Helping Hands

[claymore]

OK

If that was me, knowing the way Claymore hates going astern and the lottery it always turns into I think I'd either stop beam on to the end of the finger, put someone ashore with a stern line and walk her in with a bit of help from the engine or if there was another boat on the other side of the finger and I couldn't do this I'd have to round up and get the stern quarter as close to the jetty as I could to get someone ashore. The other alternative would be to nose in, sort out the lines so that I had a long line onto the opposite stern quarter then reverse out, leaving one of us on the pontoon and then use the stern line to help spin her round and get the stern pointing in the right direction. Plenty of fenders!

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
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[jimi]

Faster the better

Always think the more way you have on the better, gives you more control when steering with the extra water flow over the rudder, and you do'nt have to worry about windage as much. And you've got big brakes .. so if I were in your boat I'd approach about 7knots and put the brakes on just as the stern is about to touch the jetty ... however if it was my boat ...

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[Benny1]

Re: shh benny, come away from there

Cheers TCM. THats probably what we are going to do.

I was just interested of there was a translation of the manoeuvre using the springs mentioned abouve for going bows to when you are going stern to.

It's intersting ot note that in most UK marinas, the fingers are designed or going bows to, as they splay out at the main pontoon end, meaning that if you go stern to in a motorboat you have to tie up at a funny angle. This will be more of a pain than the finger not being long enough. It's just going to be a bit of a
hassle not to have the bows to option as it can be handy to have both, so if it's too windy or tidal to go stern in you can go bows to

If we do this then the women (both male and female) on board will not be able to get off, as they won't jump. If they step off the lower part of the boat at the stern, then they will have an 8ft jump to the end of the finger!

I think I will be alroght, but my sister and I have bought my Dad some boat handling lessons for his birthday. Hopefully it will quell some of the rows he and I have when he is berthing and brove a worthwhile investment. After all, he has only been a boat owner since 1982.

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[tome]

Re: Don\'t tell everybody...

We use a line with a spliced eye both ends which both go over the centre cleat leaving a bight which we drop over a mooring cleat as a forward spring. With either SWMBO or self on wheel, a call for the 'short strop' implies a wind blowing us off and is understood by all parties. The bight is long enough to drop over a primary winch if singlehanded, from where it's to hand for dropping over a shore cleat once the boat has come to a halt.

Having a fixed length strop has the disadvantage that it can't be ranged, so the boat has to be brought to a halt near the shore cleat and eased ahead to take up the tension. We don't use it on a finger pontoon unless there's a well placed cleat - here we'd use a conventional spring and range it to put us about right for and aft. If single handed I bring the end back to a cockpit cleat where I can range it. Usually have a fender well forward in the bow and another well astern in case things go pear shaped.

Mostly it works a treat but to balance the books a big apology to the Princess 52 which we dinked in a particularly unkind gust Saturday last whilst leaving our berth!


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[hlb]

Ah well. That was my thought when trying to moor against an up wind pontoon. Blowing a hooly and with a mate for crew.. Unbeknown to me. He chucked the rope over the guard rail. Then jumped off to secure it. But he did not want to secure it when realised that the rope was pulling the rails down. Meanwhile theres a good f8 blowing against the 8ton boat, so he's ready for falling in.. Meanwhile a bloke turns up with a cap on, You know who I mean!! He shout for me to throw a stern line and in my panic I did. Realising as I did it. That this would cause a disaster. So I've now got two blokes on the ends of lines, both being dragged into the water.. Now I'm up a long narrow culldesack. and on my own up the fly bridge. If they let go the ropes I'm knacks as they will emediatly go round props. Also neither of them can hear me cos of the wind and the engines, which I'm useing to keep the boat some where near the pontoon. Course this is difficult cos the bloke holding on to the arse end will be dragged in the water if I try to hard. He's yelling that I must be mad!! Anyway we finaly finnished up with the stern to the pontoon. So I yells for them to jump on with the ropes. Bugger off says bloke, I'm not getting on there with you. So Mate jumps on with ropes and I get the boat back out to safe water. Sort out the mess of ropes, re educate the crew and try the usual bow line lasoo cleat Technique. No problem. So spent the rest of the afternoon refixing guard rail....../forums/images/icons/frown.gif



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Haydn

 

[LadyInBed]

Do like the ship_in_a_bottle - nm

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[jimi]

Re: Do like the ship_in_a_bottle - nm

Its a demo of his new mooring up technique

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[LadyInBed]

Re: Single line mooring

Using a spring to hold her in is great given conventional cleats on a pontoon, but it does fall apart a bit in places like Cherbourg, where the pontoon fingers are only half a boat length and they end in a D shaped hole.

The only solution I can think of for this case is to have a small folding grapnel on the end of the spring and to drop that through the D.


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[hlb]

Re: Single line mooring

Only the French Fries could have invented those D shaped cleats. There a bloody night mare when you arive with 40 foot long ropes.

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Haydn

 

[Gunfleet]

Re: Single line mooring

The D shaped ring wouldn't be so bad if the wretched pontoon didn't sink as soon as you stepped on it.

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[hlb]

Re: Single line mooring

Ye. 40 foot of rope in hand, wobbling about on short pontoon, whilst trying to hold eight ton of boat in place. Then discover D shaped cleats.

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Haydn

 

[tome]

D shaped cleats...

and those wobbly pontoons are truly the worst part of a channel crossing. Must have been designed by a French farmer with his mind firmly on agricultural subsidies at the time.

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[Twister_Ken]

Re: D shaped cleats...

Chantereyne is alright if you've got a 28 footer with only 3 feet of freeboard, but it must be a bit hairy for the big boat boys who've got to jump 6 feet down off the front half of the lugger onto a foot wide pontoon that bobs about like a rubber ducky in the bath.

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[vyv_cox]

Re: Single line mooring

"D" shaped cleats are not only confined to France, we come across them in Holland, Belgium, Germany and Denmark. We bought one of the patent boathook devices for this very reason. It's a large carabiner to which the line is attached. It can be released either by using a boathook or a separate thin line. Invaluable in these circumstances.

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[claymore]

Re: D shaped cleats...

It might help if they weren't all so overweight - overnourished capitalists all.
tee hee hee.

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
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[Jacket]

Re: D shaped cleats...

At least there's a pontoon to jump onto. Try Scandinavia, where they have things called 'booms'. Instead of a pontoon, its a bit of 1 inch square steel tube with a loat and a D-shaped cleat on the end. Try doing them singlehanded, with the wind trying to blow you back out of the berth- I still have nightmares about them!

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