Is yacht handling

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Mr Cassandra

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Is yacht handling part of the RYA yacht master test. The reason I ask is yesterday there were so many minor crashes in Poros with boats attempting to med moor.
Even with bowthruster they were pathetic in their attempts, some not even deploying their anchor until 15m or one boat length out.
 
Mr Cassandra said:
Is yacht handling part of the RYA yacht master test. The reason I ask is yesterday there were so many minor crashes in Poros with boats attempting to med moor.
Even with bowthruster they were pathetic in their attempts, some not even deploying their anchor until 15m or one boat length out.
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Were these crashes all yachtmaster holders?

I somehow managed to go about 35 years into my sailing career without ever having to med moor. Then I went on a med charter. I didn't crash into anything, but it's definitely not a method that comes naturally if you've grown up sailing in the UK.
 
Old chestnut - Yes it would if the course was taken in the Med - no in the UK, although backing into a berth would.

Problems with Med mooring is endemic - it is often not easy even for old salts whatever their nationality, age, gender or where they learned or took a test.

Just something you have to live with if you boat in those areas.
 
To be fair Poros is not the easiest of places if you've never done it before, especially if a vomit comet is passing, taking no prisoners in its wake.
 
Mr Cassandra said:
I think you have to have a certificate of competent as a min requirement for chartering.
If reversing into a berth dropping a anchor is behond them, can they be competent?
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Usual requirement is an ICC - and no, it does not require Med mooring specifically.

Get a life - as already said Med mooring, particularly in Greek town quays can be very challenging. Bet you have cocked up more than once. A little bit of patience and consideration goes a long way in minimising the potential aggro.
 
I fear the OP may have misunderstood the terminology for the RYA training. Most charters in Greece will hold only an RYA Day Skipper, some not even that. As Tranona has said, stern to mooring is not an easy evolution. I was taught it on my Day Skipper course, which was run in Greece but if you did your course in UK it wouldn’t have been covered….
The whole process is made much worse than is necessary by folks on boats already moored screaming and shouting at people trying to moor….. I tend to avoid harbours where possible so as to avoid the chaos and confusion of stern to mooring.
 
For a while Sunsail ran day courses for those intending to charter in the Med. This was about 15 years ago, I taught a couple of them. You have to get quite inventive around Portsmouth Harbour to simulate a med moor without actually dropping the hook.
 
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Tranona said:
Usual requirement is an ICC - and no, it does not require Med mooring specifically.

Get a life - as already said Med mooring, particularly in Greek town quays can be very challenging. Bet you have cocked up more than once. A little bit of patience and consideration goes a long way in minimising the potential aggro.
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Get a life? Have you joined the rude brigade
To be honest I have been here 25 years, I think the boat handling skills have deminished over this time, lot relying on thrusters than lining up.
It's fun to watch when it's not endangering you.
 
Mr Cassandra said:
Is yacht handling part of the RYA yacht master test. The reason I ask is yesterday there were so many minor crashes in Poros with boats attempting to med moor.
Even with bowthruster they were pathetic in their attempts, some not even deploying their anchor until 15m or one boat length out.
Click to expand...
Seeing as most Brits can't travel anywhere, why would you assume that all the crashes were caused by holders of an MCA Yachtmaster certificate?

What is your real reason for posting this? A dig at the RYA? Surely not.......?
 
Mr Cassandra said:
If reversing into a berth dropping a anchor is behond them, can they be competent?
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This is not a berthing technique one would ever use in many other places. Here when anchoring it is always to swing free on. If going into a harbour it is generally alongside.
In the Baltic it is generally anchoring from the stern, with many boats not having any bow roller or facility for anchoring from the bow,

Lots of other competencies in sailing, which may be more important
 
Med mooring is a learned skill, unless you are fortunate enough to be in that environment often enough is also a skill that fades.

With our boat I certainly wouldn't practice it here in the UK - the winds & tides are quite a bit different, and the moorings here don't lend themselves to that type of practice session. The reward just ain't worth the risk.

I'm a coastal skipper with enough sea miles and experience to understand the technique required, but if I chartered in the med I'd have limited practical experience so would be probably making a few mistakes.

The assumption that everyone on this forum should know how to med moor, regardless of qualification level is a bit condescending. It's a skill limited in application to a few parts of the world.
 
Clancy Moped said:
Does any RYA course cover med mooring?
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Incidentally - when did “med mooring“ start to be related to stern to mooring?

Reading an old Yachting Monthly, from mid 1990’s the editor referred to “med mooring” - and was taking as read that he was referring to bows to with anchor off the back (as the later comments made clear). And bows to was definitely how we were expected to moor on our first med charter, in Greece around 1995.

By the time we chartered in Croatia in 2000 and something, it was stern to with lazy lines.

So when did the default assumption behind the statement “med mooring” flip by 180 degrees?
 
dunedin said:
So when did the default assumption behind the statement “med mooring” flip by 180 degrees?
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When typical charter boats got so big and high-sided that climbing over the bow became a feat of acrobatics, while their sterns became more and more like an expensive mobo's "teak beach" and so more practical to step off from.

I wonder how many rudders have been smashed over the years at town quays that are plenty deep enough for a local motorboat, or the forefoot of a big yacht? ;)

Pete
 
prv said:
When typical charter boats got so big and high-sided that climbing over the bow became a feat of acrobatics, while their sterns became more and more like an expensive mobo's "teak beach" and so more practical to step off from.

I wonder how many rudders have been smashed over the years at town quays that are plenty deep enough for a local motorboat, or the forefoot of a big yacht? ;)

Pete
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Sounds about right, I was also wondering if it aligned with more vertical bows. I know the Baltic builders avoided plumb bows for as long as possible as a raked bow allowed the bow to get extremely close so that you could step ashore.
 
Moodysailor said:
I know the Baltic builders avoided plumb bows for as long as possible as a raked bow allowed the bow to get extremely close so that you could step ashore.
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That's what ours is like, with a teak step and gap in the pulpit to get off onto your rocky Baltic island. The only use it sees here in the Solent is as a diving board ;)

Also optimised for there rather than here is the dedicated anchor locker in the stern and a small platform in the transom where a windlass could go. The bow anchor arrangements are correspondingly limited - the roller is smaller than I'd like, and there's no good as-built windlass location. The UK dealer squeezed one in, but the arrangement's not ideal.

Pete
 
capnsensible said:
Seeing as most Brits can't travel anywhere, why would you assume that all the crashes were caused by holders of an MCA Yachtmaster certificate?

What is your real reason for posting this? A dig at the RYA? Surely not.......?
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Not at the RYA, possible the many schools that may feel obligated to give a ticket after spending so much money on courses.
 
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