Med mooring bows too. how to get off?

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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For us going in stern first when Med mooring is easier to enable us to get on and off the boat.

As you know there are occasions and places when it makes more sense to go in bows first.

Our bow is quiet high and there is no gap in the metal bit to allow is to climb through.

I have seen all sorts of contraptions attached to the bow and even some welded to the anchor to facilitate getting on and off. Most don't look very trustworthy. Only yesterday we saw a French woman go for a unscheduled swim in her nice white evening clothes.

Has anyone found a simple but safe way of getting on and off from the bow?

Thanks for any replies.
 
If the bow is high - as it is on most reasonable size cruising boat then there is no option but to devise some kind of intermediate step between the bow and the quay. A split pulpit helps as at least you usually have a step, but you still need a ladder or a ramp. If you have a passerrel it may be possible to fit an extra socket on the foredeck and use that with a spinnaker halyard as an uphaul and lines to the bow cleats to stop it from swinging.

However, think you have to accept that stern to is by far the best from an access point of view.
 
I reckon any getting-off contraption needs to come over the side a couple of feet back from the bow, not right over the stemhead itself. A basic version would be a length of 2x4 running from one toe-rail to the other, and overhanging one side (let's say starboard side) by 18" or so. Lashed down to both toe-rails, the port one especially tightly to stop it rising up, so that it projects at 90º to the boat's centreline. Then you run a traditional mediterranean plank (with grip battens nailed across it) from the 2x4 to the quay. A batten on the underneath of the plank to hook over the 2x4 would be useful, plus some efficient lashing work. Lift up the shoreside end on a spinnaker halyard if desired, just like a stern plank.

I'm sure a fancy teak-and-stainless version could be made to a similar design, with pivots, sockets and hinges instead of lashings :)

EDIT: Depending on how far out from the quay you are, and hence the steepness or shallowness of the gangway, the plank may be better replaced by a ladder. But the projecting beam is the crucial bit.

Pete
 
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Nostrodamus said:
For us going in stern first when Med mooring is easier to enable us to get on and off the boat.

As you know there are occasions and places when it makes more sense to go in bows first.

Our bow is quiet high and there is no gap in the metal bit to allow is to climb through.

I have seen all sorts of contraptions attached to the bow and even some welded to the anchor to facilitate getting on and off. Most don't look very trustworthy. Only yesterday we saw a French woman go for a unscheduled swim in her nice white evening clothes.

Has anyone found a simple but safe way of getting on and off from the bow?

Thanks for any replies.
Click to expand...

In a word, no! Fortunately stern-to (not too) is far more common despite the loss of privacy. Perhaps in places where the quayside has rudder-threatening rocks the bar on the quay will co-operate by providing a set of steps, or at least a chair, to take the questing foot...

It does also help to have a Bruce-type anchor dangling from the roller so you can step onto its fluke after climbing over the side of the pulpit. But none of it is the sort of thing you want to do when dressed in a long frock!

Mike.
 
I go bow-to more frequently than stern-to, which is anyway easier manoeuvring with my long-keeler. I'm fortunate in having a dip in the pulpit to step through but have to lower the Rocna on its chain to clear the bow roller to step on. I then fit a s.s. ladder to the roller that I had made up and store in a cockpit locker.

As the neighbour boats are usually stern-to I have the advantage of not being cheek-by-jowl with a large group living in the cockpit.

Once in a while I enjoy watching the passing scene and choose to moor up stern-to; the cosy little harbour deep in the town of Grado, Italy, is a case in point and I have had some interesting contact with some who stop their promenade along the harbour-side and want to talk.
 
If you are still at Almerimar the stainless steel fabricators there can make an extension that goes on the side of your bow roller that consists of a S.S. Bar with a top hat fitting that a passsarelle can fit onto. We had ours done and used a motorcycle ramp as the passarelle. Can of course also be used as per normal at the stern.
We saw a very nasty accident in Menorca with a chap falling off his 'heath Robinson' type fitting, which had broken and his rib cage was penetrated by the sharp end that was left. Fortunately he was treated at Hospital and recovered, but it did make us glad we had found a better solution.
Having said that we only used it on the very occasional marina stops as we much preferred to go stern to in Greece as it made getting up the anchor easier.
 
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With the amount of boats in the Med I am surprised that boat builders do not incorporate something in the design or even offer it as an add on.
 
I knew a chap who drowned in Tomas Maestre Marina. He returned to his Colvic after many scoops at about midnight; it would appear that he slipped on the anchor as he climbed over the high pulpit, cracked his head on the concrete pontoon and was found under his keel three days later.

As he is a teetotal Salvationist, I know this would never happen to Nostro but if I were him I would stick to stern to.
 
Nostrodamus said:
With the amount of boats in the Med I am surprised that boat builders do not incorporate something in the design or even offer it as an add on.
Click to expand...

But they do - see the link above for some aftermarket designs. Others have had custom built arrangements such as a recent Rustler 44 with a stainless removable version of the method suggested by prv earlier. Little difficulty in getting some sort of ladder arrangement made if it is important for you.
 
Nostrodamus said:
For us going in stern first when Med mooring is easier to enable us to get on and off the boat.

As you know there are occasions and places when it makes more sense to go in bows first.
Our bow is quiet high and there is no gap in the metal bit to allow is to climb through.

I have seen all sorts of contraptions attached to the bow and even some welded to the anchor to facilitate getting on and off. Most don't look very trustworthy. Only yesterday we saw a French woman go for a unscheduled swim in her nice white evening clothes.

Has anyone found a simple but safe way of getting on and off from the bow?

Thanks for any replies.
Click to expand...

A Fender Step, with a spinny halyard taken forward as a 'hand rail'?
 
I nearly always berth bows to.

Either use the genniker A-frame for getting on and off, occasionally (as in Xania with a high quay) a ladder with ply insert which serves as a passarelle, inserted into the pulpit cut-out.
With a windpilot astern, single-handed and a manual windlass bows-to is infinitely preferable to stern-to.
In those places with a low pontoon (mainly marinas) I have to use the rod, between the anchor-flukes as a step.
Nearly all the Scandanavian-owned boats have a ladder which clips over the pulpit for bows-to mooring.
 
Apparently most boats in the med moor stern too and in the Northern Baltic a lot moor bow too. Don't know why.
I agree that I have seen most of the Scandinavian boats with a simple ladder that hooks to purpose made contraption on the bow.
We do prefer stern too but on a shallow wall it is preferable to go bow first.
Now seen three people fall in off the bows in the last two days (I must have too much time on my hands).
I need something but being a tight Northern person with no money I will have to adapt something.
Have to keep the wife from falling in before she castrates me for the 41st time this month.
 
Have known people seriously hurt themselves falling in, from recollection always when well under the influance, worst one a lady in Gib who then needed a blood transfusion and skin graft :( Fell in once, very cold Swansea water after a yacht club lock in - stupid me..!
Fender step sounds like a brilliant idea. Must have been a splashing day yesterday what with the French lady and your swmbo!
 
For us at least, if the bottom is bad enough for us to need to berth bows-to we'd rather go somewhere else. Our bows are too high for us to get aboard easily when bows-to.

Although it's not very scientific I just walked along the pontoons in the marina here. On A & B pontoons (for boats over 40ft) everyone is moored stern-to, on pontoons C & D (for boats under 40ft) several are moored bows-to. I think it's much easier to get on and off a smaller yacht bows-to than a bigger one. And yours is a big one I hear Nostro? I mean your yacht of course! :p
 
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