heres a question for you

powerskipper

powerskipper

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your on a big boat,

well big to most ,

a 58 flybridge

, you find yourself alone on her

and having to berth her on a wind off berth,

you have a bow and stern thruster

but they will only mover her sideways against the wind for as long as they are running,

the wind will blow you back off within 20 seconds of them stopping.

how do you berth her.


I know what I did and it took me 3 goes to get it right,



so what would you do.????
 
reverse up, stern line on, in gear ahead to bring her alongside, leave in gear while securing line forward.
 
Assumptions:

1 being a quality British product, the thrusters are not going to call it a day at any stage in the proceedings....

2 you have the normal breast ropes, and bow and stern lines rigged, plus assorted springs and things, and the pontoon is properly equipped with decent bollards...

3 no complicating tidal streams..

4 easy access from the vessel onto the pontoon

5 you don't want to use the main engines as that would be too boring and easy


so - a raggie's perspective (well, with a bit of handling minesweepers and things)

1 prepare all appropriate fenders and heave them over
2 prepare all ditto lines, leaving breast ropes accessible to gangway
3 approach pontoon and stop as close as possible
4 engage bow and stern thrusters to hold you against the pontoon
5 step off onto pontoon and pickup breast ropes and make fast them and any others you think immediately necessary
6 board and stop thrusters
7 tea


Now if it was a 58ft sailing boat... :)
 
Love it

sarabande;Assumptions:

1 being a quality British product, the thrusters are not going to call it a day at any stage in the proceedings....

2 you have the normal breast ropes, and bow and stern lines rigged, plus assorted springs and things, and the pontoon is properly equipped with decent bollards...

3 no complicating tidal streams..

4 easy access from the vessel onto the pontoon

5 you don't want to use the main engines as that would be too boring and easy


so - a raggie's perspective (well, with a bit of handling minesweepers and things)

1 prepare all appropriate fenders and heave them over

yup done

2 prepare all ditto lines, leaving breast ropes accessible to gangway

only access to pontoon is off the bathing platform due to hight rails etc.


3 approach pontoon and stop as close as possible

yup

4 engage bow and stern thrusters to hold you against the pontoon

Oh I wish, they are that kind but these you pushed on a rocker lever, stop pushing stop working. I was on a boat recently that had the switch kind and thought why, now I see why . LOL.

5 step off onto pontoon and pick-up breast ropes and make fast them and any others you think immediately necessary.

Er kind of tried that but with stern line, got that on . but bow broke away and could not hold from pontoon with rope, so got back on boat again.


6 board and stop thrusters,
I wish.

7 tea, dreamed of .


Now if it was a 58ft sailing boat... :)what would you do for that one. ?
 
Last edited:
Stand in cockpit smoking whilst running the bow and stern thrusters via the remote. Attach lines. Spark up another.
 
NorthUp said:
reverse up, stern line on, in gear ahead to bring her alongside, leave in gear while securing line forward.
Click to expand...

Not on a Squaddie 58 you wouldn't! Pull the cleat out and take the pontoon with you. The stern line on method works well on smallish boats but with wind blowing off and single handed it would be a disaster. I don't wish to have a cleat whizzing off past my ear while trying to hold bow line on, or for that matter taking the saloon window out!

This an interesting question and one that takes a lot of thinking about. It's almost impossible to answer from an armchair..... but it's the sort of thing we do all the time when having to move boats about of that size single handed.

Remember that she is on her own and the bow and stern thrusters are at the helm on both fly bridge and saloon and can't be just "left on".
 
prepare a line on the midship cleat ready to lasso the pontoon cleat, use the thrusters to keep you against the pontoon then use your 20 seconds to run down from the flybridge lasso the cleat and make fast on the same cleat. Then port ahead (assuming your portside to the pontoon) tickover to keep you against while you do the lines.

or/

call the marina for a hand keeping the lines ready on the sanctions for them to use while holding position with thrusters.

or/

two bits of sticky tape (or rubber bands) holding the thruster joysticks over ;)
 
ajay said:
prepare a line on the midship cleat ready to lasso the pontoon cleat, use the thrusters to keep you against the pontoon then use your 20 seconds to run down from the flybridge lasso the cleat and make fast on the same cleat. Then port ahead (assuming your portside to the pontoon) tickover to keep you against while you do the lines.

Good but in this case by the time the 20 seconds up the boat was 4 to 5 feet away from pontoon, so if power applied she would have come in stern first with power on, not happy with that, fenders on her not big enough to take that impact with out damage to boat/.

or/

]call the marina for a hand keeping the lines ready on the sanctions for them to use while holding position with thrusters.


Not a marina berth, it was an events pontoon, no one around apart from a fishing boat just watching my antics. Note to self, wear a skirt and see if they offer to help.

or/

two bits of sticky tape (or rubber bands) holding the thruster joysticks over ;) note to self , always carry grey tape and elastic bands from now on, Love it.
Click to expand...
 
if you're worried about stern coming in too fast (cant see how with wind off) then just keep the rudders pointing to the pontoon while port ahead will lessen the turning effect.

if you're only 4-5feet away when cleated midships even better dont bother with the engine and just lasso bowline/sternline one at a time, your not going anywhere so got plenty of time. or is the wind too much to bring in the bow / stern with lines?

when do we hear the answer ;)
 
ajay said:
if you're worried about stern coming in too fast (cant see how with wind off) then just keep the rudders pointing to the pontoon while port ahead will lessen the turning effect.

if you're only 4-5feet away when cleated midships even better dont bother with the engine and just lasso bowline/sternline one at a time, your not going anywhere so got plenty of time. or is the wind too much to bring in the bow / stern with lines?

when do we hear the answer ;)
Click to expand...


You have come on! Getting close. LOL.
 
ajay said:
if you're worried about stern coming in too fast (cant see how with wind off) then just keep the rudders pointing to the pontoon while port ahead will lessen the turning effect.

if you're only 4-5feet away when cleated midships even better dont bother with the engine and just lasso bowline/sternline one at a time, your not going anywhere so got plenty of time. or is the wind too much to bring in the bow / stern with lines?

when do we hear the answer ;)
Click to expand...


Here goes.

Wind on the wind on side of the pontoon was too dangerous to use, even if it would have been an easy option to berth her.
There was a 2 to 4 foot wave breaking on that side, wind was a good F5-6 strait onto the pontoon.
So why I chose the wind off side.

approached the first time to gadge wind strength and found as soon as little movement forwards, she was being blown off fast, loads of windage on those baby's.


so approached again, levelled her up and used thrusters to to push the last few feet, came down from flybridge and got stern line on with a throw, about 5 foot throw, by the time I had pulled her close enough to jump off and take bow line with me, I had run the bow line over the rail and then down to the stern inside the rail for easy of stepping off with. The bow was 10 foot off the pontoon with the stern turned into the pontoon.

I briskly walked to the lower helm and used the bow thruster to push bow back in, let her touch pontoon and went to stern to step off with the bow line, did this and before I was half way to bow level and trying to pull her in at same time I knew it would not work,er Lost that one, she was to heavy with the wind , so got back on and used thruster again to push bow back in, this time I got the momentum going and before she touched walked up to the bow by the side deck , taking the rope with me, I then had a 6 foot throw to secure the bow. did that and was just thinking, wow it worked, time for a cup of tea, when the photo guy arrived and wanted to leave strait away, flicked bow line off , then did stern line, by time got to flybridge controls she was 6 feet off pontoon ready to reverse clear.



So that's how I did it. not something I would choose to do often or again, but it worked that time.
 
When speccing a Sq58 and intending to single hand, always order the 3rd station controls. Been there, done that twice :-) Then this manoeuvre is much easier. Without these controls that was a tricky manoeuvre, so well done you!

The new Sleipner bow and stern thruster controls allow proportional control and allow you to leave the thrusters running (at any thrust level, partial thrust if that's what you want) without your hand on the control
 
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