etiquette when you find someone else on your mooring

Scillypete

Scillypete

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11 Jun 2003
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Isles of Scilly
www.peteandspamgosailing.blogspot.com
Went off for the night, as it was too good to miss. Had a blissful evening and night in a secluded anchorage. Up this morning at 5a.m. to sail back to the harbour stow away and get home and ready for work. Fantastic sail with the sun slowly rising and a lovely breeze, 9 times out of 10 I will sail in and pick up the mooring and this morning was ideal, only to get right into the harbour to find a considerably larger than mine, yacht on my mooring. This meant I had to sail on into clear water and dig out fenders and lines (grapnels and sharp cutlasses /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif), no great hardship really. It seemed pointless to put the engine on for what would be no more than a few minutes as it would not even get warm, so I furled the jib and ran back toward the mooring rounded up behind a nearby fishing boat and went gently alongside said yacht, tied on to his very convenient cleats, and waited for a head to pop up.
My flogging main must have done the trick as fairly soon a woman with a baffled look appeared, I asked very politely if I could have my mooring back now please . . . now to be fair I have just rudely awoken them from their slumber and I don't expect them to turn too in their pj's but being more concerned about where they were to go and setting fenders and lines before leaving was a bit much to wait for, they could do that whilst moving surely, as I had to.

All I can say is that its a good job they were English as there was no language problem. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Pete, I don't quite get the gist of your posting: where you upset? Where they upset? Fortunately for all involved it was probably a swinger...
I'd say, just raft up, put your lines on the buoy, accept the cup of tea they will have prepared you and wish them a good day...

What a lovely way to begin a commute. Better than the 6.50 from Reading to Paddington /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
I think that we need to be tolerent of using unoccupied moorings. The visiting boat must remain manned at all times, and when confronted by the resident boat returning, be prepared to move at once.

I have had this happen to me as the mooring resident, and have been quite happy to wait 5 or 10 minutes whiclt the occupants get ready.

I think ones perception of the visitor, is how they react - were you a bloody nuisance returning, or thankfull that they had a night free?
 
Sorry I haven't been clear, I couldn't get near my strops they had used them and they were a considerably bigger yacht and to be honest not particularly impressed by how they had run them, I like to avoid chafe.

To be honest its more of an incovenience to me . . . but is there any hard and fast rule to how to get them moving quicker. Should they not have been prepared to move in the event of my return anyway?
 
Generally agree, however I have also returned my mooring on a couple of occasions to find a very large boat there. It's not a problem in benign weather, but at least once the boat was large enough to drag my mooring out of position, which meant our having to go out the following weekend to re-position it. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I DO object to that when a cursory glance at the boats on either side (and in the rest of the line) should have given any knowledgeable skipper a clear idea of the maximum sensible size catered for. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I don't mind others using my mooring provided they leave someone competent on board to move it and at least use some common sense regarding size. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Yes, to both you (Jerry and Pete). Of course we shodul expect reasonableness and seaman-like behaviour on picking up moorings. In fact, as I said, I would also expect a big THANKYOU... Not perhaps a couple of tenners for the rent, but at least a smile, a cup of tea or something appropriate. Delivered in PJs or without ( /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif)... oopps this is not the lounge.

And, yes, in case of rough weather I would be very wary of staying on someone else's mooring if it looked flimsy for my boat.
 
I'd be distincly un pleased. You have your plan laid out neatly and through their nicking your mooring have messed that up.

They nicked your mooring, got a free night and expect you to be decent about it?
Etiquette, tosh - they should be moving on straight away, after they hand over the bottle of wine & a big thank you!

Always nervous about what size boat might normally use a 'free mooring' and how well maintained it might be.

System in the Netherlands works well - where moorings and pontoons can be marked with a red or green symbol - red means the owner is coming back soon and green means it is free to use
 
[ QUOTE ]

I don't mind others using my mooring provided they leave someone competent on board to move it and at least use some common sense regarding size. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes.
As I do make use of unoccupied moorings I can't really complain if someone uses mine. In fact, when I am away for some time, I now leave a message saying welcome, and the rough date of my return. I had a very nice message of thanks left for me last week. Boating is expensive enough without cutting each others throats.
I would never pick up a local mooring in Scilly, or such busy places, though. If the pick up is spanking clean you can be sure the owner is out for a day sail - don't spoil his day. I generally pick one that is out of the way, has no top gear attached or the pick up is covered in weed - that way you would be unlucky to find the owner returning unexpectedly.
 
In the days when we were on a swinging mooring we too have had this happen and the boat left unattended whilst the crew were ashore which in my opinion is not on. We also had very much larger boats picking up our mooring whilst waiting for the bridge lift to allow them back to their marina, in some cases just tied off using our buoy pickup line not the strops and once by just tying a line through the pickup buoy plastic handle so the whole boat weight was on it. I can be very intolerant of such inconsiderate plonkers.

Perhaps the real question was had they 'mistaken' your mooring for a visitor's mooring or had they picked it up regardless? Some people just don't trust their own ground tackle and if they were rigging lines and fenders before and as they left your mooring where exactly were they expecting to go next? Maybe they should stay away from areas where there are no marinas if they are not prepared to use their own anchors?

I think you handled it very nicely and they should have been embarassed and moved off smartish whilst offering profuse apologies.
 
[ QUOTE ]
System in the Netherlands works well - where moorings and pontoons can be marked with a red or green symbol - red means the owner is coming back soon and green means it is free to use

[/ QUOTE ] That's a good idea. I usually tell the Harbourmaster when I'll be away overnight so that visitors can use my mooring, and the default is that if I haven't told them anything, I'll be back the same day. However, we're in a popular area and not everyone has the luxury of a constant Harbour/Berthing patrol.
 
Sounds like you handled it very well. Maybe the folk on your buoy are not morning people so take a bit of time to wake up!

I use moorings whenever convenient and as others have said I look for the buoy with no pick up rope at all or a very weedy one indicating lack of use. When possible if there is someone on a nearby boat I will ask them if they know when the owner is expected back.

If an owner leaves a tag on the buoy with an expected date of return it is a great help. Old (washed out) milk plastics work well!! Thank you to all the owners of morings I have used over the years /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I used to get this frequently when I had a swing mooring at Burnham on Crouch. When returning on a Sunday evening after being away for the weekend, I often found a boat on my mooring, with no sign of anyone on board...forcing me to look around for somewhere to leave my boat.

My solution was to buy a cheap tender, which I left tied up to the buoy when I went off sailing. I found this deterred anyone from using the buoy.

I am quite happy for people to use my mooring when I'm away but it can be extremely inconvenient when people just leave their boat and clear off...passing on the problem of where to moor to someone else...i.e. me.
 
The readiness of peeps to use weed covered, obviously unused and probably unmaintained moorings surprises me.

Give me my own ground tackle any day.
 
This subject always seems to cause a lot of angst.
With popular anchorages nowadays so full of moorings, there is usually no space to anchor, so visitors have little option but to borrow a mooring.
It is not always practical to leave one person on board, e.g. single handers or a couple going ashore for lunch. Should the wife go to the pub first then swop over for husband to eat? Not all mooring areas have anybody who will admit knowing if a mooring is free.
As a visitor I would like to be made welcome or at least tolerated, not made to feel like a trespasser.
If this results in me having a bit of inconvenience at my home port, so be it.
That said, a bit of politeness usually makes things smoother, but perhaps not everyones at their best being woken at dawn.
I'm talking generally, not having experience of Scilly, but hope to correct that this year.
 
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All I can say is that its a good job they were English as there was no language problem. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I did exactly that to a Frenchman in France who returned just as we were having dinner. He was very civilised and simply told us to stay on his mooring and he would pick up another overnight.

I like to think that that is what I would do. Make someone's day a pleasant experience.

Sadly, round here people object to their moorings being used even when they are out of the water. Miserable gits.
 
Regarding size, you could mark the mooring with the maximum tonnage you think it's suitable for...


About 200Kg's should put off most people.. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
The readiness of peeps to use weed covered, obviously unused and probably unmaintained moorings surprises me.

Give me my own ground tackle any day.

[/ QUOTE ] Me too. I used to be involved in laying moorings for our then club and these were very substantial with heavy chains and double wired shackles and larger than normal swivels etc. Every mooring was lifted and inspected every year and chains, shackles, swivels and the anchors replaced where necessary and there was always something on even the heaviest of moorings that needed replacing. We were perhaps fussier than a professional contractor or yard might be because after all our own boats were on these moorings but we could still see that they did deteriorate between annual inspections, so what if they were never checked?

So why on earth trust a manky old mooring covered in weed rather than a firmly dug in anchor? Proper visitor moorings are different as the assumption is that these will be maintained.
 
Thats a nice approach Doug.

And leaving a note of thanks is a really nice touch to.

I am all for the system of using free moorings... it makes a lot of sense, and is a nice way of keeping costs down.

I'd like to think that I'd take the approach of the Frenchman described above.
 
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