In the days of sail, how did large boats make it in and out of busy ports without powered tugs or other powered assist?
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You can actually park fairly large sailboats on a dock quite easily.
Boats regularly need to tie onto some stationary thing; docks, mooring buoys or other boats. The technique is basically the same. You approach from downwind at an angle as if you’re going to drift past your target and miss by a few boat lengths. At the last minute you drop your sail and point at the target. You’ll bleed off momentum really fast and if you time it right you basically come to a stop right before your target. Then you can adjust stuff with ropes if needed.
Everyone learns to do it with little boats at first. If you screw up and hit the dock it’s just noisy and your friends make fun of you. I could easily solo a 30′ boat when I was a teenager. The whole thing goes slowly enough that that after I cut over the turn, I’d have time to tie off the rudder or wheel, walk to the bow, grab a rope and jump on the dock.
Old wooden boats typically take bigger crews but I’d expect any boats rigged with the more modern triangular sails to be able to do it, even the wooden ones. The old square rigged boats were much less maneuverable. I’ve never sailed them so I don’t really know how easy or difficult that would be.
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