Mooring etiquette...what should I have done in this situation?

TQA

New member
Joined
20 Feb 2005
Messages
6,815
Location
Carribbean currently Grenada
sailingonelephantschild.blogspot.com
Herman is too lazy to carry his anchor from the front of his boat to the back and not smart enough to lay out slack and use a line with a rolling hitch on the chain to allow a bow-in moor, so he should be allowed to trample over James' deck?

I am in agreement with this. I usually am accommodating to fellow cruisers but here there is a reasonable solution, the bow in moor. I would not mind people crossing in front of the mast as per the norm in a raft up but trampling through the cockpit - nup.
 

macd

Active member
Joined
25 Jan 2004
Messages
10,604
Location
Bricks & mortar: Italy. Boat: Aegean
Visit site
Be nice - they made a mistake. As another poster said, you may need their help someday.

(sheesh no wonder brits have a poor reputation)

They made a mistake...no shame in that...but one which it was perfectly within their means to overcome. Why should they expect another party of whatever nationality to overcome it for them? Isn't self-reliance one of the bottom lines of sailing? And if the wind had got up, who wants someone else's stern sheering about alongside? It's simply not a safe way of doing things.

That they were on a Rassy is irrelevant. I don't think boat-envy played any part in the OP's behaviour.
 

Tony Cross

Well-known member
Joined
14 Jan 2013
Messages
7,993
Location
Agios Nikolaos, Crete
Visit site
I'm with the OP on this, I would have said no too. They didn't make a mistake, they simply discovered that the quay is not deep enough for them, so either they go somewhere else or they accept that they can't get off. The only exception I'd make is if there was bad weather approaching and there was nowhere else for them to go. Then of course I'd say yes.
 

macd

Active member
Joined
25 Jan 2004
Messages
10,604
Location
Bricks & mortar: Italy. Boat: Aegean
Visit site
I'm with the OP on this, I would have said no too. They didn't make a mistake, they simply discovered that the quay is not deep enough for them, so either they go somewhere else or they accept that they can't get off. The only exception I'd make is if there was bad weather approaching and there was nowhere else for them to go. Then of course I'd say yes.

I'd take a different view, as I suggested in post #22. If bad weather were approaching, boat security trumps crew convenience every time. No way would I want their stern next to my midships. But in the eventuality you describe (which evidently was not the case in this instance), I'd certainly go the extra yard to help them get secure. But if they still wanted to park half-off, then sod 'em.
 

prv

Well-known member
Joined
29 Nov 2009
Messages
37,361
Location
Southampton
Visit site
I did suggest this to them,but they said that they did not have a stern anchor, which I thought was a bit odd ,
No dinghy...no kedge.

What sort of moron goes cruising in the med without a stern anchor? Or have lazy lines become so prevalent since I was last there that they can get away with it? Obviously not, or he wouldn't have this problem. I assume it's his own boat, as I can't imagine a charter company running Hallberg Rassys (apart from this point, the make of boat is irrelevant), so it's a problem entirely of his own making. But he could solve it by bringing the bow anchor (I assume he has one of those?) around to the stern - or he could even lay it over the bow as normal and then turn around and only have to shift the chain aft.

Pete
 

jaba

Member
Joined
16 Nov 2006
Messages
158
Location
Italy - Milan
Visit site
What sort of moron goes cruising in the med without a stern anchor? Or have lazy lines become so prevalent since I was last there that they can get away with it? Obviously not, or he wouldn't have this problem. I assume it's his own boat, as I can't imagine a charter company running Hallberg Rassys (apart from this point, the make of boat is irrelevant), so it's a problem entirely of his own making. But he could solve it by bringing the bow anchor (I assume he has one of those?) around to the stern - or he could even lay it over the bow as normal and then turn around and only have to shift the chain aft.

Pete

stolen boat???
 

Appleyard

Well-known member
Joined
23 Oct 2004
Messages
4,380
Location
UK
Visit site
Thanks for all the replies.it would seem that my response was sensible,particularly as this orning,a dinghy materialised from somewhere and conveyed them shorewards.
I will always go out of my way to help someone out,but I feel that in this instance they were at it.

Happy days...now in Lipsi.
 

Cardo

Active member
Joined
3 Oct 2005
Messages
4,231
Location
In a plastic tub!
www.yacht-tinkerbell.co.uk
Rafting when a quay is full is one thing, I have no problem with it. But using you as a gangplank because they can't reach the shore is taking the Michael. They would be walking along the entire length of your boat each time, on our boat it would give us no privacy whatsoever and would disturb anything we were doing in the cockpit.

As for saying they're not carrying a dinghy and then one materialising when they didn't have an alternative, I think I'd be sharing a word or two with them if they'd been giving us dirty looks. Sounds like they would rather inconvenience you than inflate the dinghy. Lazy buggers.
 

BoyBlue49

Active member
Joined
1 Oct 2007
Messages
1,290
Location
Essex countryside
Visit site
Us Brits certainly do not have a bad reputation, quite the opposite and that is what they were trying to exploit.
Allow them ashore then after they were out of sight, cast off and moor in the next bay.

Oh how the devious mind works.
 

Appleyard

Well-known member
Joined
23 Oct 2004
Messages
4,380
Location
UK
Visit site
Don't suppose you have any witnesses to their saying they don't have a tender, Jamesmar? If you have, they might struggle to make a case if you nicked it...:rolleyes:

As I said,we have moved on to Lipsi today,but an interesting suggestion nonetheless!
We are at this momentbsitting on the terrace at the bakery watching a musical performance byba group from Athens.
They are as tuneful as a chantie, as my old grandpappy would say.
 

Mad Pad

Member
Joined
13 Jun 2011
Messages
615
Location
London,Cork,Montenegro
Visit site
macd,Children may be reading this...his "stern next to my midships"...."sod 'em".....Why not just tell them to bgegru off!!
I'd take a different view, as I suggested in post #22. If bad weather were approaching, boat security trumps crew convenience every time. No way would I want their stern next to my midships. But in the eventuality you describe (which evidently was not the case in this instance), I'd certainly go the extra yard to help them get secure. But if they still wanted to park half-off, then sod 'em.
 
Joined
23 Jul 2012
Messages
4,883
Visit site
... and posting uncomplimentary remarks about the beastly British on some German yachting forum. :)
Think yourself lucky they weren't Austrians!

We are currently suffering rather close espagnioles who have decided to anchor in what was already the smallest gap between any two yachts in the anchorage.

I have been told that it is done that way in Los Rias!
 
Last edited:

macd

Active member
Joined
25 Jan 2004
Messages
10,604
Location
Bricks & mortar: Italy. Boat: Aegean
Visit site
macd,Children may be reading this...his "stern next to my midships"...."sod 'em".....Why not just tell them to bgegru off!!

Oops. That was one entendre I hadn't noticed. For some reason which escapes me, it puts me in mind of Frankie Howerd, so I'll just say "Titter ye not".
I wonder how the old poof would have dealt with Jamesmar's Germans (to keep it ever-so-slightly on-thread). Might have been fun watching.

P.S. Going even more wildly off-topic, Frankie Howerd put me in mind of Tommy Copper and, just like that, I found this gem on Wiki:
...he was acknowledged as the tightest man in show business, with a pathological dread of reaching into his pocket." One of Cooper's stunts was to pay the exact taxi fare and when leaving the cab to slip something into the taxi driver's pocket saying, "Have a drink on me." That something would turn out to be a tea bag.
 
Last edited:
Top