Midships cleat for mooring... or not?

KellysEye

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>For older "teardrop" shaped boats, I'd start about 6" to a foot behind the widest part, for a modern wide transom job, a bit further?

Do you know there is a reason it is called a midships cleat because that's where it goes.
 

TrailerSailer

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I invariably come into my berth using the midships spring as I only have one crew. I know how the boat behaves and that the bow will swing in and strike the pontoon so I fender it appropriately. I cant move the cleat position and would not want to as it is in the right location for rigging springs.
 

duncan99210

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When coming to alongside SWMBO has three lines to hand: bow, stern and midships. Bow and stern lines are looped over the guard rail. The midships line is in her hand. I bring the boat to a standstill with the shrouds adjacent to the required cleat, mooring ring or bollard ashore. SWMBO steps off and makes midships line fast. Reaches on to boat and takes bow or stern line as wind and current dictates, walks to appropriate shore point and secures. Meanwhile, I place engine in neutral, walk to shrouds, pick up remaining line, step ashore and make fast. Simples.
The secret is not to overthink the situation, get a securing line ashore and the calmly sort out the remaining lines.
If single handed and absent someone ashore to take a line, I bring the midships line further aft, step ashore further aft and move a bit more rapidly to get a line secure. Then calmly proceed as above.
 

alan_d

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As far as I'm concerned, this is a Panama:
[image snipped]
Basically any mooring line fairlead that completely surrounds the line, regardless of its location on the ship. Can be freestanding like in the picture or incorporated into a solid bulwark.

I was told that "Panama fairleads" with a closed top were needed because of the locks, where the line would need to lead upwards. Alongside normal quays the lead would always be downwards for a ship of any size, so open-topped fairleads were fine. But nowadays the "Panama" style tends to be fitted regardless, and the term used loosely just means "fairlead", not special kit for the Canal.

On the three ships I sailed on, Panama was the only term ever used for this item, and the term referred to nothing else. I've never heard the "midships cleat" idea.

Pete

That has been my understanding - a Panama fairlead is an O-shaped one, closed at the top.
The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (1976 edition) does not have an entry for Panama fairlead, but does have one for Panama plate:
A metal plate bolted to the lugs of a fairlead to close the gap between them when there is any risk of a hawser or warp jumping out, as for example when a ship is secured alongside a high quay and the hawser comes down through the fairlead at a steep angle. It originated in the Panama Canal where ships have to secure to the sides of the many locks at constantly varying heights as the water level is raised or lowered.
 

MagicalArmchair

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... Then calmly proceed as above.

Ha, so we are working up to that. 'Installed' my midships cleat (this involved using a hammer to 'ease' the cleat onto the T track... I need to whip it off again and modify it to fit my 1970s track I think), and set off. Plenty of opportunity for practise as we are in Chatham marina, which has a lock, and I wanted to refuel at the diesel pontoon. So, off we chug, and exit the berth with little drama (1st mate (the wife) has a little trouble when pulling the bow line through, as it kinked and gets wedged under the cleat), that comes free, and we chug over to the diesel pontoon.

  • 1st go - fuel pontoon - Gentle wind blowing us off the pontoon. We approach, bow and stern line looped over the stanchions, I slow us right down (stb side to, so the propwalk 'noses' us in), 1st mate steps ashore with the midsheet line and puts my little stretchy piece of rope with a tube over it on the cleat on the diesel pontoon. It has a little more length than I would like, never the less, I put her in ahead, steer away from the pontoon, and we calming, some might say expertly, hold our position whilst the 1st mate makes off the bow and stern lines. We look at each other knowingly, have we cracked it? (note, no observers)

    n4s34uYl.jpg

  • 2nd go - lock out - First boat in, port side too. Drat, no midships cleat on that side yet (and after hammering it on stb side, its not going anywhere). I ask the 1st mate to make sure she doesn't snub me when she takes the bow line to the cleat. She nods sagely, snubs me anyway about a boat length from the front of the lock where I was trying to get to and the stern pivots wildly out. I throw a line over a cleat a little aft of hers and all is calm (hopefully no one noticed...)
  • 3rd go - lock in - After a cracking sail (apart from the wailing 1 year old and 4 year old) Fourth boat into the lock. Following light breeze, which would also take us off the stb side aft berth in lock. Tide is coming gently across the front of the lock, so I hold too much speed on and don't take it off quickly enough, but the 1st mate is ready with the midships line. (1st excuse) A helpful stander by grabs the mid ships line out of her hands, she is too polite to tell them to go away, he doesn't sweat it around anything, or hook it over anything, just trys to hang on to it superman style :rolleyes:. 1st mate gets a bow line on to mitigate the situation, however, we still contact gently the very large expensive looking shiny sailing boat ahead of us. I stammer an apology to the skipper of said shiny AWB who is very understanding indeed. My bad of course, too much speed on not taking it off quickly enough. I'm still getting used to this new wizard folding prop of mine (that's the 2nd excuse, I've got loads more :encouragement:). (note, the place is like Butlins, coach loads look on :) )
  • 4th go - back on our finger pontoon - The 1st mate worries the length of rope to the loop is too short, so undoes it from the cleat. We approach the berth, and again, I don't slow down quite quickly enough worrying I will lose steerage. The 1st mate steps off with the midships line, and triumphantly hooks it over the cleat... the only mild fly in the ointment being it is no longer attached anywhere to the boat :). I go ahead and grab it and make it off the the cleat, job done, we are in :).

In all, reasonably successful, however, it is clear we need some fettling of the process.

  • I need to be able to get speed off quicker, for a start. My approach speed was as slow as it could really be given the tide coming into the lock in order to maintain steer age. More revs in astern, more sustained. Get the boat stopped and THEN worry about lines. I was over thinking the lines and not concentrating on the boat handling. I need a couple of hours of just berthing practise to get used to the new prop. Compared to the old three bladed fixed version, takes longer to get the speed off it appears.
  • So, to the subject then - The midships line. Do you have it tied off ready to go with a short length? If its not tied off, there is no way you are going to be able to step ashore with it (note the 4th go above). If it is tied off, surely it'll just be too long to be effective? I am starting to favour a midships genoa car and then taking the line back to the cockpit. That way, you can snare the cleat on the dock, and then sweat it around a winch to suck you into the dock. Now, we have one of these mooring boat hook things, perhaps take the line attached to the hook through the cleat, use the hook to snare our cleat at whatever distance, winch ourselves in, job done.

All good fun this :cool:
 

prv

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[*]So, to the subject then - The midships line. Do you have it tied off ready to go with a short length? If its not tied off, there is no way you are going to be able to step ashore with it (note the 4th go above). If it is tied off, surely it'll just be too long to be effective?

If someone's stepping off with it, just leave plenty of length and have them make it up on the shoreside cleat.

When single-handed and placing it with a boathook, I pass it through the middle of the midships cleat and run it aft to the sheet winch. Initially I leave plenty of length to ensure I don't come up short when reaching with the hook, then as soon as it's on the cleat I pull in the slack at the inboard end. I do have it initially made fast at the winch - a too-long line ashore is usually better than none after losing the end :)

Pete
 

FairweatherDave

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Agree with PRV Pete, nice long line from the sheet winch and stop the boat first. However my qualifications are somewhat armchair from multiple readings of Duncan Wells book on short handed techniques (mentioned in post 44). But I bought it after recommendation here and my wife's reluctance to ever climb off the boat to put a line round a cleat, and my snubbing the boat before I had read about using the winch technique and a longer line. But also I am really keen to try out the midship bridle technique as it does seem so much easier if you don't want to leave the cockpit and have someone not very confident climbing on and off.
PS Enjoyed your detailed account Mark........
 
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duncan99210

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All our mooring lines are just that, long bits of rope. The boat end is fixed to the boat, the shore end is free, no loops or the like. Midships line goes to the selected shore point and is made fast, often leaving 80% of the line in a heap on the quay side. We tried the loop dropped over a cleat idea but gave it up quite quickly as too many places in the Med don't have cleats or bollards but rings........
The other part of our technique is to bring the boat to a dead stop using the motor, not snubbing the boat to a stop with the midships line. This avoids running into things if for some reason the line doesn't get made fast quickly enough and also avoids mashed fingers getting caught between rope and cleat.
That said, it's the final result that matters. If no ships got sunk and no one got drownded, then it worked. Like the pilots say, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing......
 

ex-Gladys

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We always lasso or loop round the shore cleat, and then make the line back up on the midships cleat - the mid line has an eve which goes through the base of the cleat and loops around the horns, leaving plenty of cleat free to snub and make off on...
 
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