Drying Harbours - Harbour Walls

cliveshelton

cliveshelton

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We are currently planning an anticlockwise round GB trip for 2019. SO36i shoal draft (1.5m). Mainly day sailing with the odd overnighter and possibly involving the Caledonian Canal (I know!!). We are marina dwellers normally with the odd night at anchor during most seasons, but there will be times when a harbour wall is needed I'm sure. Having never tied up that way before, we need advice on the etiquette and procedures.

How to know where to tie up? What is the HM is not there to ask?
How to know whats underneath? Rocks, sand, mud?
How stable can we expect to be fore and aft? We don't have supporting legs.
Do I need to worry about hull strength / keel bolts?

I know this has been done thousands of times before, but our inexperience with this aspect causes me angst as I am doing the planning.

Many thanks.
 
cliveshelton said:
1) How to know where to tie up? What is the HM is not there to ask?
2) How to know whats underneath? Rocks, sand, mud?
3) How stable can we expect to be fore and aft? We don't have supporting legs.
4) Do I need to worry about hull strength / keel bolts?
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1) You should always ask the Harbourmaster before if you can, otherwise a local club. Do the research.
2) Ask
3) Ask the designer, owners association or on here. I have seen some bilge keelers pitch forward.
4) If the boat is properly designed and built it shouldn't be an issue except for extreme racing designs. Research.

You should take care to ensure the boat leans toward the wall. I do this with a headrope to a convenient spot on the harbourside. I use a snatch block on the shrouds and a line to keep the boat at least upright as well. Always make sure you have enough length in the mooring lines to allow for the drop at low tide.
 
petehb said:
A fender board will be a useful addition
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Yes. And you may well need a longer one, due to wide spacing of vertical baulks of timber on many harbour walls. This could be difficult to stow.

May I suggest the idea of a pair of shorter ones? With four holes drilled through adjacent short edges, and laced like loose shoe-lacing ( 'relieve' some grooves to protect the cordage from chafe ), you can stow this folded - and opened out for use. That needs three fenders.
 
An aluminium ladder in slidable parts works well. Absolutely must I would say - the fender boards that is.
 
I know a harbour wall near my mooring that I would simply NOT use until I'd had the chance to stand off in deeper water and row ashore and see for myself at low water what the latest junk thrown in is available for the cruiser to settle on; I've seen tesco trolleys, big lumps of concrete, scaffold tubes and of course traffic cones !

It will often be impossible for you to check first at low water like this as you go round on your voyage, but it's something to have in the back of one's mind - and if a wall looks handy but other boats aren't using it, ask yourself why.

Re a line ashore from the mashead to heel her in towards the wall, this is not always possible unless one doesn't mind snagging double decker buses - it's usually possible to have some sort of halliard ashore even if it's quite close to the boat so a less efficient angle.

Other ways to heel her to the wall are to shift the anchors to the side deck, possibly gas bottle and water cans too.

At walls requiring long shore lines, a way to keep them taut enough to be doing their job is to hang weights - such as kedge anchors, empty gas bottles etc halfway along the lines.

All this is just very brief descriptions but I hope I've given the rough ideas.

Have a great trip, I'm jealous !
 
Call the harbour-master at your port of arrival, by telephone, before leaving your berth at your port of departure.
 
I've been round twice, & the necessity of using harbour walls has mostly disappeared. You can still find them if that's what you like (Portpatrick for example), but they are mostly avoidable now, especially having to dry. I always stay afloat & have no difficulty finding places to go. I don't feel the need to see the harbour at low water. Pilot guides are fine for that information.

A lot of pontoons have gone in along the west coast of Scotland in particular. If you do choose to go to a harbour & tie up alongside a wall fender boards, long lines & spherical fenders do the job just fine.
 
Not been all around but done all of S and W coasts, in an SO36i in fact, and never considered drying on a wall. I have dried once in Brittany and my standard draft boat put a lot of weight on the rudder. No damage but a cause for concern.
 
Quiddle,

I'd suggest the OP tries drying his boat out alongside a known wall - or drying posts - before setting off on his trip.

You have reminded me of one of the many things I didn't mention - none of us here are trying to post a book's worth - but when I dried out my high aspect fin keel Carter 30 I found she was trying to settle by the stern quite hard - and the skeg was a fair bit shorter than the keel even if I had fancied the boat resting on it - I passed a soft thick bit of 18mm braid line left aboard by the previous owner right around under the hull to help hold the stern up.

This then means knowing where the prop, shaft or leg, and any vulnerable skin fittings are - from on deck.

So yet another of many factors to consider - Angus may well be right but I'd at least want to be prepared and able to dry alongside a wall - nb the OP's boat draws a great deal more water than his tri - so drying practice, taking some notes and marking the position of the underwater bits from on deck, would seem well worth doing.
 
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cliveshelton said:
We are currently planning an anticlockwise round GB trip for 2019. SO36i shoal draft (1.5m). Mainly day sailing with the odd overnighter and possibly involving the Caledonian Canal (I know!!).
Click to expand...

An often overlooked compromise between going over the top or via the canal & missing some of the best bits is to use the canal but once you are in Oban do a week or two exploring north before returning to Oban & heading south. In a week you could get to Skye. In 2 weeks you could see the Outer Hebrides which are littered with pontoons now. No need to use harbour walls in that bit of the world if you like pontoons.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
I've been round twice, & the necessity of using harbour walls has mostly disappeared. You can still find them if that's what you like (Portpatrick for example), but they are mostly avoidable now, especially having to dry. I always stay afloat & have no difficulty finding places to go. I don't feel the need to see the harbour at low water. Pilot guides are fine for that information.

A lot of pontoons have gone in along the west coast of Scotland in particular. If you do choose to go to a harbour & tie up alongside a wall fender boards, long lines & spherical fenders do the job just fine.
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+1
 
When I went round I never had to take the ground with 2.1m draught. I did use my fender boards though, so my advice would be to take boards and not worry about drying out.
 
There are all sorts of reasons one may want / have to dry out; clearing a fouled prop / engine inlet or sorting a skin fitting for a start.

The OP has expressed unease about ability to do this, and for a deep keel boat this is one of the weapons an experienced sailor should have in his or her armoury.

Therefore if for nothing other than the experience and peace of mind, he should practice it somewhere known and safe before setting off.
 
Seajet said:
There are all sorts of reasons one may want / have to dry out; clearing a fouled prop / engine inlet or sorting a skin fitting for a start.

The OP has expressed unease about ability to do this, and for a deep keel boat this is one of the weapons an experienced sailor should have in his or her armoury.

Therefore if for nothing other than the experience and peace of mind, he should practice it somewhere known and safe before setting off.
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Very much agree with this, Its what I did and found all sorts of things out, starting with how much lean was right for my boat (aim for none ideally)
 
The very first time I set foot on my prospective first yacht, the owner and I dried her out on a wall so that my surveyor could do his job. It's consequently always seemed like a normal and straightforward task, to me. I do most of my maintenance between tides.
Messing around with cranes or hoists scares me witless, by comparison!
 
Seajet said:
There are all sorts of reasons one may want / have to dry out; clearing a fouled prop / engine inlet or sorting a skin fitting for a start.

The OP has expressed unease about ability to do this, and for a deep keel boat this is one of the weapons an experienced sailor should have in his or her armoury.

Therefore if for nothing other than the experience and peace of mind, he should practice it somewhere known and safe before setting off.
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Absolutely! I have dried out succcessfully many times, fin and skeg, but sustained damage coming south from the Caledonian when I had to dry out for a propellor problem. I should have asked which was the best local harbour to dry out in rather than attempt where I was. A change of wind direction sent in waves which bounced the boat heavily and there was just one rock which I had missed when I sounded around before the tide dropped.
However, I sailed to Neptune’s Staircase and back from Ipswich with no other need to dry out. You might have to between Arbroath and Peterhead if there is not enough water to lie afloat at Stonehaven if you can’t make the full distance
 
AngusMcDoon said:
An often overlooked compromise between going over the top or via the canal & missing some of the best bits is to use the canal but once you are in Oban do a week or two exploring north before returning to Oban & heading south. In a week you could get to Skye. In 2 weeks you could see the Outer Hebrides which are littered with pontoons now. No need to use harbour walls in that bit of the world if you like pontoons.
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We are planning to do this at the moment. It’s good to know that pontoons are generally available. We will plan to avoid walls I think.
 
cliveshelton said:
We are planning to do this at the moment. It’s good to know that pontoons are generally available. We will plan to avoid walls I think.
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Plenty around Oban. Going north on the mainland...

Lochaline
Tobermorey
Salen, Loch Sunart
Mallaig
Kyle of Lochalsh (don't bother with Kyleakin)
Loch Gairloch (not much, but visitor moorings too)
Lochinver
Kinlochbervie

On the Outer Hebrides...

Castlebay Barra
Lochboisdale
Lochmaddy
Leverburgh
East Loch Tarbert
Stornoway

There are quite a few visitor moorings around as well, usually run by an island community or a hotel.

One thing to be aware of with Scottish west coast pontoons is that they are usually just a few pontoons put into an already existing harbour rather than being a purpose built marina (although Lochboisdale is an exception). Consequently, many are not as completely protected from all directions as big purpose built marinas further south, and you may have to choose your destination according to the weather if it's forecast to get a bit grumpy. One of the worst offenders is Kyle of Lochalsh. You really don't want to be there if there's more than F5 with any south in the forecast.
 
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