Clip on cleat midships ?

[srm]

Yes, have seen visiting boat crew jump on to the finger with rope, only to bounce on in to the water. The next berth was empty so nothing to hold on to. A similar thing happened to one of my crew, we were running extra warps due to motion from swell in another marina. He stepped on to the finger, but was promptly flipped into the water.

Likewise, especially with charter/trainee crews, I told them never to try and fend off or try to stop the boat with hands. Use a fender or stand clear and let the boat take the damage. Its not fun taking someone to a health centre with blistered finger nails or worse, even less so for the victim.

 

[fisherman]

I make it very clear to anyone who come on my boats :

NEVER jump onto a quay / pontoon etc. STEP off when boat is close to ...

All I need at the helm is a raised hand indicating I am close enough - then see person STEP off ..

I rather bang the boat than have person in the water ...

Oh yes!
My skipper turned up at 0530, got aboard, no gloves, essential for handline mackerel fishing.
"I'll do without"
"No you won't, you'll be useless after a couple of hours and I'll lose money. I'll drop you ashore" PoW pier Falmouth.
I drifted about while he went home, about 20mins. When he came down the steps I was a bit slow coming alongside, didn't want to doink his boat. There was a thud, the boat lurched, looked out on deck, no skipper. A hand appeared on the rail, followed by another, then a wet bedraggled mass of hair, (this was 1974) specs askew. Looking like 'a howl in a hivy bush' as one old fisherman used to say. He had made an overoptimistic leap and the handrail came off the wheelhouse roof.
I put him back ashore and he squelched off up the pier. When he came back I was very sure to be tied alongside. He had on an old fashioned full length smock and thigh boots, rather than short boots and bib and brace trousers. We had a reasonable day. Coming to the moorings that evening, as he stepped along the side deck, "Tell you what, as we were late today, tomorrow we could go a bit uuurrrgh....'
I looked out the side window to see the soles of his boots disappearing in the water. he had grabbed the same handrail he parted off earlier.
He seemed to be enjoying these little dips as he stayed down for about two minutes, but reappeared blowing like a whale, and hooked an elbow over the stern of the punt. "No, no, don't laugh, it's not funny, I saw the bottom of the harbour that time"
This is us, before the handrail incident. I earned £50 on an average day.

 

[fisherman]

Yes, have seen visiting boat crew jump on to the finger with rope, only to bounce on in to the water. The next berth was empty so nothing to hold on to. A similar thing happened to one of my crew, we were running extra warps due to motion from swell in another marina. He stepped on to the finger, but was promptly flipped into the water.

Likewise, especially with charter/trainee crews, I told them never to try and fend off or try to stop the boat with hands. Use a fender or stand clear and let the boat take the damage. Its not fun taking someone to a health centre with blistered finger nails or worse, even less so for the victim.

I heard a tale of a chap shot in the face by the bung from a compressed fender.

 

[Refueler]

Yes, have seen visiting boat crew jump on to the finger with rope, only to bounce on in to the water. The next berth was empty so nothing to hold on to. A similar thing happened to one of my crew, we were running extra warps due to motion from swell in another marina. He stepped on to the finger, but was promptly flipped into the water.

Likewise, especially with charter/trainee crews, I told them never to try and fend off or try to stop the boat with hands. Use a fender or stand clear and let the boat take the damage. Its not fun taking someone to a health centre with blistered finger nails or worse, even less so for the victim.

Hayling Yacht Co ..... coming into my usual berth ... Wife up fwd with line ready to go onto pontoon. She knew well my thoughts on jumping onto pontoons ... but decided to midway step / jump onto the finger ... next I knew was this scream from her as she went into the cold water ....

Now I have a dilemma ... I must make sure boat does not hit her .. I need also to make sure boat doesn't hit anything else ... so with wife shouting HELP ... I have to secure a line - midships cleat perfect to aft finger point - keeping boat from moving fwd onto her ..

I step onto pontoon finger ... and go to help her - receiving an earfull from Wife for not jumping to her immediate rescue ... she really did not appreciate when I told her to let go of pontoon ... let me hold her hands - upon which I 'dunked' her to get some 'uplift buoyancy' .... but I could not get her out of the water ... clothes wet added weight etc.
It took two of us to get her out ...

Needless to say - it was all my fault and I was not 'flavour of the month' .....

Guess what - its about 17 - 18 years since that happened ... she STILL moans about it !!

 

[MontyMariner]

It did cross my mind to use a truckers hook .... similar to what is on end of a tensioning strap. Basically a metal bar doubled and bent into a U ...

I actually have some black plastic covered strap hooks - where straps have worn out ....

mmmmmmm

They will rust with in the month and the plastic will split.

 

[Poignard]

I've mentioned before, I don't know why you guys don't keep a hook rope handy. I used to have several. Obs daily use for me. Just a standard hook or bent SS bar with thimble and hefty rope, so when you come alongside a ladder/pontoon/otherboat/steps/mooring buoy you just hook on and make fast, until you complete your gyrations. Useful for lowering gear off the quay, you become adept at flicking the hook out from above.
In the OP case, he would attach the hook into any handy hole on the rail, as and when.
Also used to have several small grapnels to throw at anything out of reach, or grope for stuff dropped overboard. Throw it at a mooring, get the chain. Get a rope in the prop, grapple it up. One of these pulled me up when we were heading for the Penlee L/B midships and found the gear cable had fractured two hours before, stuck in ahead. Son threw it over the pontoon. Gael Force do a rudimentary mild steel one. £12. Bit too big.
Gael Force Grappling Hook Gael Force Marine

I have one of these from an eBay seler. It's quite nicely made of s/s. [It was alot cheaper than that when I bought it!]

 

[fisherman]

Yes, ideal, bit of weight in the shank for throwing. They don't need to be sharp.....

 

[srm]

Yes, ideal, bit of weight in the shank for throwing. They don't need to be sharp.....

But please don't throw it at my boat if you want to come alongside!

 

[rogerthebodger]

I got some time ago what is like a giants snap hoop made from stainless steel that has a tube that a point of a boar hook will hole the hoop so it can be easy positioned on a bar cleat with a line attached.

The line I attach to my centre cleat so it will hold the boat on my mooring against the engine.

I have not seen the same type lately so I think is now not available.

Will post a pic tomorrow so some one might identify it

 

[Poignard]

Yes, ideal, bit of weight in the shank for throwing. They don't need to be sharp.....

It would be an easy job to round over the points of the grapnel and cover the prongs with heat-shrink sleeving to make it less lethal

 

[alahol2]

I made my own version of the 'Docking stick' from PVC pipe. Looks a bit scruffy but works well from the cockpit with mid cleat line led aft to the winch.

 

[Iliade]

Could you not put a fairing of some sort on the hole in the toerail then secure the line to the existing cleats, passing it out through said hole?

That is what I usually do, but I also have a large shackle passed through the toe rail to retain one of the 'permanent' home berth lines. It has inevitably worn a small groove in the rail.

 

[B27]

Could you not put a fairing of some sort on the hole in the toerail then secure the line to the existing cleats, passing it out through said hole?

That is what I usually do, but I also have a large shackle passed through the toe rail to retain one of the 'permanent' home berth lines. It has inevitably worn a small groove in the rail.

I think you want to be able to secure line on a cleat while you're around the middle of the boat.
preferably while you've got a fender in the other hand...

You can improvise all kinds of stuff, but anything other than a cleat is a long way second best.

 

[jimi]

Schaefer Mid-Rail Chock and Cleat Mounts on 1 x 1/8-Inch T-Track fits Up to 1 740507022654 | eBay

removeable cleat to attach to the T track

you want something like this, I had one years ago on the Beneteau 331 and it worked well.

 

[James_Calvert]

Schaefer Mid-Rail Chock and Cleat Mounts on 1 x 1/8-Inch T-Track fits Up to 1 740507022654 | eBay

removeable cleat to attach to the T track

you want something like this, I had one years ago on the Beneteau 331 and it worked well.

Is this any more secure on the track than the genoa car? I use the car, suitably placed, as a temporary midships securing point, but am unconvinced it is secure as it really ought to be for horizontal loads.

 

[Stemar]

If I'm not mistaken, a genoa track is usually loaded to try and pull it vertically out of the deck. A mooring line is going to pull horizontally, so the fixings are in shear so, generally, much stronger.

 

[Refueler]

I would not be inclined to use the 'car' itself on the track. If I was to use the track - then it would be a clip on cleat addition.

But as said before - my tracks are well inboard and aft ....

I want my midships cleat to be just ahead of true midships / pivot point ... to give me coming alongside factor.

 

[Iliade]

I think you want to be able to secure line on a cleat while you're around the middle of the boat.
preferably while you've got a fender in the other hand...

You can improvise all kinds of stuff, but anything other than a cleat is a long way second best.

I cleat the line off, pass through the, in my case a shackle or carabiner clipped to the toerail, then step ashore with the coiled line in hand. I can even step off my lower aft deck as the deck at midships is a long way up...

 

[srm]

I cleat the line off, pass through the, in my case a shackle or carabiner clipped to the toerail, then step ashore with the coiled line in hand. I can even step off my lower aft deck as the deck at midships is a long way up...

Single handed with thirty knots of wind blowing you off?
I prefer to stay on deck hooking or looping the pontoon/pier attachment point and cleat off on deck. Much more chance of regaining control when things start to go wrong.

 

[Iliade]

In that situation put a loop on the line, bring it back to the cockpit, drop it over the chosen dockside cleat, probably using a boat hook, then apply power to spring in towards the pier. I have also been known to use the winch to bring said midships line in once secured dockside.

My boat has so much windage that there is no way I, or even two of me, could hold her in against that much wind blowing her off. Also my home mooring is subject to a cross current which sometimes requires me to use winches to bring her alongside if I don't get the short fixed lines on first time.