Lassoing a pontoon cleat

[Elessar]

Here's a miracolous idea;

how about using a boat hook for those hard to lassooe jobs ?!

I've never had to lassoe anything in 40 odd years of sailing; and for the poster who seemed to think I ' only ' sail 22' boats, not so, I've owned a 30' and sailed many other larger boats ta very much; however " ye cannae change the laws of physics Captain ! " and good handling stays the same, including springing on.

well I can't reach the pontoon with a boathook from my helm for a start. Too much freeboard.

But when I sail something lower, I always either drop the rope as in PVBs description, or lassoo. Depends on the conditions and the boat.

When you've got it held with a boat hook, you are not going to be able to motor against it to hold the boat. You have to get a rope on. One handed. Lassoo it and the rope is on.

The final benefit for learning to lassoo is when you muck up the approach, the lassoo will reach quite a way to save going round and trying again.

But each to their own, the hook obviously works for you.

 

[johnalison]

I saw a gadget for sale in the Netherlands for looping a line over a lock bollard. It looked a bit like a tennis racket with a groove on the outside but I imagine that a long-handled version could be made to do the same for a shore cleat.

 

[Seajet]

I saw a gadget for sale in the Netherlands for looping a line over a lock bollard. It looked a bit like a tennis racket with a groove on the outside but I imagine that a long-handled version could be made to do the same for a shore cleat.

I had a gadget like that; I called it ' Mrs Seajet ' but it went faulty after a while so I have to use the emergency manual over-ride mode myself.

 

[snooks]

Around 3 minutes 50

Think Pavarotti

 

[sailorgirl]

Here's a miraculous idea;

how about using a boat hook for those hard to lassooe jobs ?!

I learnt to lasso when the skipper banned me from buying yet another boat hook after I'd bent a shiny new extending boathook so badly it wouldn't contract, it was I think our third new one in as many months - all victims of my inability to relase it quickly enough from a mooring buoy in Langstone Harbour with a "bit of tide" running. Several years later we still have the wonky boat hook and I am adept as my other half at lassoing using the aforementioned two sets of coils method.

 

[prr]

I often come in to berth either single-handed or with a non-sailing crew. I either lasso a cleat, or use a brilliant releasable metal clip on a warp at the end of a stick to lock on to the pontoon cleat, and sort out the other lines at leisure.

Taking the Thames riverboat a few times recently, I've noticed the crew doing a lasso of the pontoon cleat, from much more distance than I can, and getting it right almost every time. Something to do with how you hold the loop with the first part of the bight, and then flick it outwards to keep the loop open when it falls towards the cleat.

OK, how's it done?

This is not about the order of warps, midships cleats etc, nor about the devices for grabbing cleats and buoys at a distance. Simply, how do you best lasso a pontoon cleat?

I use to work on a small passenger ferry & had to do this in front of an audience, without getting stage fright! One place only had an old bolt sticking out of a wooden pile & was a good 15ft throw upwards at low tide. Its easier with nylon rope thats been exposed to the weather for a few years, & has gone stiff. the eye should be about the size of a dustbin lid when opened out into a loop.

 

[onesea]

...for a pint?

Mum and Dad did that to me and my sis at 11 and 13 years old.

In the days of Sunday 3pm closing we arrived in the locks as the ropes went up one of them noticed the time. They ran to the pub we finished locking in moored up (34' long keel wooden), then went and played skimming stones with the slate on the beach outside the pub. We where duly passed Seabrook crisps (I think really strong flavors) and bottles of coke through the window during the lock in...

 

[PilotWolf]

Practise!! I got very good at it from some impressive distances with big lines when I was crewing and the as Mate, rarely do it now so probably out of practice.

Was very impressed to see a deckhand on one of the whale watching boats here actually put a double figure of 8 over a pontoon cleat and finish it with a half hitch from about 12 feet up using probably 16mm rope! I was never that good

W.

 

[Seajet]

Practise!! I got very good at it from some impressive distances with big lines when I was crewing and the as Mate, rarely do it now so probably out of practice.

Was very impressed to see a deckhand on one of the whale watching boats here actually put a double figure of 8 over a pontoon cleat and finish it with a half hitch from about 12 feet up using probably 16mm rope! I was never that good

W.

Pilotwolf,

I was never that good either !

When I was deckhand on a 280 ton, 38 metre hotel barge on the Burgundy canals, the standard method when entering a lock was for me to drop a bowline on the end of the forward line over a bollard on shore as we went past, then surge the line around a couple of deck bollards to stop the boat.

Then one week the barge was chartered by 3 generations of one American family; the seniors were wonderful people, the Grandfather owned a marina and 2 golf courses, and had sailed the Atlantic several times with his Ivy League son, both great people to chat with.

However, the Son in Law was a serious Hippy of the type I thought only existed on ' The Simpsons '...

As we entered a lock one day I strolled forward at the usual quick pace, to find this character on the foredeck in the way of the bollards, eyes closed, arms stretched up to the heavens; sensing me there beside him ( wondering ' how the hell do I deal with this one ?! ' ) he said " I'm being a tree ! "

I replied " well could you plant yourself a touch to your right please Sir, or we're going to crash ! "

 

[Billjratt]

We use a waterpipe-stiffened long reach loop reasonably successfully -but are sometimes fooled when visiting ultra-short pontoons... HOWEVER I get the impression the OP is talking about the casual ease with which seasoned bargees lob a loop of hawser over their shoulder and - without looking to check acccuracy - walk the 100-odd feet forward to repeat the operation. (As seen in french locks).
They are using very heavy rope with a big loop, but there is still a knack in keeping the loop open during flight, once that's been mastered, you have a huge loop round a small target - bearing in mind we are using bollards on a flat quayside here...
We have added another piece of waterpipe (blue underground stuff) to the seaward horn of the cleat on our berth, suitably heat-treated to curve obscenely upwards, the loop is easily dropped over it even when the skipper makes a poor job of docking. ( We can't see the pontoon from the wheelhouse of our motor-sailer, so need to add some sight poles I think)

 

[Zagato]

How about one of these for bollards

http://www.force4.co.uk/Search/850445/

These are good for pontoon cleats apparently, pricey though!

http://www.force4.co.uk/Search/840148/

 

[Elessar]

How about one of these for bollards

http://www.force4.co.uk/Search/850445/

These are good for pontoon cleats apparently, pricey though!

http://www.force4.co.uk/Search/840148/

I really can't beleive all these nonsense gadgets. You have rope anyway - so it's free!

 

[onesea]

I really can't beleive all these nonsense gadgets. You have rope anyway - so it's free!

Yes and no... If it made berthing less stressful then I would buy it, as it is I have no particular need at my regular berth...
Although there we have bought an extra boat hook to make it easier...

When going into a unknown berth then you either have to plan far in advance or these toys are useless... As you say it comes down to rope work..

If saves damaging yours or others equipment then these gadgets are not a bad idea...

 

[kingfisher]

****There's a simple secret to it:
You need to stand a few feet away from the cleat where the rope is attached. If you stand right next to the boat cleat, the bight will never open up. The distance between yourself and the cleat is actually the width of the bight.***

So
- one end attached to the cleat on the boat
- stand a few feet away from the cleat.
- the other end in hand, or even under the foot
- grab an amount of coils that you feel comfortable with to throw (enough weight to give it a swing, not too much for it to get tangled)
throw the coils to the pontoon. Some will catch the cleats.
- throw at the pontoon.

If you are lassoeing a recessed cleat in a wall (in a lock) make sure that the coils are smaller than the recess in which the cleat is housed.

 

[Marmalade]

I've been experimenting with single handed techniques - including getting through our lock using just one line. I've been putting a stern line on and motoring against it to keep the boat against the wall. Some of the posts here have made me wonder whether a midships line is a better option.... thoughts?

 

[gasdave]

I was also taught that lassooing is easier if you dip the rope/coils in the water first....helps to make them heavier and, as has already been said, heavier bight/coil is easier to throw.

 

[pvb]

I've been experimenting with single handed techniques - including getting through our lock using just one line. I've been putting a stern line on and motoring against it to keep the boat against the wall. Some of the posts here have made me wonder whether a midships line is a better option.... thoughts?

Midships line every time. By steering with the engine running in forward gear, you can pivot the boat - firstly to get the bows close to the wall to get a line on (loosely), and then to bring the stern in to end up parallel to the wall.

 

[onesea]

Midships line every time. By steering with the engine running in forward gear, you can pivot the boat - firstly to get the bows close to the wall to get a line on (loosely), and then to bring the stern in to end up parallel to the wall.

Just be aware this does not work on all boats... My present boat with line mid ships and steaming on it will pivot on it until the bos is touching the pontoon , even with the helm hard over.. I have had the same experience on a Sigma 38.

Solution is to move the "midships" rope aft until you find the point she pivots on. At which point it line is no longer a midships line .

What we have found works for us 2 up is to have a line attached to the toe rail at about the right point lead back to the jib sheet winch. The lines person can then hook this bight of rope over the appropriate cleat using a boat hook. The helms person can then control the slack with the tail from the jib sheet, and control engine and tiller to keep the boat parallel.. The lines person then has time to step ashore and advise the helm on positioning the boat and moor as appropriate.

 

[pvb]

Just be aware this does not work on all boats... My present boat with line mid ships and steaming on it will pivot on it until the bos is touching the pontoon , even with the helm hard over.. I have had the same experience on a Sigma 38.

Solution is to move the "midships" rope aft until you find the point she pivots on. At which point it line is no longer a midships line .

Strange, it's worked well for me on every yacht I've tried it on. Your "solution" seems counter-intuitive, as moving the mooring line further aft reduces the turning moment produced by the steered prop thrust.

 

[geoid96]

I saw a gadget for sale in the Netherlands for looping a line over a lock bollard. It looked a bit like a tennis racket with a groove on the outside but I imagine that a long-handled version could be made to do the same for a shore cleat.

Did you mean one of these?

http://www.bogrip.nl/