How We Tie Our Ranger Tugs R25 to the Dock | Tug Drops
Tying up your boat sounds simple, but when you’re new to boating, figuring out which lines go where and how tight they should be can take a little practice.
In Tying Up Our R25, Sarah shows how we tie our Ranger Tugs R25 to the dock using our bow, stern, and spring lines. We’ll walk through our basic setup and show how we secure the boat so it stays where we want it while still allowing for movement at the dock.
Tug Drops is our quick series sharing the basic boating skills and Ranger Tugs tips we’ve learned along the way. Have a basic boating question you’d like us to cover in a future Tug Drop? Leave it in the comments, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next one!
Prefer to read? Here’s the full transcript from this adventure, lightly edited for readability. Timestamps correspond to the video.
0:00 | How We Tie Up Our Ranger Tugs R-25
Hi, I’m Sarah.
Hi, I’m Derek.
Today, we’re showing you how we tie our Ranger Tugs R-25 to the dock.
Our setup is pretty simple, and after doing it enough times, we’ve developed a routine that works well for us at our home marina.
The exact order can always change depending on wind, current, and dock conditions, but this is what we normally do.
0:18 | The First Line We Secure
After what Sarah describes as another wonderful docking experience where Derek made absolutely no mistakes whatsoever, she steps off the boat and goes straight for our forward spring line.
There’s actually a reason we start there.
The forward spring line helps keep the boat from moving too far forward in our slip. At our dock, that’s important because we don’t want the bow getting too close to the rocks or into shallower water.
Once that line is secured, we have much better control of the boat while attaching the remaining lines.
0:38 | Adding the Bow Line
Next, Sarah opens the anchor locker and pulls out our bow line.
We store it there so it stays safely out of the way when we’re underway but is still easy to reach when we return to the dock.
She brings the bow line to the dock cleat and secures it with a cleat hitch.
Our goal is to position the boat where we want it in the slip without pulling the line unnecessarily tight.
0:58 | Tying a Cleat Hitch
For our dock lines, we use a basic cleat hitch.
Sarah brings the line around the cleat, crosses over the top, crosses again, and finishes the hitch so the line is secure.
It’s one of those basic boating skills that seemed much more complicated before we learned it.
Once you’ve done it enough times, it becomes second nature.
1:06 | Securing the Stern Line
With the bow secured, Sarah moves to the back of the boat and grabs the stern line.
She attaches that line to the dock with another cleat hitch.
Now we have the boat controlled from both the bow and stern while the spring lines help control its forward and backward movement.
1:18 | Adding the Spring Lines
Next comes the aft portion of our spring-line setup.
Sarah secures the primary spring line and then adds a secondary spring line that we use at our home slip.
With the bow, stern, and spring lines in place, the boat is positioned where we want it and has enough room to move naturally at the dock.
1:38 | How We Actually Do It When We Dock
For the video, Sarah demonstrates the entire process herself, but that isn’t exactly how we normally do it.
Most of the time, Sarah gets our first spring line secured while Derek is still at the helm.
Then Derek steps off and handles the bow line, especially if there’s some wind or we want another set of hands controlling the boat.
Derek pulls the boat forward into the position we want while securing the bow line, and Sarah takes care of the remaining lines at the stern.
It’s really a team effort.
On the day we filmed this, there was almost no wind, so Sarah was able to demonstrate the whole process herself.
Well, almost by herself.
2:22 | That’s How We Tie Up Drops in the Ocean
And that’s how we tie our Ranger Tugs R-25 to the dock.
The setup itself is pretty simple. The biggest thing we’ve learned is to develop a routine, understand what each line is doing, and adjust when the wind, current, or dock conditions require something different.
Like most things in boating, it gets much easier after you’ve done it a few times.
If you’re learning boating too, follow along with Tug Drops. We’re sharing the little things we learn along the way and trying to explain them without assuming you already know all the boating terminology.
Have a basic boating question you’d like us to cover in a future Tug Drop? Leave it in the comments.
Have a good one.
2:29 | One Adventure at a Time
We took a leap and bought a fixer-upper on the Hood Canal, and an empty dock meant one thing.
We needed a boat.
Now we’re building our dream home and our dream life, one adventure at a time.