Canoe Stern and the Med??

[Stevie_T]

Have been considering a double ender, have any of you Med Liveaboards any experience of them? and how do you cope with stern to mooring when sailing asd a couple on one? I don't intend to spend all of our time in the Med though a couple of years is not out of the question.

 

[minquiers]

no problem, same as any other type of boat

 

[Stevie_T]

Well, when you say same as any other boat, it isnt exactly the same as stepping off a sugar scoop onto the quay is it?
My wife has a bad ankle and cannot leap ashore and until she becomes confident enough to be at the helm, which may be a while especially if its a long keeler.

So, to ask again, can a canoe stern be moored stern to easily enough or is a precarious balancing act and a leap of faith required?

 

[bbilly]

You're going to need a gang plank or a passarella if you moor stern to on any kind of boat. Consider that a sugar scoop stern will be at least a metre lower than the pontoon or habour wall so it's not an advantage at all. Sugar scoops are great for bathing and alighting from and boarding your tender but I reckon bow to mooring has some definite advantages:- it's easier, especially if your boat won't steer backwards and offers greater privacy on the busy med marinas.

Will

 

[Anonymous]

In a similar situation, I found an instructor privately (i.e. not through a sailing school) who was prepared to give us a couple of days instruction on our boat for a very reasonable sum and he soon got my wife into the position that she was happy to take the helm coming in and out. It's a good investment, bad ankle or not.

As for canoe stern per se, you see plenty of canoe stern boats stern-to with passerelles in the Med. Not easy to get on board from a tender at anchor, or when swimming maybe? I've never tried it.

 

[Stevie_T]

Thanks for the replies, I will take them on board. Forgive the pun

 

[HenryB]

Steve,
Going stern to with a double ender is similar to going bows to with a conventional boat. One of the most effective ways that I have seen to do this is to arrange a support for the passerelle on one side of the bow (stern in your case) on which the passerelle is attached. It can be as simple as a length of wood tied to cleats each side of the boat. No problem really, just a bit of thought and some trial and error to get it sorted.

 

[Stevie_T]

Thanks Henry, good idea. One possible solution I saw was a photo of a double ender with a small platform attatched to the stern. Though I guess it may get in the way of any windvane I wish to install.

 

[jerryat]

Hi Henry,

This is exactly how we did it in the Med. Ours was a bit of 75 x 50mm softwood that we slightly notched so that it wedged under two of the three foredeck cleats and was retained with a short piece of line to prevent it working loose.

Our ultra high quality scaffold plank, obtained gratis from a nearby building site in Gib., was then fitted to the outbord end of this via couple of through-bolted S/S eyes shackled together to provide a pivot/articulation joint.

Finally, and something that was hankered after by all those huge gin palaces near us, were the top quality pair of cabinet wheels we got from the local hardware store and screwed to the outer end to cater for the movement ashore.

I know, I know, we should have patented such a superb design, but felt it best to let others use it free of charge!! The whole assembly cost £3.75 and we still have it after nine years. The current (Mark II) modification has a removable extension (a short length of quality plank) for longer reach and to allow easier stowing on our huge vessel.

Just a thought!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

cheers Jerry

 

[HenryB]

Brilliant Jerry, I find it very satisfying when, with a bit of ingenuity and a rummage through a skip, I can make something that works really well.
Now, how did you make that RIB out of a sheet of hardboard, 2 tractor wheel tyres and a lawnmower engine?
Best regards,

Henry

 

[mithril]

The Baltic is also an area which mainly demands bows to or stern to the quay mooring and if you do not get organised with a good stepping off arangment you'll hate it. We have a very high bows which we cannot step thro and it makes mooring a real leap to the quay. Similarly we have a rigid stern pushpit which we need to climb over, again its a real pain. Plans are in place to correct both problems before we head to the Med this year.

 

[milltech]

I thought if I ever had the good fortune to need one that I'd use a length of lightweight ally ladder, I've got a couple here at home. Run some plywood down one side with u bolts to the rungs, cut outs for feet every other rung say, and you have a passarelle, a ladder for when ashore or dried out, or even a thingy for keeping your topsides off a castellated dock, whatever they're called, (it's old age you know).

 

[Grehan]

Yup. Basically that's what we've got.
Cheap ladder with three lengths of patio decking plank laid along. Cheap B+Q/Castorama nylon wheels fixed to one end.
Short alloy tube (Leroy Merlin) across the bows lashed to cleats, projecting one side and the ladder goes on that with a halliard to the shoreward end to raise it up when appropriate.

With a dinghy hanging in davitts off the stern, we always moor bow-first. And it's easier, esp when it's a new place too. Well we think so.