Question 1

How do I tie a bowline?

Accepted Answer

The bowline gives you a fixed loop that will not slip and will not jam, no matter how hard it gets loaded. It is the knot you use on a mooring ring, a jib sheet, a towline, or anywhere you need a loop you can still untie afterwards. Decide how big the loop needs to be, then make a small overhand loop in the standing part of the line, well above that point, with the tail pointing up through it. That small loop is the rabbit hole and the standing part is the tree. Bring the tail up through the small loop, around behind the standing part, and back down through the same small loop the way it came up. Rabbit out of the hole, round the tree, back down the hole. Snug the standing part while holding the tail and the loop, and leave a tail about six inches long. If the tail finishes on the inside of the big loop it is right; if it finishes on the outside you have tied a cowboy bowline, which holds but is weaker — retie it. Under heavy shock loading, add a half hitch or a stopper knot in the tail. Practice it one-handed and behind your back, because the day you need it will be dark, wet, and rushed.

Question 2

How do I make a cleat hitch?

Accepted Answer

A cleat hitch is the only correct way to secure a dock line to a cleat. Wraps piled on randomly will slip or jam solid under load, and a jammed line in a crosswind is how boats get damaged. Take the line to the far horn of the cleat first, so the load comes onto the base of the cleat rather than lifting it. One full turn around the base. Cross over the top of the cleat in a figure eight to the other horn, then back across again. Two figure eights are plenty for a dock line. Finish with one — only one — locking hitch: form an underhand loop so the tail lies flat against the horn and pulls parallel with the standing part. Pull it snug. Never use more than one locking hitch, never coil the whole line onto the cleat, and never leave a loose tail on the dock to trip on. You should be able to cast the whole thing off in two seconds with one hand while the engine is running.

Question 3

What does the squelch knob on my VHF actually do?

Accepted Answer

Squelch sets the noise floor — the point below which the radio stays silent. It does not change how far you can transmit or how sensitive the receiver is. It only decides how weak a signal has to be before the radio stops bothering you with it. To set it: turn squelch fully down until you hear steady static hiss, then bring it up slowly until the hiss just stops. That is the sweet spot. You will hear the faintest usable traffic and nothing else. Set it too high and you will silence weak calls — including a distress call from a small handheld a few miles away. That is the mistake that matters. Too low and you sit in a cabin full of static all day and start turning the volume down, which is just as bad. Reset squelch when conditions change. Engine noise, a new alternator, a marina full of chargers, or a passing squall all move the noise floor. Keep channel 16 monitored at that setting whenever you are underway, and remember squelch has nothing to do with the volume knob — check both before you decide your radio is dead.

Question 4

What are the fender rules?

Accepted Answer

Fenders belong on the boat, not the dock, and they go out before you are in the slip — not while you are drifting sideways toward the finger. Count: three per side for most boats up to the mid thirties, four if you are alongside a piling dock or rafting up. Two is what people use right before they buy new gel coat. Height: the fat middle of the fender sits at the widest part of the hull, level with the rub rail or dock edge, whichever will make contact. A fender riding above the rub rail is decoration. Hang them from a solid rail, cleat or stanchion base with a clove hitch backed by a half hitch so you can adjust the height in one motion. Never hang them from lifelines you would rather keep straight. Placement: one at the widest beam, one forward, one aft where the hull curves in. On a piling dock use a fender board across two fenders so the piling cannot slip between them. Bring them in once you are underway. Fenders trailing at sea look sloppy, add drag, and are the fastest way to be identified as the boat that does not know what it is doing.

Question 5

Can Salty answer questions about my own boat, not just general seamanship?

Accepted Answer

That is the whole point. Load your engine manual, radio manual, chartplotter guide, fridge and microwave paperwork, wiring schematics, even the fishing reel diagram, and Salty reads all of it. Then you ask in plain English — what oil does my outdrive take, which fuse is the fridge on, how do I reset the chartplotter — and you get an answer with the page it came from, instead of thumbing through a wet binder at the dock. He also reads your maintenance history, fuel logs, float plans, captain documents and club policies, so the answer accounts for what your boat has actually had done to it.

Question 6

How do I set up a new boat club without messing it up?

Accepted Answer

Do it in this order and the paperwork, money and drama stay separate. 1) Get your team together. Find the people who actually want to share a boat, agree on the dream, and be honest about who will use it and how often. 2) Form an LLC. The boat and the bank account belong to the club, not to one person. This protects everyone's personal assets and keeps ownership clean. 3) Set the rules of the club and boat use. Write down scheduling, maintenance duties, cleaning, fuel, guest policies and what happens when someone wants out. 4) Set up the dues. Decide how much each member pays and when. Be realistic about mortgage, slip, insurance, maintenance and a reserve fund. 5) Establish who does what on the administrative side. One person can be the money person, another the maintenance person, another the scheduling person — but never let one person hold all the keys. 6) Open a bank account under the club LLC. Put your initial capital in, then pay all bills from that account. No personal Venmos, no mixed cards. 7) Have partners automatically deposit each month. Auto-transfer kills the monthly chase and makes late dues obvious immediately. 8) Set it up and link it in EZ Boat Share. It gives every member a top-level view of cash balance, who has paid, who has not, and any out-of-the-norm expenses this month — all automatically done by the app. 9) Save the date you want to go out, go down to your boat, follow the app's check list, and you are boating.

THE ANSWERS YOU MEANT TO LOOK UPBEFORE YOU LEFT THE DOCK.