Marina Berthing Line Handling

From my experience most marinas around the uk will send someone down to take your lines - however it's usually easier (and much more pleasant) to do it yourself. When i teach i have a golden rule - never jump and never shout. If the person going ashore with a line has to jump, the helm didn't get close enough, so should go out and try again.
 
In my experience I have observed that in ports and marinas around Britain and Ireland, custom and practice is that leisure boaters do it themselves, or with the help (or occasionally hindrance )of casual bystanders. While chartering in Mediterranean waters however, I found that the berthing is mainly stern-to, occasioning the crew to pick up the "slime-line" while the stern lines are taken around bollards and handed back by personnel employed to do so.
I think the point of leisure boating is that it's all about doing it yourself.
 
brokethebox said:
From my experience most marinas around the uk will send someone down to take your lines
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I think almost all will if asked, but in my experience on the south coast it's uncommon (though not totally unknown) for them to do so spontaneously.

I'm quite happy with that - assuming I have crew with me, I much prefer to have them step off and handle the lines since we all know what to expect. And although I'm sure they don't mean it, sometimes having a member of staff standing by can feel uncomfortably like an audience :)

Definitely no staff line-handlers at our home berth; no VHF to call in and no staff on site at all out of hours.

Pete
 
I think Sutton Harbour, as mentioned by BlueChip, is the only place in the UK where someone has come out (unasked) to take my lines. It was appreciated but it doesn't occur to me to ask for help if I have an able crew.

I consider myself at the cautious end of the spectrum and have a clear "STEP ashore, no heroic leaps" part of the safety briefing but the freeboard on a 12m yacht generally does make that "step" a bit of a jump even with the boat stopped and fenders touching the pontoon. If the OP regards that kind of "jump" risky (which is what I'm possibly wrongly interpreting from that post) then I'd say his/her risk threshold might not be suited to yachting as a leisure pastime.
 
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I have always found that given enough notice, say an hour, marinas will send someone down if you ask. I always make a point of asking for a berth that suits the particular conditions of the day too and have generally been obliged.
As an aside, when we chartered from the Whitsundays the marina staff take the yacht safely out of the marina and get taken ashore in a RIB, vice versa on your return!
 
If single handing I usually ask for help when arriving in a new marina or port - most outfits are OK with this and seem to prefer it as it reduces the chance of sorting out a collision. Most of my experience is "up North" where if you circle a couple of times then anyone on board their own boat seem to be very willing to come out to help. If you arrive "out of hours" then you can probably find a fuel berth which is very easy temporary berth to secure on.
If you want a team of lackies to be stood waiting to greet your arrival in a 7.5m boat then I think you will need special arrangements in most marinas as you will normally be expected to be able to handle this yourself.
 
I should have added...the only time I have asked for help was leaving Brixham Marina a few years ago. I had a single (inexperienced) crew, I hadn't had the boat long and had 20-something knots of wind from an awkward direction. All I asked for was someone to slip the bow line. The marina staff refused saying that if anything went wrong they didn't want to be liable.

Never been back to Brixham since.
 
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Brightlingsea HM staff always meet you in their dory at the outer posts, lead you to the berth, and when you get there, are on the pontoon to take your lines (and your money ;))
 
Mariner69 said:
There have been a lot of discussions as to how spring lines can be attached when short handed.

I come from a large vessel background so am used to entering a port and having line gangs to take the mooring lines and place the eye on the shore bollard. The cost of the line gangs is met in the port fees.

When I come into a marina in my small boat, I prefer not to put me or any other person on the pontoon by jumping since, to my mind, it is dangerous. If I have a crew I might send the dinghy ahead to provide me with one or more line handlers to put the eyes on the bollards and the lines are secured inboard.

If I am paying for this marina berth (particularly as a visitor where I am not able to rig the fancy lines of known length) am I not entitled to expect the marina to provide a line handler to assist me when I berth, the cost being within the fee?

Just asking.
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You need to learn to lasso. Or if you have the room just gaan cany when coming in have a spring rigged and as you come alongside drop it onto the shore cleat then just hard over and touch ahead to hold you in alongside. At the end of the day in a wee boat if your going slow you won't damage anything too much if you have a wee bump.
 
My 2'000 berth, Italian marina would never send anyone to take lines unless a passing marinaro, who may be on their regular line-checking patrols, be near the pier. As all berths are stern-to (or bow-to) it is not too difficult to pass through the outer posts and gently power back, well fendered between neighbour boats to either step ashore to pick up stern lines left ready, or retrieve with a boathook.

Or if lucky as I am by having an outer berth, slip in from the side putting the bow between the outer posts; go forward to the inner one to attach a midships spring, back to the engine controls for a burst in reverse to bring the stern in. All regularly done single-handed with a 31', 7-ton motor-sailor.

I dislike an audience (when something is sure to go wrong) or pierside 'helpers' wanting to pass my stern lines long before my routine requires it. But that is in my own berth where my own lines are fixed to posts and pier - foreign marinas (infrequently used) someone to take the stern (or bow) lines to pass back after placing around a bollard, can be welcome ... when properly done and not just secured, which often happens.

When needing to go alongside a wall for a short time, for example, a customs pier to clear into a country, I prepare bow, stern and a midships line before the approach, place the boat where the midships line can reach a ring or other attachment point then go ashore with bow and stern lines. No jumping, no drama ... usually ... There were some exceptions during the early days but we don't talk about those :o
 
cryan said:
You need to learn to lasso. Or if you have the room just gaan cany when coming in have a spring rigged and as you come alongside drop it onto the shore cleat then just hard over and touch ahead to hold you in alongside. At the end of the day in a wee boat if your going slow you won't damage anything too much if you have a wee bump.
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Aye, if ye dinna gan canny, ye'll probably have a wee in ya troosers insteed.....
 
A marina providing assistance with ropes ?
I have never heard of it. But I haven't travelled far.

On our pontoon other boaters do come out to help , if they see a boat coming in, as we do for others, especially if its windy.
In my experience some shore side crew can be more of a nuisance than a help.


.
 
Barnac1e said:
My 2'000 berth, Italian marina would never send anyone to take lines unless a passing marinaro, who may be on their regular line-checking patrols, be near the pier. As all berths are stern-to (or bow-to) it is not too difficult to pass through the outer posts and gently power back, well fendered between neighbour boats to either step ashore to pick up stern lines left ready, or retrieve with a boathook.

Or if lucky as I am by having an outer berth, slip in from the side putting the bow between the outer posts; go forward to the inner one to attach a midships spring, back to the engine controls for a burst in reverse to bring the stern in. All regularly done single-handed with a 31', 7-ton motor-sailor.

I dislike an audience (when something is sure to go wrong) or pierside 'helpers' wanting to pass my stern lines long before my routine requires it. But that is in my own berth where my own lines are fixed to posts and pier - foreign marinas (infrequently used) someone to take the stern (or bow) lines to pass back after placing around a bollard, can be welcome ... when properly done and not just secured, which often happens.

When needing to go alongside a wall for a short time, for example, a customs pier to clear into a country, I prepare bow, stern and a midships line before the approach, place the boat where the midships line can reach a ring or other attachment point then go ashore with bow and stern lines. No jumping, no drama ... usually ... There were some exceptions during the early days but we don't talk about those :o
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Yes N Adriatic and Baltic when you moor between posts, IMHO the easiest way of mooring and one in which you definitely don't want any line-handling gangs. But very localised N of the line Chioggia - Umag and an unlikely area for any commercial mariner to know anything about.
 
I can see I am being short changed on my swing mooring. I shall now expect a man in a wee dingy to meet me at any time day or night to assist me.
 
Chalker said:
My crew STEP ashore, never jump. If she cannot STEP ashore I have got it wrong and do it again. Same goes on the rare occasion I am single handed.
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Midnight @ Lorient, despite my repeated exhortations to step ashore gently, my crew took a running jump, slipped the length of the pontoon and entered the water. Fortunately the warp which she was holding prevented more than a preliminary ducking.
Trouble was she blamed me. The one occasion I was not blamed (directly) was, when ashore arranging to pay for a week in Gelves, she gently reversed off the end of the finger pontoon whilst clearing the shorepower lead away.
It's so much simpler and more civilised to anchor. Costs less too.
 
Chalker said:
My crew STEP ashore, never jump. If she cannot STEP ashore I have got it wrong and do it again. Same goes on the rare occasion I am single handed.
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My crews usually leap ashore with their bags as soon as the pontoon is within reach and head for the nearest railway station :(
 
Camelia said:
I can see I am being short changed on my swing mooring. I shall now expect a man in a wee dingy to meet me at any time day or night to assist me.
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I've even received this service unasked in a few places. I think the last time was in Fowey.

Assistance from other sailors is the norm almost everywhere in my experience. This can be confusing if communication isn't established, as when I saw a chap leave his cockpit, look at me, and then amble off in the other direction.
 
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