Boarding a floating mooring from a tender

[jag22]

Hi all

After sailing a dinghy for a few years I have bought a larger boat and tender. One thing occurred to me this evening... How do I climb aboard my boat on a floating mooring after rowing out to it??

It's a hard dinghy, with a jaguar 22

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks

 

[dhippey]

Buy a fender step. Put Fender Step into Google to see an array of types and shapes to suit.

Regards,
David H.

 

[VicS]

If you are young and fit with long legs you'll be able to clamber on board. We used to get onboard a 31' Westerly Berwick that way, even from the inflatable.

However a fixed boarding ladder makes things much easier and can be used as a swimming ladder or when you fall in ( dont ask ... but my 19ft Seawych now has a fixed boarding ladder)

The fender step suggested above is also a reasonably good means of boarding from the dinghy but no use from the water. Being soft and flexible it takes a little getting used to.

Fixed ladder ( With added rung )




A typical "fender ladder" ... they come in several lengths

Mine hangs from a sheet winch and I find it best if hanging inside the dinghy

 

[Ecosse120]

I have a similar issue so I have put the wire that goes through the stanchion on a pelican clip so this can easily unclip and drop down. I then step aboard or put your bottom on the side, leaving your legs in the dinghy and then bring your feet on board. Workd fine for the last 3 years.

 

[Austerby]

Very carefully - getting from dinghy to boat and back is probably the riskiest single moment of any. With small dinghies and yachts the transfer of weight can lead to surprises and sudden changes you need to be prepared for.

I have an Achilles 24 on a trot mooring to which I take my inflatable dinghy. I very carefully position the tender alongside the boat to enable me to get the best access, in my case onto the side-deck besides the coachroof as I can use the handle on top plus a winch to hold onto i.e. well-centred alonside the yacht. I secure the dinghy fore and aft so it cannot swing away. I am aware of wash or wave or wind conditions and time it to my advantage. First I place any bags etc in the cockpit whilst still in the dinghy. Then I hold onto the yacht and move to stand up in the dinghy. I place a foot onto the yacht and in one movement step up onto the boat, holding onto the coachroof grab-handle and winch. My weight causes the yacht to heel over and I swing my leg over the guard-rails and into the cockpit, followed shortly by the rest of me.

Dismounting from the yacht follows a similar process, making sure that I step carefully into the dinghy and transfer my weight smoothly.

In my experience with a low-topside boat such as mine a fender step in not required as my weight reduces the distance to climb abord.

 

[chewi]

Stand on the dinghy thwart. hands on the lifeline (or use standing rigging)
one foot on the gunwale and heave up & stop over lifeline.


has worked for me for 20yrs.

 

[prv]

My boat lives on a pontoon, but when I'm using the tender on visits elsewhere it's a boarding ladder hanging from the toe-rail at the side.

Pete

 

[sarabande]

don't use the guard wires (lifelines) as a hand hold. Board at the stern or by the midsection, where a pulpit or the shrouds will provide a better, less wobbly, handhold.

Oh, and don't forget to make the dink fast before you leap aboard . We've all done that !

 

[VicS]

I have a similar issue so I have put the wire that goes through the stanchion on a pelican clip so this can easily unclip and drop down. I then step aboard or put your bottom on the side, leaving your legs in the dinghy and then bring your feet on board. Workd fine for the last 3 years.

Doing the reverse, bottom on the side deck with legs in the dinghy, to get into the dinghy was exactly what resulted in an unexpected swim, an upside down dinghy and a near impossible task of getting on board again.

 

[GrahamM376]

Doing the reverse, bottom on the side deck with legs in the dinghy, to get into the dinghy was exactly what resulted in an unexpected swim, an upside down dinghy and a near impossible task of getting on board again.

We used to use hard tender and had one or two near capsises. Much prefer inflatable - can stand on tube without it flipping.

 

[VicS]

We used to use hard tender and had one or two near capsises. Much prefer inflatable - can stand on tube without it flipping.

Id prefer a more stable rigid dinghy, but the one I have is light enough carry and to lift onto a roof rack single handed.
An inflatable would be a pain as it would have to be inflated to use, deflated to stow on board, re-inflated to use again, deflated to transport.

I once had a crew who capsized my inflatable anyway

 

[Evadne]

+1 for a rigid dinghy. Ours never goes out of the creek, just between the boatyard and the mooring (about a mile). I find the inflatable thwart much less stable than the rigid's thwart, as long as you remember not to stand on the edge. Our boat has low enough freeboard that I don't need to stand on the thwart to get out, although I usually step down onto it getting back in. I would have thought a Jaguar 22 is similar.

 

[claymore]

2 other things to watch - rowlocks can damage your hull and a couple of horizontally slung fenders permanently attached to the dinghy are good

Not part of the post but a longish painter on the dinghy will make life easier when returning to the mooring in your Jaguar
Clearly this will be constrained by the closeness of surrounding moorings.

 

[Lakesailor]

You can also use the long (floating line) painter as a last resort grab-with-the-boathook alternative to going around again

 

[Lakesailor]

Don't forget tenders move a lot more than pontoons!!

​

 

[rob2]

You'll have gathered by now that there are quite a few variables! In calm conditins climbing up the stern of a vessel can be OK, but if it's choppy, then the transom will be slamming up and down so it's safer to go alongside by the shrouds. The guardlines may take the strain, but it may open up a leak at the stanchion base so most owners prefer you to grab the shroud. With any dinghy, though more essential with a rigid one, I like to stand on the thwart right on the centreline so as not to tip the boat. The other foot is placed on the gunwhale of the yacht, which will not tip as much as the dinghy. The important bit is that the transfer of weight from one foot (on the dinghy) to the other (on the yacht) is instantaneous - otherwise the two will be pushed apart.

Rob.

 

[Reptile Smile]

Lakesailor: 24 carat, as ever, and from now on, the guy running the boat up the beach will now be my preferred way of dismounting from the Foxcub/Seagull combo...

 

[timbartlett]

2 other things to watch - rowlocks can damage your hull ...

true ... but not half as much as they can damage a human being who hapens to fall on them.

I was taught to remove the crutches as soon as you take the oars out of them. It has become a habit, and takes no time at all. But I cringe every time I see someone with one foot on one boat, one foot on something else, and two metal horns pointing straight up towards their

 

[Appledore]

I very carefully position the tender alongside the boat to enable me to get the best access, in my case onto the side-deck besides the coachroof as I can use the handle on top plus a winch to hold onto i.e. well-centred alonside the yacht. I secure the dinghy fore and aft so it cannot swing away. I am aware of wash or wave or wind conditions and time it to my advantage. First I place any bags etc in the cockpit whilst still in the dinghy. Then I hold onto the yacht and move to stand up in the dinghy. I place a foot onto the yacht and in one movement step up onto the boat, holding onto the coachroof grab-handle and winch. My weight causes the yacht to heel over and I swing my leg over the guard-rails and into the cockpit, followed shortly by the rest of me.

Dismounting from the yacht follows a similar process, making sure that I step carefully into the dinghy and transfer my weight smoothly.

.

+1

As others have said:

1. Remove Rowlocks.
2. Secure dinghy fore and aft.
3. Body weight in the centre, and with weight on centre of thwart, and with one foot on gunwhale, gently rise up and grab the coachroof handrail. Lift remaining leg over guardrail, and move into cockpit.

 

[wotayottie]

Hi all

After sailing a dinghy for a few years I have bought a larger boat and tender. One thing occurred to me this evening... How do I climb aboard my boat on a floating mooring after rowing out to it??

It's a hard dinghy, with a jaguar 22

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks

Go alongside, grab hold of the standing rigging, climb on board whilst not over tipping the dinghy. If the boat were bigger or you were old and knackered like me, then a fender step might help. But with a small boat and youth on your side, it isnt necessary.