Bull rails with a wind or current pushing off and no help? I can almost always find the confidence and timing to get a stern line on without leaving the boat. I use the transom door onto the swimstep and can safely kneel at dock level to get a short line on. I then use the walk around to briskly get back to the helm. Rudder hard over to the dock, offshore engine fwd, dockside engine reverse. By the time this in in place, the bow may very well have drifted as much as 45 degrees out or even a tad more. Once she’s chugging a little and holding her own, wait for a gust to pass and momentarily lull, get a little more power on the outside fwd engine vectoring the thrust and have patience. She will come.
With bystanders, and bull rails, I’ll still do about the same thing. If I let even most boaters handle the stern line, no matter how I emphasize it MUST be a short line, They will try to hurry and it will be 10 feet long when I get the boat in gear, which is completely useless and now I have to try to release the line and somehow not get it into the running gear. I’ve never had success coaching others on this one and just learned that no matter what, this step is on me.
I’m 51 feet overall, aft cabin with walk around and about 48K pounds.
I came in during a storm once, waited a few hours for the wind to die a little and it was still blowing about 40kts straight off the dock. No chance to use a stern line whatsoever. One crab fisherman noticed and came out to help. Kept throwing a line from the mid cleat, but by the time he got it under the bullrail, did not get a second loop around and he would lose the tug of war. Third try, I put the boat hard against the breakwater and he got the second loop and enough friction to hold. Tied the boat up securely and took the ferry home, came back a week later to get the boat. Single handing in February can be a bit sporty.
I used to get her along side and step off the swimstep and quickly walk to grab midship line. One really close call thinking I had the stern line secure in too big a hurry, big gust and almost let the boat drift away. Climbed onto the bow at the last moment. Complacency will get you when confidence morphs into arrogance. Now I pretty well insist that I don’t leave the boat until I have a line tied securely from the boat first.
Sometimes you can’t help it, but if it’s going to storm, wait for better weather. After slugging it out all day by yourself, you won’t much care how graceful you look coming into the dock, just that you do no damage to other boats and don’t get yourself or others hurt in the process. You can’t always control somebody else taking a chance they shouldn’t. Better to avoid the situation if you can.
Anyway, lots of people get along without a full walk around and it takes up a LOT of inside cabin space, but for me, I like the trade off. I don’t have every answer, but do believe that single handing can be done reasonably well if you can stay humble enough to exercise prudent judgement for the conditions. My personal shortcoming is that I tend to take on more risk by myself than when I have crew to help. I’m not trying to be a cowboy, there is literally nobody around to witness or impress, just that I simply refuse to put risk onto others I’m responsible for. It’s counter intuitive and sneaks up on me. Kind of “how did I get here again?” So factor that in, if you share that trait.
