Marina Parking Advice

[rwoofer]

In any sailing boat I would say I'm pretty confident at mooring in marinas - the result of having had a lot of practice in my youth (25 years ago) having to re-shuffle the sunsail fleet at Port Solent at every handover.

However with motorboats I do seem to struggle and today I made a right hash of it. The boat is a Merry Fisher with a single outboard and no other aids such as bowthruster. The situation is as I have drawn below with the fingers to the right full of boats(didn't bother to draw them) with the wind blowing 15 knots or so:






Given the wind direction this was always going to be tricky and if I had any choice in the matter I would not have picked this berth because of the following wind on the approach. As you can see, not enough room to go past the berth and try a vaguely upwind approach. In a sailing boat I could take the direct approach really quite slowly as the bows always get blown downwind. On my MF with a cockpit extension, it seems the stern gets blown first and quite quickly, which is what made this so difficult. Oh, I was singlehanded as well, so no warping techniques could be used.

How would you tackle it?

 

[Firefly625]

We had a single outboard engined merry fisher. I would have approached on tick over turned into the berth and the applied opposite lock in reverse therefore drawing stern into the pontoon. But of course all seems easy sitting on the sofa with a beer in hand…

 

[superheat6k]

Key difference is the lack of keel, so the boat skids over the water, and when going away from the wind I expect the cabin is acting as a sail. Not an easy manoeuvre with just one engine.

Do you have a shaft or outdrive ?

Entry to the opposite fingers with stern way into wind may have been more controllable. Not sure many would have done any better downwind into the finger.

 

[Chamaerops]

Glad to see your MF is getting lots of use. Due to the wind gusts today I took three attempts to get in to a similar berth. Although with our MF it is always the bow that gets blown around ( but no cockpit extension 'sail'). With plenty of room you can use the wind to blow you sideways onto the berth. It does get tricky when you have less space and have to get next to other boats. Some times reversing makes the difference and on other occasions it just needs multiple attempts. Coming alongside when the wind is blowing you away seems to be the hardest. In these circumstances i have taken the advice 'to stop fannying around' and give it a bit more throttle.

 

[Spi D]

I've had outboards or sterndrives from 1968 to 2011, berthed or trailered, single or twin installations. 6 different boats.

A boat with rudder need speed through the water to steer, an outboard steer by turning the prop thust - eg. turn the engine while in neutral, then engage gear (fwd or reverse as you require) to move the rear of the boat. A bit like a car, if you imagine steering with the rear wheels like a forklift.
In reality you do not get any steering from the outboard when not in gear - it's properties a rudder are close to non existent.

Speed is not wanted or needed. Most parking is done at idle however more thrust can be need, as a rule in short moments. I really recommend you practise whenever you can, beginning away from anything approaching an imaginary pontoon/marker.

Watch the use of the outboard:

 

[nimbusgb]

Was that supposed to be a video of a good mooring or a cock-up?

Bow hit the pontoon, fender popped out and it's also opposite orientation to the OP's question!

I'm a raggie driver and reckon I could do better!

 

[Spi D]

Point taken. As noted in the text, that video is an example of the use of an outboard while steering.

 

[rwoofer]

Had a good day out on the Solent today with two well executed "parks". I'll just have to chalk yesterday's versions down to experience....

 

[wipe_out]

I too have a single engine boat with no thruster and was getting it wrong all the time.. As per advise here the best thing was to spend a few hours practising.. Mainly this meant that I was far better able to a)identify early when it was going wrong and b) I could better control the boat OUT again compose myself and have another go..

As far as getting ready I found that I have to "predict" where the boat will blow given the current wind and then compensate on my approach.. This can't be done easily during the attempt because there usually isn't enough space, time or ability to correct the trajectory.. If my prediction wasn't enough I identify it early move out and get into position again and have another go.. I would rather make 2,3 or even 4 attempt to get in and chalk them up and more practise than try and salvage an attempt that is going wrong..