Visited a small harbor in Maine and noticed nobody talks about swing radius problems in tight marinas

Last month I was up in Boothbay Harbor helping a buddy move his 30 foot workboat between docks. The basin there is packed with moorings and narrow channels. I watched three different operators struggle to turn around because they didn't account for how much their dredge head swings when the tide shifts. One guy nearly wrapped his cable around a lobster buoy. Has anyone else run into tight squeeze situations where swing radius caught you off guard?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_olivia18d ago

Read some old fishing forum posts about this exact thing. Remember this one guy from Rockland who kept denting his hull against the pilings because he forgot about the stern swinging out in a crosswind. Swing radius is no joke in those tight harbors. Tides in Maine can make a bad situation way worse too. Always worth walking the dock first and checking the space before you even start the engine.

-1

tarajenkins17d ago

Oh man, that Rockland guy story is a classic. I read somewhere that the tide swing in some Maine harbors can be over 10 feet so you gotta account for that when you're gauging your slip space. It's those little details that separate the smooth dockers from the guys always patching gelcoat.