Drying harbours - maybe a dumb question

[DavidWR]

Hi,

I have a question about drying harbours. Sorry if this is stupid but here goes.

I have a 27ft Bayliner with Mercury outdrive leg, and am not too clear on how best to (safely) moor in a harbour that dries. I am based at Brighton, which obviously doesn't have this problem.

When you moor at a pontoon, knowing that the water will disappear, I understand that I would have to allow enough rope for the level to drop, however, what do you generally do to avoid the boat 'falling' to port or starboard? The hull of my boat is a fairly deep vee. Do you also tie another line from the 'other side' of the boat to the pontoon in order to stabilize it?

Also, I'm guessing that you always 'trim up' the outdrive leg in order to avoid damage?

Thanks for any help.

Dave.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I can't see how it could fall away from the pontoon as it will be tied to the pontoon but in any case, most harbours have a fairly soft sea bed so it will sit square as it sinks in

 

[duncan]

Welcome

leg fully up - don't dry out on anything but soft mud overnight ; even if hard sand doesn't damage the leg it's going to cause a few problems as you tip over with your V hull!
Pontoon will go up and down with the boat/water - it's tying to harbour walls or town quays that's the problem. Generally best avoided as the softer stuff alongside often gets wash away with the tide and also if any shopping trolleys etc are around they will be just there!

I have a very similar boat, get about a bit but have never found the need to take the ground - I anchor in enough water and dingy the rest!

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Welcome to the forum. I stay in a drying harbour with a Windy (and so does another chap in our club) and if you tie up with fenders against the pontoon and the leg righ up, you will be fine. You will even get a hollow where your boat is if left there often enough.

 

[Talbot]

although ropes to the pontoon are a lot less trouble than ropes to a wall, if your boat is deeper than the pontoon, you need to make sure that there is sufficient slack in the ropes to the pontoon to allow the pontoon to drop lower than it would be if everything is floating. You also need to consider how you will get back onboard if there is a big height difference.

 

[David_Jersey]

The only dumb question is the one you do not ask!

As you mention, your Bayliner has a deep V hull so left on her own she will of course lie on one side or another. If you moor against a drying pontoon and want her to lean into the pontoon the odds are that she will do this automatically without any assistance - but to ensure that she does just make sure that their is weight on the side you want to "lean in". Something with the weight of a 5 Gallon Fuel can on her sidedecks should be more than enough - however to be prudent I would suggest that the first time you dry out that you are onboard - just to make sure. Also use plenty of fenders that can support the boats weight against the pontoon.

As you say, you need to raise your outdrive leg. You certainly do NOT want ANY weight of the boat on the leg!! (unless you like large repair bills!).

This leads onto the point that you need to be careful about the sort of bottom you are drying out on. Soft Mud is ideal, but even on a Pontoon (and especially agaianst a harbour wall) the bottom does vary along the same wall / pontoon. You do not really want the bow in very soft Mud and the outdrive grounded on hard sand (Obvioulsy it all depends on your clearance levels). Also I would hestitate about drying out in soft mud that is more than a few feet thick as you MAY end up putting a lot of the weight of the boat on the outdrive as it sinks into the mud. (I am thinking of yacht I saw recently in a drying marina berth against a pontoon which "dried" with the mud up to waterline. The yacht drew about 4 foot!! - no idea what the keel was resting on!!)

When Mooring against someone else (if you cannot tie up to the Pontoon) it is polite to ask whether it is ok to do this. If the other boat is lightweight, is on legs or their is a large mismatch on drying heights it may not be safe to "lean into" them. In these circumstances you 100% need to be leaning in!! no body wants to risk the full weight of someone elses boat pulling their deckware out! even if you also have (as you should in these circumstances) mooring lines leading ashore, just in case.

As an occassional thing (as it sounds like you intend) I would see no problem with this - of course if you were keeping her moored like this 24/7 all year you would need to think about beefing up her keel as on a drying mooring she will eat her own keel from abrasion, (how long depends on the bottom) especially as I believe that something like a Bayliner is not designed to dry out 24/7 her keel will probably not be thick enough to put up with this long term

 

[whisper]

Hi, and welcome.

We keep our Targa 25 on a drying alongside berth and actively encourage it to lean away from the wall. This is to avoid any possibility of scraping against the wall if the fenders get tangled up and to avoid lying on the hull side where the paddle wheel log is situated. It is also kinder to the fenders in any case.
To ensure that this happens we leave two 5 gal. cans of water on the side deck.
Because the sea bed here is relatively firm, at the stern anyway, we have also dug out a hole for the raised leg to sit in. This is because when fully raised our leg is still slightly below the level of the bottom of the hull. You might like to check that on yours.
In the Winter we often use a drying pontoon berth, on soft mud, and the boat normally sits perfectly upright. As mentioned earlier you do have to make sure that your lines are arranged to cater for any relative change in level between pontoon and boat when both are on the mud.
If we want to use the boat then we also have to clean the raw water filter on a daily basis as it becomes clogged with the very fine silt.
Hope this helps.
John

 

[DavidWR]

Thanks very much everyone for your replies. I think you have covered my worries very well. As someone conjectured, this is only an occasional thing that was prompted by planning a trip to Rye, which I know dries. It got me concerned as I hadn't done this before!

Many thanks,

Dave.

 

[davedpc]

Crank your raised outdrives over to port or sbourd will give you a few more hundredweight on that side before grounding. Dave.