Braye Harbour, Alderney

[Jaguar]

This is a warning for those that may wish to moor up to a buoy in Braye Harbour, Alderney...

We had chartered a 41 ft yacht (12 tonnes) for the week and our first stop on a weeks cruise around the channel islands was Alderney. We had moored up to a buoy for a Saturday overnight stop. On our return to the boat that evening we found a 46 ft Halberg Rassy had moored up along side us. We were a bit peeved, as obviously we had paid for the mooring, which at £15 for the priveledge, was not cheap. However, their warps and springs to us looked good and secure; we were both laying off individual lines to the buoy, and a light NW wind was forecast - so I was not to worried. We could not have asked them to move in any case as there was no one on board.

During the night, we were awoken by a load bang. Once on deck, we found that our fore and aft fairleads had been ripped out, also damaging the toe rail in the process. The culprit was a slight NE swell coming on to our beam. This caused both boats to to rise and fall at different points of the cycle, putting an unacceptable strain on our fairleads (the weakest point). On deck we could hear many other boats moored together taking some hard knocks. The skipper of the other boat claimed that he had been instructed to moor against us by the barbour master.

The next morning, I reported the incident to the harbour master, who stated that they only moor two boats on the same buoy if the boat that was there first agrees. Certainly, no one asked us! About £1000 damage was caused so that Alderney could earn another £15. Not to mention the damage caused to other boats that same evening. If any of you are thinking of visiting Braye, I would recommend using your anchor. If you do moor up to a bouy, I would recommend refusing to let anyone else come up along side you - the risk is too great. We now have the problem of trying to claim off the other boats insurance, London based, owned by a paper company in Guernsey, skippered by a someone from Belgium.

Incidentaly, what would you do if your boat is anchored and you come back to your boat and find that someone has moored up along side you, but there is no one on board. I have heard of this happening in the med. Would you:

A) cut their lines
B) tow them out away from your boat and use their anchor
c) report them to the harbour master for them to deal with
d) do nothing as you are too plastered with retsina

 

[Rob_Webb]

Know what you mean, had the same trouble a few years ago in a NE swell.

I would ask them to leave when they returned to their boat IF the weather showed signs of trouble. Failing that, ask harbour master to supervise removal of their boat if they don't return.

But as a last resort, if they refused to move/failed to return and the weather turned nasty, I would swallow my pride and protect my boat first and leave the mooring for a solo anchorage. The next morning I would seek a refund from the harbour master.

Cutting other people's lines makes good headlines but in reality is a pretty dangerous thing to do and I wouldn't have the stomach to do it personally. In a situation when tempers really fray, I found the best method was to threaten to thrown a tin of half-used red antifouling into their cockpit as I departed in the middle of the night - that shut them up!

 

[Celena]

Had that problem once before myself.

Was there last week, £12 for our 28 footer so your price not too bad when shared out. Only two of us so a trip a shore at £3 each return makes an expensive stop-over; equals two nights in a French marina with free electricity! Try Dielette instead if Race serves; very calm and quiet.

 

[Guest]

'ere Lloydy, was that the same 'harbourmaster' / water-taxi / Sea-start fellow we met last time?

 

[Jaguar]

The greedy harbour master took £15 from each of us, making £30 in total for one night on a buoy! Must be a get rich quick scheme.

 

[iangrant]

Sorry 'bout this, couldn't resit, Part of a google search engine - French/English translation for the Dielette:

"The wet dock of Pleasure"
"The wet dock can accomodate more than 410 boats in 1,5 to 2,5 m of water with low tide (in the basin).
The access takes place by a cutting down door automatic (width 17m). That Ci allows a permanent access for the boats with draught lower than 1m50 and by coeficient lower than 80 (read again the sentence well) .
The movements of the ships are controlled by three superimposed fires"

Oh it must be worth a visit - maybe just to meet the Policeman off 'Ello'Ello!

Ian

 

[tcm]

Yes, you should leave the mooring, and before the fairleads go bang. Sounds as if the lines between the boats were far too short. Can't cut the lines unless very serious danger, but you can disconnect theirs from yours, and take away your own, and board their boat to do so if they aren't on board. They did have their own lines to the bouy so that's ok, but if they didn't, you should leave them with lines to the bouy and not cast them adrift. Mooring together is ok in some moorings like salcome and dartmouth, not those pretty much at sea like alderney unless it really is very calm. Lucky not to tangle rigging, perhaps.

if I was the belgian, I would contest the claim for your fairleads against my boat: after all, my boat was rigged so that my fairleads weren't ripped out, and yours wasn't. You saw the lines that the other boat used, you were on board, and snooozed through the wind veering north east. The belgian boat did exactly as instructed by the harbourtmaster. But I see the point.

 

[ccscott49]

If your boat is ANCHORED and they tie up to you, then it isn't really a case for the harbourmaster, so I would leave when I wanted and take them with me, just around the corner would be enough, then claim salvage, see if that would waken up their ideas somewhat, if they tied up to you on a mooring at the harbourmasters instructions, you can hardly blame them, however nobody puts a warp on my boat and ties it to anything without my permision and I would tell the harbourmatser that in no uncertain terms, how does he know that some parts of my boat may be under repair or wet paint or whatever. It also means they were onboard my boat without my permission, Very unseamanlike by any standards. I would inform the harbourmaster that I wanted the guy moved straight away, as soon as the wind got up a little and I would have also checked the lines myself, as TCM says, they were obviously too tight, the breast lines anyway. Casting another boat off, unless you are in danger of your life due to it or seriously endagering your vessel, is not an option. But again they should not have left the boat tied to you unattended for so long, in an exposed anchorage/mooring, ridiculous, again bad seamanship. Right off my soapbox now.

 

[Jaguar]

I am not too sure if the breast lines were too short or not. Other boats in the harbour were being knocked together quite audibly, perhaps because their breast lines were too long! I am told by a naval architect that fairleads are designed to take longitudinal loads predominently. The snatching in the swell due to uneven rise and fall of the two boats caused high lateral loads. It is my view that as far as insurance goes, when you moor up to another boat using your lines without the other boat's agreement, you do so entirely at your risk (your boat and theirs).

 

[robp]

Left there 0330 yesterday morning. What worried me while we were there, was that our mooring had clearly dragged and this laid us very close to another vessel on the flood. I told the harbour master of my concern and he said he would keep an eye on it but that we could motor forwards and re-lay the chain. (I tried this and got some extremely startled expressions from the neighbours forward)! 0230 yesterday I saw that 2 rafted boats were on the boat lying astern of them. Only a floating dinghy acting as fender. Fortunately there was no wind coming through at the time. There's a hell of a lot of close moorings there! Surely they must bear some responsibilty?

 

[DepSol]

As a Channel Islander and regular visitor to Alderney I have use of a private bouy near the lifeboat so will not get anyone next to me except the owner.

If you were not happy about the other yacht being there you could have easily popped up to the harbour office at the top of the landing pontoon or called them by phone or on the radio and asked them to move it which they would have done.

My advice to visitors to Alderney

1 Get a bouy close to the landing pontoon but near the breakwater if poss
2 Do not get a bouy in the outer regions of the harbour as they are affected by wind and tide too often.
3 If someones ties up next to you without permission get the harbour authority to move it or explain that in order to avoid problems would they mind finding their own mooring.
4 If all the above is a problem moor in Saye bay totally sheltered and lovely peacefull area plus good pollack and bass fishing at night.

Sorry that has happened to you but dont let it put you off going there.

Dom

My boats going back in the water on Thursday ;-)

 

[DepSol]

£3 each for the water taxi you were robbed its only a quid and dont let any one tell you otherwise. If you have a problem call Roland at Maynebrace who will sort it out.

Dom

My boats going back in the water on Thursday ;-)

 

[DepSol]

Dielette is nice quiet fishing village but will be a little more rowdy this weekend as it is the festival so live bands fairs and fireworks are in order. I will be there boats name MATRIX.

Dom

My boats going back in the water on Thursday ;-)

 

[Grehan]

Sorry, but it is £3.

£2 for the outward leg and £1 for the return.

We thought this was a bit steep, but the water taxi blokey is very pleasant and we couldn't be *rsed to get our rubber thingy out, so no complaints I guess. A very pretty and posh 'royal' (I was told, from the ensign) yacht of some description was there when we were a couple of weeks back.

No problems for us regarding double parking on the morring buoy, but what we did do was to use a chain strop (?) on the rusty mooring ring.

 

[DepSol]

Oh well if thats what you were charged, I only have to pay a £1 each way if that but I am sure I will find out next week if it has changed. Actually thinking about it I was only charged a £1 six weeks ago.

Will prob use my dinghy with motor anyway, can trawl for Bass around the harbour first with a Rapala Magnum and have it sitting on the snap davits on the back so only takes 3 mins to launch and put motor on.

Dom

My boats going back in the water on Thursday ;-)

 

[ccscott49]

Good lure that is, we used to use rapalas' on loch tay for salmon!

 

[DepSol]

Sorry I am a bit of a purst when it comes to Salmon fishing, fly only but I probably would have caught a lot more on Loch Brora if I had used Rapalas. Whatss your favorite number? J13 from the shore for me and Magnum from the dinghy.

Dom

My boats going back in the water on Thursday ;-)

 

[ccscott49]

Bit difficult with the fly on loch tay, I reserve that for the rivers Tay, Tummel, Blackwater (Ireland). I don't remember the numbers, I would have to look in my fishing drawer on the boat, which of course isn't here, I'll let you know, but right now I'm trolling with some natty lures from Japan, on the boat in the med, caught a few fish, tasted fine, don't know what they were, but seen them in the fishmarkets, so must be OK, largest about 8 pounds. Great on the barby.

 

[DepSol]

Ar those the Yozuri ones, I have used them before and they arent bad.

Do you fly fish much? I did alot in Caithness... Brora, Helmsdale Halladale and all the small lochs within two hours walk from the road. stayed in Forsinard. I fancy going back up there some time.

Dom

My boats going back in the water on Thursday ;-)

 

[ccscott49]

Exactly! yozuri!! how did you know? Anyway, I used to fly fish a lot on the tay mostly, but also the tummel, spey, dee and don, fly fishing the entrance to the don in aberdenn at night for sea trout, wonderful sport, but sadly I hardly fish with the fly or fish atall for that matter, except mainly for grub at sea now, as I don't get back to Scotland much these days, too busy with work and cruising in the med. The boat takes up most of my time now. When I lived in a house, in Holland I used to go away to fish and fish for carp with a buddy in Holland, but it's boring! I used to rebuild classic sportscars then aswell then and was heavily involved with the classic sports racing crowd. But now I don't even own a car, just my motorbike on the foredeck! Used to have a 500 BSA single B50, now I've a little yamaha 125 trailway! must be getting old!! Or times just change!