Centre Line Mounting Point Query

[KJT]

My centre line fixing cleat is mounted about 6 feet aft of the centre point of my 62 foot narrow boat with the result it doesn't pull or hold the boat symmetrically. I guess it was positioned like that due to various items on the roof, vents, Houdini hatch, side hatch etc., which made line handling easier. The boat is also fitted with roof mounted fairleads on the handrails each side of the centre cleat which I need to use due to having top boxes and solar panels which would otherwise be damaged by the centrelines. I therefore have two centrelines, one port and one starboard. I could easily move the fairleads forward six feet to the centre point of the boat, but moving the centre cleat would be much more difficult.

So it would mean the ropes entering the fairleads at the mid point, but then running aft at an angle of 45 degrees or so to the centre cleat 6 feet aft of them.

 

Can anyone think of any problems that might arise from that solution before I move the fairleads?

 

Thanks, Ken

[alan_fincher]

Personally on the average leisure narrow boat, I would say the "centre" line actually needs to be an "aft of centre" line.

 

Very few boats are truly level in the water, and most sit "bow high", which means that if a boat is parallel to the bank, and you try pulling it in with a line that is attached dead centre, and pulling at 90 degrees to the boat, the front end will come in significantly faster than the back, due to its average draught being less, and less force being needed to pull it through the water.

 

However, if you have the unusual case of having a boat that is nearly level in the water, drawing more or less the same along its whole length, then ignore this, and a rope that is dead centre may well be fine.

[Mike Tee]

Install new centre rings, one each side, giving you lines each side, like this ............................