Mooring etiquette

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walker

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I was just reading the latest Blue Ensign and swinging moorings debates and wondered if I might crib (yet more) advice from SBers. If rafting (lets assume alongside a non-private berth) is the only option short of going elsewhere, and assuming there are no other issues such as relative boat size, is a boat 'entitled' to raft against another, or is the already moored boat 'entitled' to refuse to allow rafting. Obviously where possible and there was a reasonable alternative, I would (unless in a really bad mood) choose not to be provocative, but I am interested in the situation where the alternative is so unpleasant that I would rather put up with the moans. Could the fixed boat simply refuse to allow me to tie up to them, or if I insisted, refuse to allow me access across their decks?

Cheers for any advice.

Mark
 
Salcombe Harbour Authority took a rather dim view of this chap's behaviour. I was very polite and the asking is usually a formality, followed by at least a sundowner with the new neighbours. Most visitor moorings down our way are set up to take up to three boats rafted on them. They are public access and nobody has rights to have a mooring to themselves. In high season, everbody expects to raft. It is up to the boat coming on to choose the most appropriate boat to raft alongside, with similar height topsides and spreaders that won't clash, or a boat so large it's like mooring to a harbour wall. the only time it is not acceptable is if the weather is deteriorating, or there is a swell that could end up with damaged boats. Suitably fendered and moored boats should not damage each other most of the time. In Salcombe, the harbour master moves all the boats upstream if the weather is getting worse and the swell starts rising. I could have forced myself on this chap and been " right" but hate conflict, so went upstream to the bag. The other moorings were already rafted.

In summary, harbour authorities expect boats to raft. ( Still the same charge though)
 
In many harbours there is no alternative to rafting and the harbourmaster may direct you alongside another boat. Under those circumstances a refusal to allow you alongside may get the offender a bollocking from the HM or even eviction.

In other cases it is down to courtesy. You should ask politely, don't pick on boats much smaller than yourself or with incompatible topsides. The new arrival should provide the warps and fenders and put bow and stern lines to the quay.

The host should accept rafting though there are those who try to avoid it by putting up signs saying "leaving 0500". Call their bluff.

We almost always welcome new arrivals to raft on us as it makes for a more social gathering.

You should walk softly across their decks, only cross via the foredeck and never look down hatches. And don't swing yourself by their guardrails.
 
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The host should accept rafting though there are those who try to avoid it by putting up signs saying "leaving 0500". Call their bluff.


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I have helped on more than one occasion by rousing the boat I am rafted to when they have obviously overslept their intended departure time /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Colin
 
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We almost always welcome new arrivals to raft on us as it makes for a more social gathering.

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Hear Hear....

My experience is that the VAST majority of people are completely OK with rafting... and I have had some great nights sharing bottles with rafted neighbours.... for me this sociable element is one of the pleasures of sailing...

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The host should accept rafting though there are those who try to avoid it by putting up signs saying "leaving 0500".

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If I am genuinely leaving at 05h00, i'll usually ask what time they are intending to leave, and unless we are in the thick of a major meal production, offer to allow a new arrival onto the inside of a raft.... 9 times out of 10 this is accepted, and it usually makes for a pleasant evening, with an invite on board for a beer or two... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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I have helped on more than one occasion by rousing the boat I am rafted to when they have obviously overslept their intended departure time /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

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The funniest thing about calling their bluff is that those who only said it to put you off rafting seldom have the cheek not to go!
 
Yep your always entitled to raft if there is still sufficient room in the fareway for other boats to pass. Although in one French harbour there ended up only being a gap big enough for a rowing boat between the raft and the berths on the other side of the harbour.

Best etiquette I've found so far was from a French boat in a Spanish harbour, they rafted on us whilst we were in town and we returned to find a nice bottle of red in the cockpit which we of course shared with our new neighbours.

If I ever don't want to be rafted I'll anchor, or take a bouy.
 
slightly different question

Obviously I agree with what has been written about rafting against another boat moored alongside.

However, I do not think that a boat is entitled to lie alongside another boat which is lying to an anchor, unless invited.
 
Re: slightly different question

I can't imagine going up to an anchored boat and asking to come alongside- I think you'd deserve a fairly sharp response. I think the arguments only hold true to public visitor moorings and pontoons.
 
Re: slightly different question

As ever, fine balanced advice. I will always prefer to raft alongside a welcoming boat - as many have mentioned, the social opportunities make it daft not to. But you have also given me the confidence to 'insist' if the alternative is simply not palatable. Now lets hope I never have to put it to the test. Flying to Croatia in the am for three weeks - longest trip since a student and so excited at pretending to be a vagbabond again for a while. One day I'll grow up, but not before I die I hope.
 
i was aboard a workboat with tyres for fenders not very nice to raft on strong wind and swell in the harbour.

A moboat lining up to raft on us ,me trying to speak to him ,him ignoring me totally.When he was finally made fast alongside with a newly bent stantion post for his trouble he finally chose to acknowledge me so I could tell him we were leaving in 5 minutes.... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
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Best etiquette I've found so far was from a French boat in a Spanish harbour, they rafted on us whilst we were in town and we returned to find a nice bottle of red in the cockpit which we of course shared with our new neighbours.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure it was poor etiquette, but I was fairly surprised to find a Belgian boat rafting outside me in Zierikzee a couple of years ago before I'd secured my warps, let alone thought about shorelines. They subsequently turned out to be fairly impolite, which didn't surprise me.

FF
 
Re: slightly different question

how about rafting to bouys, as in Alderney, Newtown or Itchenor? I think there is no question that rafting to pontoons is a fact of life but less sure about bouys, even though these often able to take several boats I feel less confident about going alongside!
 
Re: slightly different question

If you put enough boats on a swinging mooring in quiet weather you end up with a shape like a flower with the buoy in the center ,if each one pulls its bow in tight.

Only seen it done once very pretty and you could go round in a circle having a drink on each one before collapsing back into your own cockpit.
 
Re: slightly different question

Mmm- sounds very artistic and pretty, but not terribly practical. I like it. If you stuck a little outboard on the outside, you could get the whole shape to spin for a while.
 
Re: slightly different question

Tied up to poole quay once, no other boats there, a guy came alongside and started to get ready to raft alongside, said "take my warps" No! I said whats wrong with the rest of the quay? He just wanted to use me as a pontoon/fender! If there was no room, OK, no problem, but what a damn cheek, just because we are a big lump! In Holland rafting is a way of life, nobody would dare complain! But only when theres no space left. I have no trouble atall with rafting, as long as they leave my fenders behind and dont wander off with them, as happened in falmouth one year!! French boat though!
 
Re: slightly different question

In some places rafting on swinging moorings is done if it is busy, Salcombe and Alderney are such. However if the conditions justify I believe the etiquette is that the first arrival has the right to ask others to leave. This leaves it a little open to defining what conditions really justify asking others to depart and personally I would avoid getting into this situation if at all possible. For example I would avoid the visitor buoys in downtown Salcombe and go up round the corner to the pontoons (and safe rafting) in the Bag and in Alderney would anchor rather than raft up. In both Salcombe lower river and in Alderney conditions can change quickly as the tide turns or a swell starts, even on a windless day, not a place to be rafted up IMO.
 
Tobermory during West Highland Week has an interesting variant. The numerous visitors' mooring bouys are usually full, with typically 3 boats on each.

Later arrivals from the passage race up from Oban simply drop a hook right in among the crowded moorings, then invite their mates to raft up on them - 4, 5, even 6 of the b*****s. Their feral children are sent off to whizz around the harbour at max speed, uncontrolled, in inflatables.... thumping into others and spilling everyone's sundowners.

It takes little imagination to imagine the chaos when a breeze comes up.

So it's Les Sept Isles this year, instead.
 
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