How to singlehand off/onto a fore-and-aft mooring?

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Babylon

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Recent post (on singlehanding and size of boats) got me thinking...

I've never yet singlehanded our 27 footer, as getting off and back onto our fore-and-aft mooring is the critical challenge. Has anyone done this - and how?

I understand that picking up a swinging mooring-buoy singlehanded can be done by preparing a line long enough to run from the bows aft to the cockpit, then falling back, then taking up the excess line etc - but how to safely achieve a similar manoevre in lines of tightly spaced fore-and-aft moorings with potential sheer due to side-wind etc...?
 
My mooring is fore and aft but shared by two boats. This gives me a neighbour to lever off. It works in most circumstances but not when the wind pins me on to him. My best advice is to pick your time and conditions. The first time should be in light wind and close to slack tide. Try and leave with the tide from in front. A good set of fenders toward the stern and a good pull on the stern line should get your bow across the tide so a little throttle will ferry boat you out. I use a pick-up bouy attached to my bow and stern lines so when I return I can get the lines on the cleats in few seconds. I started doing this with 28ft and have progressed to 33 and then 36. It gets no harder, only heavier on those occasions when you need to pull the boat into line.
 
First sit & understand wind & current directions. Then plan what you want to do. Then set everything up. Then just do it.

Finally, review the cock-ups & see how you might do it different next time!!

In my case, I start the engine & leave it in neutral. In general for me, the current (in a creek) is from ahead. I undo & tie off the strops that are not under tension - it may be bow or stern depending on wind strength & direction. If I can push off the "slack end" then I do that & cast off the other end. The big issue is to not put the engine in gear while it is anywhere near the trot lines or strops.

One usefull technique is to loop the trot line over the lifelines to hold the boat in position, cast off fore & aft, set wheel hard a port & then grab trot line firmly, unhook it & walk smartly aft. This drives the boat forward & away from the trot into the current. Putting the wheel amidships brings the stern out & I can then put it in gear alongside but a metre or two off the next boat ahead.

Coming in, put engine in neutral & coast onto trot line, pick up & hook over life lines amidships. You may need to hurry to the bow or stern with the boathook to correct any tendency to blow off. Blowing on is not a problem provided you have cleared the boats ahead & astern as the trot line will stop your sideways movement. Then tie off strops bow & stern & stop engine.

It is actually easier to do than describe!
 
By this I think you moor to a buoy at both bow and stern, not mooring piles?

This can either be fairly easy or a fecking nightmare... Assuming you have plenty of line and don't string any lines between the two buoys - it all depends on the tide, the river current and the wind.

There are loads of variables here, but as a very basic guide, i'd have two over length lines at bow and stern. Assuming the easy scenario of nice steady current and not much wind, lets call this option 1.

Motor head to tide, and taking aft line forrard (outboard of all else) pick up stern buoy just by passing a line through the eye of the buoy and pulling the rest through, and flaking it all down in the cockpit. This should take seconds and all the while the boat has steerage and enough motion to get to the front buoy. At front buoy, pick up, pall the line through. let the boat fall back with the current, evening up the bow line and stern line. At this point, you may be able to replace the long lines with short mooring bridles if you have them, or chain, etc.

Option 2: Wind against tide. Whats having more effect on the hull, tide or wind? Tie up to the buoy "upstream" of the force, so if the wind has more effect from astern, get the stern rope on first and then the bow. Remember its a lot easier to swing the boat from side to side if the bow is moored rather than the stern. You may opt for having to wind the boat round which brings me to..

Option 3: If conditions are nasty and you have plenty of room, don't be afraid to get one rope on and row the other over to the buoy. You can even tie the boat up facing the wrong way. EG, if you have to, you can moor bows to the "stern" buoy with a short line and then take a line from the bows out to the "bow" bouy via a dinghy and have another line from the stern to the "stern" buoy. Leave lots of slack in the bow-stern buoy line. Cast off the short bow rope and haul in the stern line like crazy. The boat will spin as it is driven down wind/tide to end up facing the other way, secured by the stern. Make sure the engine is in neutral, though running, and the helm lashed temporarily while doing this trick. You can then haul in on the bow line, and make everything look pretty.

Some ideas anyway.
 
depends on the nature of the mooring. at my old club we used to have individual fore and aft moorings seperated by a couple of boat lengths, so you could simply undo the stern rope, let the boat weathercock into the tide, then let go the bow and run to the stern to motor into the flow.

never used piles so I cant comment on them.
 
I agree and this is pretty much what I do too.

The first time it was very worrying and all my instincts said don't let myself be carried on to the marrying line connecting the two buoys- so I tried something else and got into a devil of a fix(twice). After that I did as I was told by wiser and more experienced folk with these fore and aft trots and it is really very easy. I suppose the only word of caution in addition which I could usefully add is don't drop the marrying line for one needs to get this up to deck level sharpish to avoid the possibility of the keel or rudder overriding the line and causing a tangle.

As for Seagreen's well meant advice this is is only relevant if <u>not</u> attempting to moor to a continuous line of connected trot moorings. Trying to use bow and stern ropes when buoys have a marrying line will lead to an almighty frap up!
 
Spent years on fore and aft mooring.

worste scenario is the connecting line between the buoys around the prop or hooked on the rudder .

If the wind is pushing you away from the connecting line ok if not swap it to the other side ,

Also use a long endless line to temporarilly hold you to the forward mooring long enough that you can slip it from the cockpit.

If in a river the tide actually helps you to ferry glide in and out of your slot

Dont rush, get set up then have a quiet moment considering the way the wind/tide will affect you.
 
Spent a season motor cruising Holland single handed and perfected a mithod of going astern into a fore aft mooring. As others have mentioned first take account of wind and/or tide flow.
My boat has twin engines so I put the wheel amidships and do all the steering using the engines. I have a long rope from the stem cleat along the windward/flow side to the stern cockpit, plus a pair of stern ropes and fenders over the stern ready. As the stern passes the out pile I pass the stem rope over the pile and motor back slowly keeping the rope held tight. If it's a starn to pontoon I just motor atern untill the stern of the boat touches the pontoon and put power on to stick her there, then go forward and make of the stem rope. Easy when it goes right which was most times, it only goes wrong when trying to get in out of the way of other boats or when theres a crowd watching.
 
I ought to add to my earlier post that the line joining the fore and aft moorings was 6 ft under water so you could if necessary do a figure of 8 round the two mooring bouys without a problem. And the ropes holding to the rings on the top of the buoys were doubles with both ends on the boat

I used to have the system with ropes permanently attached to the buoys and a floating nelson line between them, but this is very wet / muddy / messy and you have problems with the boat going over the nelson particularly picking up the mooring in a 3 or 4 knot tide.
 
Others have said this already: check out what the tide and the wind are doing to your boat beforehand. I sail up downwind side of the trot and parallel to it, and try and get the boat stationary and see how she lies. Last weekend, there was strong gusty wind WITH tide at ca 20degrees of angle relative to the trot. I actually motored in reverse onto the mooring so that the weathercock effect on the bows held the boat in place. The usual motoring into the tide would not have worked very well. I then put the lines over the cleats holding the boat temporarily in place. I then used to haul on one line at a time and fix them over the cleats properly. SWMBO correctly suggested using the winches for this and it worked a treat. Using the winches gave a MUCH better control than faffing around with the engine and a propellor just waiting to get tangled around the mooring lines.

I suppose what you must do is go out there and try it. In extremis, get a line onto one of the buoys and then run a line with the dinghy to the other one and winch yourself on.
 
If you have a trot mooring between bouys and no neighbour alongside.....
When leaving always remember that it is easy to turn the boat around, even singlehanded. That way you can face into the tide, which is particularly important if your boat won't go backwards well.
Arrange the fore and aft line so it is easily split at the buoy, that way you can quickly order things for casting off either side.
With these two things dealt with most of your departure problems are solved. Provided you make the right call with the tide, getting back on is easy, as you have loads to aim at.
 
I have a Parker 275 on a fore and aft mooring in a narrow channel. I dispensed with the connecting line as it just causes worry about motoring over it. When I leave I turn the boat by hand to face down river into the rising tide by taking the stern line to the starboard midline cleat and the bow line to the port cleat. The boat starts to swing to starboard and I can then pivot round the starboard midline cleat into the tide and motor off. On returning after a sail usually into the falling tide I either pick up the stern buoy as I pass and put a long line on it then motor up to the bow one and hook it up, or just go for the bow where the dinghy is and drop back or row down to the other buoy. When it all goes pearshaped I just hang off one buoy until I have sorted myself out. Apart from occasionally looking like an idiot it is quite easy. Have a go!
 
I am on a fore and aft on a river bank.
I have two jack lines between the buoys, one tight to hold the spacing between the buoys and one slack so I can hook it and lift it. I attach the fore and aft mooring lines to the slack jackline before leaving so they are easy to get hold of on return.
The river flow mostly helps but there is a reverse current for a short period on the rising tide.
Leaving - With the wind blowing me off the bank, I hold onto the slack jackline at the stern and the boat turns to ( almost) point down stream.
With the wind blowing me on to the bank, I have to deploy a small Danforth across the river to pull myself off - not easy!
Returning - Against current and being blown on - easy.
Against current and being blown off - not too bad as I motor up close to the jacklines, hook the slack jackline near the bow, attach the fwd mooring lines then walk back holding the slack jackline and attach the aft mooring line.
If the current is running in, I turn the boat around and motor against it to the mooring.
 
Thanks to all for the benefit of your experience - as with everything to do with boat-handling, there are various solutions. I have a useful midships cleat, so my proposed method described below utilises this.

Getting OFF the mooring seems to be the easier part, with plenty of time to think things through. Our pickup-line is continuous with the pickup-buoy permanently in the middle; each mooring-buoy has two heavy duty mooring lines with spliced soft-eyes for dropping over cleats; the pickup-line is shackled to one of the mooring eyes at each end (so it can be easily re-attached the windward side). So to get off mooring:-

1. Warp boat around, if need be, to ensure stemming tide (tide rather than wind is usually the stronger factor, however we have high freeboard and the prevailing winds are usually somewhere on the beam);
2. Re-shackle pickup line to windward mooring-line eyes;
3. Uncleat leeward mooring eyes, move each around and tie to windward ones with small stuff;
4. Drop pickup-line over midships cleat - ready to slip - with pickup-buoy aft of cleat to hold boat in place once all mooring lines have been slipped;
5. Engine running in neutral;
6. Slip remaining stern line - boat should now be hanging off bow line, with pickup-line and stern lines high enough to clear waterline let alone prop;
7. Slip bow mooring line - boat now hanging off pickup-line/buoy at midships cleat;
8. Helm up so tide sheers bows away from lines (or just blow off if beam-wind strong enough);
9. Engage slight forward;
10. Reach forward to slip pickup-line from midships cleat - and get back to tiller/throttle sharpish because you're now under way.

Getting back ONTO the mooring is the bit I'd probably worry about most (but if the conditions were too adverse for a first attempt, then there's usually space on nearby pontoons to temporarily tie up while I wait for weather to moderate or the tide to slacken or turn). So to get back onto the mooring:-

1. Approach (as usual) stemming the tide from leeward of the pickup-line - with only very marginal way on;
2. When pickup-buoy is amidships, engage neutral;
3. Lean forward from cockpit to hook the pickup-buoy with the boathook, then drop the pickup-line over the midships cleat - with the pickup-buoy just aft of the cleat it should hold as all way comes off and the boat falls back with the tide;
5. If strong beam-wind, consider lashing tiller slightly down to prevent bows from blowing off;
6. Move smartly forward, holding the pickup-line as close as possible to the boat as you proceed with it towards the bows - to ensure that any beam-wind doesn't blow the bows off (at which point the long-keel will become 'gripped' by the tide making the problem worse!);
7. Secure the bow mooring-line(s), then go aft to secure the stern lines.

It helped enormously spending half an hour over coffee this morning sketching this all out - with variations for wind-direction.

Babylon
 
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Another point, practice doing it on your own a couple of times when you have crew aboad.
If you get it right, all well and good, get it wrong then as a last resort you have crew to assist.

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I was just thinking that...yes, very good suggestion, thanks.

By way of a bit of thread-drift, I mentally split my available crew list into two sub-categories:
* Those that inform me early on that they'd prefer not to wally about practicing manoevres but want to crack on with the passage or daysail;
* Those that are keen to practice their skills and get to know the boat better, as well as doing passages.
.....funny thing is I prefer the second category! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Just one observation from your plan. sometimes the boat will be more manouverable going astern into the tide rather than stemming. With the propeller at the uptide end the rest of the boat will feather downtide .
 
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