If the step is too far (icy decks become a problem this time of year and my knees are getting older) add a railing. A pull-in line also helps.
The railing is welded from 1 1/4-inch square tube. It is attached with lag bolts, and the top is reinforced with a 1 1/2-inch steel strap around the piling. The paint has a non-skid finish. About 2 hours of cutting and welding, followed by painting and installation.
I tried to explain this over and over, but the editors always wanted articles on short cuts to fixing a wet deck. Well, injecting epoxy into mush is not a way to fix anything. It's not going to bond, doing a proper repair is more difficult, and now you have all of these holes.
Looked at another way, this is why smearing the surface to be bonded with mud and then working in the rain is not a good way to work with epoxy. It's not OCD to get things clean and dry, it's just ... obvious.
Add enough and your sails will look like something from a wind tunnel lab. Yes, you can do well through experience and looking at the shape of the cloth, but they do remove some of the guesswork from sail trim. I've been doing this for over 40 years and I still appreciate a full set.
The main leach tell tales can suck around behind the sail intermittently at the top when trimmed for peak power. The jib telltails should never suck back. Jib stall is worse than main stall since it will reduce the flow over the main.
The 
Tying up a wide boat can be complicated. I can only reach one piling from the dock. The slip does not fit the boat.Currently, I use the black lines in the illustration, but as my legs get old I wish I could tie it nearer to the dock (a big step). But I must tie it well off to allow for tides.
Some attest they love the sound of gulls. It reminds them where they are. I think they havn't been around the water long enough to get sick of the screaming vandals. All the noise tells me is that I'm in a messy harbor. The Little Mermaid had it right.
"Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine ...."
As for halyards, I have no problem with stepping on an unoccupied boat and
tying them off. They left a nuisance behind, so they have no reasonable
expectation that someone board to fix it. When they see it tied off they
might learn from that.
[Once 40 years ago someone tied mine off. When I came back I saw the string and I was immediately chastened. It never happened again, not because I'm a great guy, but because it was an embarrassing lesson I didn't want to repeat.]
Whether halyard tails or docklines, sailors always have ropes to hang. A few ideas. Bags are good to, when there is room (the lines will grow more algae in a bag).
Button Line Holders from United Yacht Manufacturing are my favorites for halyard tails. Easy to adjust or replace the string. Nothing snags on them. Comfortable to lean against.
I'm kind of out of boat projects, so I've been welding up stuff. With the exception of some of the rebar, everything is recycled from scrap.
A representation of my F-24, sailing the lawn. The sail trim is sharp but it doesn't float well. Too many leaks.
The head is an old worn-out weld chipping hammer head.
Steady rest, also mostly bed frame steel. Very stiff.
If you have a portable metal band saw you NEED to make a stand/base for it. I use it 20 times as much now. Many examples on-line, and you can buy them for newer saws. I had to make this one, because the saw is older. Even a little table makes cutting parts and backing plates so easy and far more accurate.
The saw just lifts out of the base. A few screws take the table off, leaving the stock rest in place for hand-held use. But I've never taken it off the stand.
For cutting long material, I have several adjustable stands, similar to those used to support long work on a able saw. One was made from bed frames. The other is a photo light stand for which I fabricated multiple heads, either for support or for work lights.
I had this piece of glass, so I made this end table for our front porch. Bed frame.
More stuff that I have given away. More to come. Once you get the hang of it, welding open many fun possibilities. I have quite a few bits of tooling for my lathes (wood and metal) that involved both machining and welding--machining is subtractive and welding is additive--combining them results in great flexibility in fabrication.
After 30 years the original knobs are breaking down. A few days ago a line tried to jump off. Time for replacement. The tramps are good and the line OK (replace in a 1-2 years?), but the knobs are toast.
How can we get more stretch from a bridle?
More length. Yes, but there will also be losses from friction. In the left center (below) illustration the stretch would be 5 feet in 50 feet, given the assumptions about line size and stretch, but it is only 4.5 feet because some force is subtracted by friction over the bow.
Double around a low friction ring (left illustration). The problem here is that we lose a lot of tension going around the ring. They are only 70-75% efficient in a 90 degree bend (testing). Stretch goes down to 3 feet and a new chafe point is introduced. What if we use a thinner line (center right illustration) to increase stretch? The safety factor stays the same and stretch goes up to 3.4 feet. The only way the doubly method comes even close is by using pulleys, and it is still less efficient.
What about energy absorbed by friction? Yes, that is valid, but work is still force through a distance and the damping distance is still reduced. The same effect would be had by using one size larger rope, and without the chafe risk.
In fact, there is fourth case, (left), where the stretch increases to 8.4 feet, using a 0.5:1 purchase. In stead of rigging the bow as a 2:1 purchase, a line runs forward, but on the side deck a reverse purchase is rigged, so that the forward line moves twice as far as the side line stretches. Complicated, though.
A boat a few marinas down burned up a few weeks ago. The cause is not clear, but bad shore power is suspected.
There really should be a marine code for 15 amp shore power, but there isn't, so things like this are too common. Oh dear.
Not marine 30 amp shore power, but there are in-use covers, GFI, and strain relief. And all they are running is a battery charger and a bilge pump.
