Berthing disasters we have witnessed

[Blueboatman]

You haven’t lived ( and died inside ) till you’ve “put a bowsprit where a bowsprit shouldn’t really be.”

I was young , but that’s a very poor excuse

Put the damage right myself

And had a very very understanding trot neighbour, bless ‘em

 

[Skysail]

Tom Cunliffe once said, “When things go wrong, aim for the boat which looks least expensive.”

 

[Seven Spades]

Granville, I never expected to see anywhere worse than Treguier. We had a berth near the entrance and at springs every time the gates were opened carnage ensued with boats pinned across the bows of other boats. We have not been back we values our boat too much to put it as risk of others.

 

[ANDY_W]

Over nearly 50 years of sailing, I've had one two " moments " either misjudgement or simply failing to allow for wind/tide/stupidity!
Nice to see that I am not alone.
Whenever I see some-one get it wrong I have mixed feelings - part of me says " what a plonker " and another says " there, but for the grace of god......."

 

[johnalison]

Over nearly 50 years of sailing, I've had one two " moments " either misjudgement or simply failing to allow for wind/tide/stupidity!
Nice to see that I am not alone.
Whenever I see some-one get it wrong I have mixed feelings - part of me says " what a plonker " and another says " there, but for the grace of god......."

There is a difference between a misjudgement and the execution of a plan that was never going to work or a gross inability to manoeuvre a boat, especially if combined with an aggressive use of the controls.

 

[Roberto]

Sometimes people really do not attract sympathy, to say the least: marina la Gomera, a number of boats moored side by side, all facing the wind.
A rather big boat arrives, begins to turn in the middle of the marina, takes the turn the wrong way with regards to prop walk, forward/reverse/forward/reverse it is unable to turn around and ends stopped with its side against all the bows of the moored boats. No damage done so far, one would think "now they call the marina service boat to take them out".
Nope. Full bow thruster and fast forward, the hull obviously cannot fight the push of the wind from abeam, a lot of grinding noises, bent pulpits, davits and anchors fallen in the water. Moored boats now with all people onboard screaming "stop stop".
Not happy with the result, offending boat now starts full reverse, again plenty of breakages. Eventually, someone on one of the moored boat takes a line, passes it round one of the shrouds of the offending boat saying "you do not move any more".
The marina service boat arrives, lifts the offending boat out, the skipper now motors directly towards the exit of the marina.
Half the marina looks at it without believing: he is trying to go away.
The marina boat quickly takes onboard a Guardia Civil officer, they follow the boat and order the skipper to go back in. Very lengthy reports to insurance companies followed.

 

[AndrewB]

The Mate's Lament

It's not my job to drive the boat, the horn I cannot blow.
It's not my job to say how far the yacht's allowed to go.
It's not my job to throttle back, nor even clang the bell -
But let the d--ned thing hit the dock and see who catches hell!

 

[Kwik Decision]

especially if combined with an aggressive use of the controls.

I was once taught that there is no nautical balls-up which can't be made much worse with the application of full throttle...

 

[oldmanofthehills]

There is a difference between a misjudgement and the execution of a plan that was never going to work or a gross inability to manoeuvre a boat, especially if combined with an aggressive use of the controls.

Not to the poor soul or marina infrastructure you run into

 

[johnalison]

I was once taught that there is no nautical balls-up which can't be made much worse with the application of full throttle...

My usual paraphrase includes "more expensive".

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Marina la Gomera… really, is it worse than Marina le Sodom?

 

[Daedelus]

Coming out of a locked marina crew decided we needed a boat hook and retrieved same from the side deck then dithered about where to stand and I was unsighted and tore a gouge in the topsides when I found the end of a pontoon. Crew very decently offered a contribution to cost of repair but I felt as skipper I should have told them to sit down out of the way so coughed up myself. Much much later I realised I should have claimed on insurance.

I had one good one though. We were berthed on our regular finger pontoon with fenders out where I thought any other boat might crunch us. Husband and wife team come in and engine starts revving and noise of tumult begins. Hopping on deck we found he had managed to come at an angle across us and was perfectly resting on the fender. No damage to either boat. He was very upset with himself blaming wind (almost none) and tide, tideless part of the marina while I was chortling happily over getting the fender exactly right. We fended him off while he desperately motored astern and had another go but we were there to take his lines this time. He was so unnerved at the whole thing that although he was attached to the pontoon he lost it and shouted at his wife to pull the boat forwards so as to get right into the berth. She was having immense difficulty and he was getting more annoyed until I pointed out he was still in reverse and she was pulling against the engine. Power off and easy. She made his day by commenting on his ineptitude and laughing at him.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Golden rule of berthing cock ups. Never laugh at others, next time it could be you. Berthed at The Folly, we watched our fair share. But as our berth was 3m longer than our boat, and between 2 immensely wide 40 ft catamarans, laughing was unwise. We used to winch Chiara in if there was any east in the wind. If people laughed, I used to ask them to drive her in for me. Nobody accepted that challenge.

 

[KeithMD]

Our rule of berthing cock ups. It happens to us when there's the biggest audience.
it might be an inverse square rule.
(Level of confidence and chances of success) = 1 / (size of audience)^2

 

[jlavery]

Our rule. Crash slowly. And we never shout. Words afterwards, but no shouting.

And my golden rule when teaching or skippering, "any cock up you do, I've done it." That's what experience is.

 

[Wansworth]

One dark morning in Cherbourg onthe start of world voyage My engine less sloopgather too much speed and rammed a yacht amidships.Greatconfusionfrom sleeping charterers…..I said wouldcome backin daylight……..upstart was a small hole in grp toe rail.As I has material on board we filled the hole so they could continue their holiday.Twomonths later the charter boat owner sent mea bill for 30 quid to doa bit of polishing to the damaged yacht

 

[jlavery]

Our rule. Crash slowly. And we never shout. Words afterwards, but no shouting.

And my golden rule when teaching or skippering, "any cock up you do, I've done it." That's what experience is.

Here's one of mine.

Helping a friend deliver his Sweden 34 from Largs to the Solent, I elected to drive as we reversed out of the berth in Dart Haven marina.

Slightly tight fit, and both yacht next door and we had fenders down. In this situation I usually lift ours to avoid fenders interlocking.

This time didn't - "It'll be fine". That phrase predicts doom.

Fenders caught ever so slightly, rotating us so we ended up pinned against our neighbour by the tiny ebb tide I also hadn't spotted.

Neighbour charged on deck and started screaming blue murder (it was 0700, and he had been woken by the sound of a boat crunching against his transom).

Adopted the "crash slowly" technique and let us settle gently against his stern, then saw we had an angle and gunned it to drive off.

No damage, but damned embarrassing.

 

[veshengro]

No yachts or MoBo's involved, well actually a big MoBo was involved... a 7,500 ton Merchant Ship. A long time ago I was doing Pilot Wheel going up the Brisbane River. Helm orders from the Aussie Pilot were a mixture of, " Keep the Port hand bouy fine on the bow, son" to "Steady on the tall white building right ahead there"
We were threading our way up river when at a place I remember was named Breakfast Creek, yet another sharp bend in the wriggly river came into view. I can't remember the order now, but I turned the wheel a couple of spokes and..nothing!! The Pilot and Old Man were out on the bridge wing chatting, 3rd Mate on the other wing when I yelled, " Ship's not answering the helm"
Ordered by the Old Man the 3rd Mate crashed the Telegraphs full a full astern but she was an old Motor Ship, (1949 build) first a silence then a puff of smoke as the engines went astern but too late, with ship's siren blasting to warn the Dock Crew we ploughed into the old wooden wharf which lined the river in those days.
A crumpled stem, smashed timbers but fortunately no injuries aboard or ashore, but the most memorable thing still remembered after all these years was the comment by the big Aussie Docker to the Pilot who called down to ask if anyone ashore was hurt.
" No, she's right mate, but most ships go round the river bend here, not cut across bloody country"

 

[johnalison]

Here's one of mine.

Helping a friend deliver his Sweden 34 from Largs to the Solent, I elected to drive as we reversed out of the berth in Dart Haven marina.

Slightly tight fit, and both yacht next door and we had fenders down. In this situation I usually lift ours to avoid fenders interlocking.

This time didn't - "It'll be fine". That phrase predicts doom.

Fenders caught ever so slightly, rotating us so we ended up pinned against our neighbour by the tiny ebb tide I also hadn't spotted.

Neighbour charged on deck and started screaming blue murder (it was 0700, and he had been woken by the sound of a boat crunching against his transom).

Adopted the "crash slowly" technique and let us settle gently against his stern, then saw we had an angle and gunned it to drive off.

No damage, but damned embarrassing.

I think that comes under the heading of ‘leaving disasters’ rather than berthing, but now I come to think about it, we have sustained more damage from other boats leaving than from berthing. On one occasion a large wooden Polish yacht skippered by a Canadian we had been chatting to the evening before left from an alongside berth astern and managed to badly scuff our wooden strake at 7am. We woke to see them disappear with no hint of apology. On another occasion a German in a new 34 of some kind was rafted to us at Brunsbuttel and quite unnecessarily scratched our blue line with his stern when making a high powered exit. We caught up with him and I took fifty euros off him for repairs.

The last disaster was at Eastbourne when the owner of a Westerly Duo decided that the marina was a good place to teach his clearly non-sailing wife how to manoeuvre. In executing an appallingly managed turn they took off and broke our ensign staff and fortunately had no means of escape. They didn’t have the cash to pay for another, so my wife marched them off to the cashpoint some way away.

 

[jlavery]

I think that comes under the heading of ‘leaving disasters’ rather than berthing

The problem is, some leaving disasters become berthing disasters.