boat handeoing in strong tidal river advice sort

[trouville]

As many UK sailors have to navigate tidal rivers every day i hope you can help me
Comeing up to Rochfort under tide and jib i had 7 knots over the ground by GPS and final time i arrived
If i had stopped about 3 miles up i would have had a place on a pontoon for half the rochfort charge & been able to spend a day in an 11centuay village
I phoned the harbour master and it seems a bouy cost 20 euros a week?? i cant be sure as i dismised the offer as i could see no way to get to & from my boat.

Question;
how can i pick up a mooring when the tides about 7 knots?My trusty johnson 6 gives me almost 5 knots?? flat outThe wind astern was barely filling the jib.

Question two;
in the same situation how could i come alongside a pontoon with berths facing up& down the river,and moore between two other boats?
I couldent wait for slack tide when i left as the port only opens its gates at high tide.Is there a technique for at least picking up a mooring??

This tide business dose tend to be a nusence not lea t becouse i have to get up before the crack of dawn or arrive at night!!!

I heard the EEC were banning all tides grater than 2 foot???
Any advice?

 

[LadyInBed]

[ QUOTE ]
how can i pick up a mooring when the tides about 7 knots?My trusty johnson 6 gives me almost 5 knots?? flat outThe wind astern was barely filling the jib.

[/ QUOTE ] If you turn into the current well up current of the buoy then you will be doing about 2 knots backwards.
You can then either try to steer to pass the buoy and loop it or if that is still too fast put some chain over the bow to drag along the bottom to slow you a bit more.

I wouldn't even try to get onto a pontoon if I couldn't at least hold stationary against the current.

 

[tome]

Places like Lezardrieux and Treguier where the tide runs fast through (and across) the pontoons the locals berth or leave at slack water

 

[landaftaf]

you ought to equip yourself with equipment adaquate for the conditions expected - so buy a bigger outboard /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Chris_Rayner]

You could try dragging your anchor (drudging?). I'd practice this first before trying it for real, and in among moorings and pontoons you'd be likely to snag it up on something. Alternatively just go up on the tide and come back as soon as you can make way against it.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Bet it doesn't do 7 kts all the time. So moor when the river is in low gear and feeling lazy.

 

[landaftaf]

kedge is the terminology I recognise, and yes, kedging around a marina is fraught with dangers /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[trouville]

OK!A bigger engin!The big engin i have just now are the sails!
As i passed the pontons at great speed,i was just imagining rounding up and crash!
the water flowing past the bouys makes the current look impresive

Ive often had night mares of going up or down the Rhone and the prop fouling or engin giveing up.Not that i make that trip often in any boat

Question;

If your on a river which isent tidal as the Rhone just what could be done to stop being washed out into the delta & being stranded?An anchor but would it hold?
I suppose anchor hope to repair & loose the anchor!??

In a tidal river i now see the worries of boats moored! And to anchor is to hope the anchor resets!! Would i trust my danforth?? Im not sure now Safe in the med or Baltic most likely hear in the harsh reality of tide i dont want to try! Anyway its forbiden,as the captain added when i said id lay my own cement block !

Theres lots of really British boats hear English crew and all & they dont shout at each other as ive seen north of Brest!
In fact many times ive been very quite so some of those boats would imagin im just another local boat makeing a mess of mooring!

 

[landaftaf]

its all to do with risk assessment

the ways of reducing risk are obvious i.e. as others have mentoned, wait till the tide dies down

if you are on a river and so dont have a tide to help - then to take control of the anticipated problem you need to take control of the expected situations ..... ergo - get an engine that will enable you to control your vessel in all expected situations

boating is supposed to be fun, challenging and rewarding. if you are in a situation where you are not going to have fun, be over challenged and be rewarded with a big bill for damages ..... are you going to enjoy it. ??????

so - get an engine which will allow you to enjoy your hobby, take control of the difficult situations in you area, and give you the satisfaction of bettering the difficult conditions (reward as in job satisfaction)

 

[Twister_Ken]

Landataf,

I don't think getting a folkboat to do 7 kts under power is a practical proposition.

 

[Lee_Shaw]

[ QUOTE ]
so - get an engine which will allow you to enjoy your hobby

[/ QUOTE ]

5 knots under power is pretty good for a folkboat. My FB deriv does about that with a 10 hp inboard.

Can't really see how it could be done in 7 knots, apart from drifting down on it backards giving it full ahead, as suggested above, which is too hit or miss and risks catching round the prop (i'm assuming you were singlehanded). I've tryed this for about an hour once, singlehanded, in what I estimated was 6 knots of stream, I failed, in fact the bouys kept disappearing in their own wake (wind over tide at night) and it was frightening just how quickly I speeded towards the boats moored behind when I missed. Spent a few long hours holding(ish) against the tide til it went slacker. Oh happy days.

Did you have a crack at it because sometimes the tidal stream can be a bit less where mooring bouys are?