.   
Hope that makes sense to you.

That's a great idea, and makes perfect sense. I won't be able to do it this year (permitting would take too long), but the homeowners' association is planning a dock refurbishing project that would be a good opportunity to add on this improvement (at my expense) if I want it.

Hopefully I won't need it. I was able to measure the finger pier, and it's about 14' long, so should hopefully be long enough for me to back in and exit from the cockpit.

As for the slip, I measured that it's 17' wide inside the pilings, and it measures up as 47' long overall on Google Earth. As we know, the C34 is 34.5' long (about 39' with dinghy hanging off the transom) and 11.75' beam, so the slip is plenty long and has ample width if I should sometime need to pull in forward and angle it over to exit off the bow. The finger pier is 14' long, so it should be just long enough to exit from the cockpit gate.

Any chance of docking to the 45' long side to.  You didn't say what was opposite the 18' side.  Wouldn't be much different than docking between 2 boats on a long pier.  Don't remember where, have seen boats docking in similar situations.  If I recall correctly they backed in about to mid dock, had a line or two hanging there, grabbed them with a boat pole and sprung and pulled the boat into position.  Really didn't look all that difficult with 2 people.  Single handing may be something else.
Jim

As you can see from the satellite pic of the dock (with my slip highlighted), this is impossible because there are pilings between each slip.

[Ron Hill]

Breaking : Now that I've seen the slip, I was in a similar slip for over 10 years.  You are just going to have to back in and have someone catch the port side spring line as you go by it on that pile and attach it to the port mid-ships cleat. Then once in the slip you have to pull back out to get the portside bow line then the starboard bow line.

We boarded first over the starboard just aft of the dodger over the life lines up (using the hand hold on the dodger from a set of steps on the dock).  With a standard transom I would drop the boarding ladder and load the boat from over the stern. The only drawback of backing in is you could have all of the gawkers looking in from the dock.  I fixed that with a piece of smoky Lexan the size of the top hatch board.

A few thoughts 

[Roc]

Breaking. Where is this dock?

[Ron Hill]

breaking : There might be another option of widening your finger and maybe extending it - if you can??  Especially if you plan on keeping that property for a number of years !?!

Another thought

[Jon W]

Roc, his slip is on the far right of the photo. Slide the photo to the left to see it.