Does this only happen to me?

A

Adrianwool

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I have owned a boat on and off for about twenty years. Went out today beautiful day 30 plus degrees light airs, smooth seas on return, b***er me if it did not take me three attempts to back in to my berth, something I normally manage in one go. No excuses perfect conditions and we got in at the third attempt with no drama.... but why?, no logical reason for it. Has anyone else out there suffered from this example of sods law?, interested to hear if anyone else has experience this!.

Happy boating

Adrian
 
My berth is quite tricky to get in and out of requiring a bit of a three point turn, there are days when I "nail it" and just glide in without having to touch the bow thruster. On other days the thruster gets a bit of a blast to get me out of jail!
 
I have an easy berth, have no thruster and most times I can park so well I can almost hear the applause. Every now and again I make a complete balls up and I still have to use some gel coat repair to repair the dint I put into the bow when I hit the pontoon in perfect conditions.
 
Me too

I too have made my best hashes in what people would term "perfect" conditions.

I think you get so used to feeling the resistance of wind or tide or both that when its not there the old grey matter cant cope.

It would be boring if we got it right all the time :)
 
NO, No, No, YES.

Hi there,

When it works perfect, No one notices.

It goes wrong..... EVERY BURGER and his brother is watching.


My first and worst was "MAY Day" bank holiday.

Ramsgate. 1975.

Yes, I remember it well .... EVERY BURGER and his brother is watching.


YehSh it happens?

Have another nice day tomorrow.

kind regards,

Les.
 
Adrianwool said:
I have owned a boat on and off for about twenty years. Went out today beautiful day 30 plus degrees light airs, smooth seas on return, b***er me if it did not take me three attempts to back in to my berth, something I normally manage in one go. No excuses perfect conditions and we got in at the third attempt with no drama.... but why?, no logical reason for it. Has anyone else out there suffered from this example of sods law?, interested to hear if anyone else has experience this!.

Happy boating

Adrian
Click to expand...

Its a fact, when you have nothing to consider, like wind or tide, the boat gets board and says hay remember me and does just what it likes and puts some moves on you.

Or,
you are so relaxed and think its going to be easy, you cock it up.

Give me a narrow berth and I will get it in first time, give me a big gap and no hazards and hay presto, I will give you a first class demo on how not to get it right 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th time.
 
Some of my biggest impacts with the pontoon have been when trying to compensate for the prevailing westerly that isn't there.
 
powerskipper said:
Its a fact, when you have nothing to consider, like wind or tide, the boat gets board and says hay remember me and does just what it likes and puts some moves on you.

Or,
you are so relaxed and think its going to be easy, you cock it up.

Give me a narrow berth and I will get it in first time, give me a big gap and no hazards and hay presto, I will give you a first class demo on how not to get it right 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th time.
Click to expand...

That is spot on, the tighter the berth the better it goes but why?:confused:
 
I think its because you never berth/moor in the same place twice, you just think you do!

Tide, current, wind etc; are never the same every time you park up and that often changes the environment just enough to catch you out, more so if you are very familiar with the berth. Happens on the largest of ships even with their "parking aids". Fact of life I'm afraid, imho.
 
No, it's not just you.

I'm convinced that there is an 8 knot tide running through Cherbourg Marina :eek:

After a 10 hour x-channel trip I just couldn't get the boat into a berth.

First approach, overshot ... heading for finger. Backed away to within inches of boat on far side (causing much alarm) and tried again.

Nope ... couldn't get bow round far enough ... now going further and further down alley.

Lots of welly ... got lined up again. Tight turn. Smacked a boats transom, luckily with my horseshoe, but that took my concentration and missed again.

People waiting to take our lines now wandering off or sitting down.

Got it fourth time.

Why is there no warning about that tide?:)

Incidentally I did manage to berth a boat in Treguier ... 3 in the morning ... half way through the flood tide!!
 
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Hey, don't worry.
We all do it.
You want perfection?
Get a wheel in each corner and one in front of you, no problem, apart from you'd be in a car stuck in traffic wishing you had a boat.
Enjoy.
Mike
 
As much as we kid ourselves (RYA examinations, theory books, experience from sailing for a long time etc etc) sailing is not an exact science... putting in the same inputs doesn't generate the same outcome every time... I've found... :D
 
Directly in front of our mooring is a busy and popular "floating" chinese restaraunt (it doesnt really float it is on stilts over the water) and a busy bistro/bar so we have an audience whenever we leave or return to our mooring. The manouvre to get into our berth is quite tricky as it involves going right over to said restaraunt to line up for our pontoon.

The more people on the balcony, the bigger the cock up we will perform for them. Weather conditions dont tend to come into the equation:D
 
Still very new to this boating lark, so as it was a nice evening a couple of weeks ago, me and the eldest daughter thought that it would be fun to have our first go at mooring up a pontoon in Brightlingsea.
It all went very smoothly, we were very impressed with our cool,efficient way we handled it. Then I hopped off the boat onto the pontoon, tripped over, fell flat on my face and got a bl**dy great big splinter right into the palm of my hand!!

Oh how pride comes before a fall :mad:
 
Not just you.

Last Sunday, no wind, no tide to speak of, down fairway, next to berth, pivot boat... and found I was nicely lined up pointing directly at the end of the finger, not at the gap.

As Julie says, I'd relaxed in the simple conditions and hadn't made sure the boat had stopped before pivoting. Duh.
 
Best if you cock it up first time not to try and 'uncock' it but move off and start all over again and pretend that thats what you ment to do all along, or blame SWIMBO out aloud.
 
Some of my best berthing cock ups have been in perfect weather. I've put it down to complacency, thinking this will be a doddle.. It usually happens when loads of people are lounging about watching your s**t berthing attempt.

It just makes me happy when some of my neighbours make the same mistakes and I have to help them out, I don't feel so bad then..
 
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