Long fin keel berthing overnight in the mud and long term on a pontoon?

[Stemar]

There's much innocent merriment to be had when someone pushes their luck on Hardway pontoon on a falling tide but it isn't only visitors, club members of long standing get caught out too! The problem is that at that stage of the tide, the water's dropping fast, so you've got seconds to get a line ashore and heave yourself in. If there's no one on the pontoon ready to take your line, you're stuffed.

I've seen many a boat "moored" a boat length from the pontoon over the years - even come close myself once or twice; definitely a time when 28HP in a Snapdragon 24 really isn't too much...

 

[Stemar]

Possibly...but not many! TBH it really is soooo soft it's very hard to tell if you're aground or not. And fear not, no engine impellers or strainers were harmed in the attempt!

I have seen the coastguard do some mud rescue exercises, and people soon become unrecognisable blobs of goop. TBH I've always been far more fearful of falling off the boat into the goop, than into the water...I assume you'd "float" to a degree but I really don't fancy finding out...

You'd float fine. Messily but fine. Just watch the local kids on the public pontoon. Personally, I'd rather stay clean & dry, but I did manage to get a line round my prop on my mooring and had to go mudlarking to get it off once.

 

[Iain C]

I'm not that daft. It was a rising tide. The thing I was pushing was closing time at the bar, hence the ploughing match...