Help, cross-tide berthing

[cueball]

Hi,

Im looking for hints and tips on cross-tide berthing. My finger berth is cross-tide and with the big tides this week i have had some problems berthing. I usually aim to get back at High or Low water when there is some slack but this is proving very restrictive. details are 35ft, fin keel, wheel steering,folding prop. maybe there is a handling course I could take?

 

[ex-Gladys]

The only advice I would give is practice practice practice. I would not aim for slack water, you want the tide to be taking you onto the pontoon, as that is the dominant force. I'm on a swinging mooring and I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times you DON'T approach into the tide.

In your case the REAL difficult one would be tide sweeping you off the pontoon, which I would say is a no-no, until you're VERY comfortable. (For example, as we have gained experience with pontoon berths, I would only ever want to be port side to as the prop walk talks Gladys that way, as that experience has built, I now in benign conditions am happy to do Stbd too)

I'm not sure how much benefit a boat handling course would be over a 2-3 hour "pontoon bashing" session in and out of your berth

 

[NUTMEG]

Some years ago, when I had my Westerly, I tied a longish floating line between the pontoon and the boat as a safety net. Then the wife and I backed off and repeatedly docked her. Again and again until we got the feel of her. We then did the same without the tether. In and out like a fiddlers elbow.

Chaps in the yard took the Micky but after much practise we were fully confident in docking at all states of the tide

 

[Robin]

Approach from the uptideside and turn in to the middle of the space and let th tide carry you sideways onto the finger, but allow for a bit of sideslip towards the finger as you turn in or you might overdo it Don't forget the wind either as it is the sum effect of wind and current you need to allow for. It is always best to be parking on the side favoured by your prop kick in astern too so that applying reverse to brake pulls the stern in to the finger. Have a spring line ready to get on at a length which will keep the bow off the main dock ahead, once this is on engage forward gear at tickover rpm and turn wheel away from the finger, the boatshould sit there happily on that spring line whilst you add the other lines. Once you are happy with the method, make up a spring line with a marked point or a spliced eye to drop on an end of finger cleat so it is ready to go. Another idea is to take a spring line with a spliced eye dropped over end of finger cleat through a pulley on the toerail with the in- boat end wrapped ready round a sheet winch for the helm to be able to rapidly adjust from the wheel. it also helps to add some strategically placed fendering to the dock ahead if it is your home berth, once you know which bits become the usual targets.

 

[cueball]

wow as always great advice. definitely trying those hints. I always thought slack water would be best but totally see the point of using a small amount of tide to my advantage. would you try reversing in? or is that running before i can walk ;-)

 

[rubberduck]

More like a marathon. As said, use the force, I mean tide to your advantage.

 

[Tomahawk]

I know slightly different, but when I have a cross wind to deal with, I try and choose the upwind side and stop parallel to the pontoon, then let the wind shove me against the (very ample set of) fenders.

 

[Robin]

I know slightly different, but when I have a cross wind to deal with, I try and choose the upwind side and stop parallel to the pontoon, then let the wind shove me against the (very ample set of) fenders.

That is the same technique, just deal with whichever cross effect is strongest, tide or wind. We used to berth in a (usually) downwind berth and wrong side to the finger for our prop kick. Even if we stopped dead in the water before going in, in a strong wind we could reach 3kts by the time we got in the gap. Top priority was to get a spring line on fast! THis is why we used the pre-readied spring line technique even though we left our permanent berth lines on the pontoons when going out, we still used a line that we prepared before reaching the berth, hreading it though a block snapshackled to the toe rail and back to the sheet winch. SWMBO would step ashore, put the marked end on the finger cleat, let me know when it was 'on' and then I could pull in from the wheel, then re-engage fwd gear at tickover and we were in and held nicely, pending adding the permanent berth lines. we used the same technique in visitor berths except now the shore end of the line had a large snapshackle to attach to a cleat or 'D' ring on the finger and quickly taking up the slack round the sheet winch back at the wheel was more critical ( my job).

We had a free choice of berth in our current marina so made sure to pick one where we berth port side to, so the reverse brake works in our favour, plus our permanent dock lines are held ready in a sort of rod rest holder at easy to grab height, where they are very easy to reach from widest part of the boat where SWMBO stands waiting. The spring, port side stern breast line and a short centre cleat line are all hooked on this and once these are on one of us can go ashore at leisure and pass up the bow lines. Being in yankee doodle land we also have an offside stern breast line from a pile dividing our berth with next door's bit, I put a little pot marker float on that line so we can just drop it as we leave and recover it quick with a boat hook on our return, easier than trying to throw the coiled line onto the hooks on the pile. The locals however mostly radio the office and have helpers sent over to take their lines, tempting, as they are mostly very nice looking young ladies, but they do not understand you cannot pull stop 8 tons of sailboat let alone the 25 tons of moving boat like when we had our mobo and 'cleat the fkg line off' was totally lost on them.

 

[johnalison]

If you have your own berth, money spent on fendering the finger will not be wasted.

 

[Robin]

If you have your own berth, money spent on fendering the finger will not be wasted.

+1 when in the Uk, we did it with some screw in place fendering and some old fenders tied horizontally to eyes screwed to the finger, here in the USA the marina had already done that, or the previous berth holder had and had left behind.