Marina Etiquette: What Every Boat Owner Should Know

A marina is a small, dense neighborhood where dozens of boat owners share docks, slips, water, and air. Most of the conflict that crops up in a marina comes down to a small handful of avoidable courtesies. Here are the ones we see — and occasionally have to navigate around — most often.

Dock line management. Lines should be neatly coiled or hung when not in use, never sprawled across the dock where they become a tripping hazard. Slack lines that flop into the water foul props, snag passing boats, and look terrible. Take five minutes after you tie up to dress your lines properly — it costs nothing and it keeps the dock walkable.

Fender placement. Set fenders before you come into the slip, not after. A boat slamming into the dock or its neighbor while the owner scrambles to grab fenders is a familiar sight in any marina, and it is also entirely avoidable. Equally important: take fenders down when you leave the dock. Fenders dragging in the water at six knots are a hallmark of an inattentive operator.

Quiet hours. Most marinas have official quiet hours, typically 10pm to 7am. In practice, the unofficial hours are even broader — running a generator, hammering, sanding, or playing loud music at any time of day affects every boat within earshot. If you need to do noisy work, do it midday and let your neighbors know in advance if it will run more than an hour or two.

Environmental responsibility. Do not wash your boat with detergents that drain straight into the harbor. Do not pump your holding tank within three miles of shore. Do not leave trash, spent oil filters, or used absorbent pads on the dock for someone else to deal with. The harbor is shared, and the people enforcing the rules are the same people you see on the dock every weekend.

Neighbor awareness. Pay attention to your wake when entering and leaving — even a small wake at idle speed rocks every boat in the fairway. Do not block the dock cart for an hour while you load up. Do not run lines or shore power across someone else's slip without asking. And if you see something off on a neighbor's boat — a chafed line, a leaking hose, an open hatch in the rain — say something. We all look out for each other in this business, and the best dock neighbors are the ones who notice things and quietly help fix them.

None of this is complicated. Most of it is the kind of thing your slip neighbors will appreciate without ever telling you, and the kind of thing they will absolutely tell you about if you get it wrong. A few minutes of attention is the difference between being the boat owner everyone likes seeing and the boat owner everyone groans about.