Mooring to piles, stern to docking techniques at Gillingham Marina.???

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thesaintlyone

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At Gillingham Marina Tidal there are pontoons that run up and down with the tide and in front of each berth is a single piling.
See rough pic below


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pomtoon walkway
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What are the techniques I need to employ in order to moor up and in particular singlehanded. There does appear to be permanent lines Running between the piling and the pontoon.
The jouster has both outboard and tiller.

Regards
 
First time: if you go in bows first and stop the boat half way in, and loop a line from the bow round the fore and aft line (windward side), you will not then go anywhere and will be under control to give you time. You can then sort out stern lines through the rings on the posts, and gently motor ahead, feeding out the stern lines until your bows are near the pontoon. Keep the engine in gear forward whilst you move up to the bows and attend to bow mooring lines. You will need springs to keep the bows off the pontoon as the tide goes out as your boat will want to be at a lower level then the pontoon.

After you have made permanent lines up: motor gently bows in; pick up both stern lines and make off. Keep motoring, and if you have made the stern lines the correct length, step ashore and deal with bow lines.

Plenty of fenders either side, at boat fending off height. Gets more interesting in higher wind speed cross wind.
 
Problem with this arrangement as I can see on a previous visit is that all boats are moored stern too the pontoon and a single line to the piling. There is no pontoon runming along the side of the boat from the pontoon to the pilinig
So bow first stepping ashore would be very difficult
 
Majority of boats in Gillingham are bow to.

Edit. - if it is the pontoon I am thinking of, at the moment a lot of them are stern to, but not necessarily true of the rest of the marina.

Further edit. - 2 lines to the piles - they are at the corners of a box.
 
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It could be frustrating not Mooring stern too as access has to be more difficult tho I may try it if its easier and spend the next high tide practiceing my technique.
 
It's a matter of preference, but with a transom hung rudder, and an outboard, you may be better off not having these heading towards a pontoon? I don't know how single handers go stern to, but it is relatively easy from the cockpit to grab lines off the post on the way in. If you do this going backwards you will end up at the bow, fixing lines, when you might want to have access to power and rudder? I have seen plenty of crewed boats in Gillingham go stern to, but struggle to remember seeing a single hander. I have moored bows to hundreds of times single handed, but never tried stern to.
 
I used to keep my old boat at Gillingham and there was no way I could get on and off over the bow, so we had to reverse in and more stern to.

I used to turn in front of the moorings and go past mine, leaving it to starboard ( due to my prop walk). my crew would lasso one of the piles as we went by which gave me more control as I reversed in. (more expert boat-handlers could do it single handed). I had permanent lines between the piles and pontoon to help guide me in. I had permanent lines affixed to the piles that we would grab as going in and these were the bow lines. Stern lines secured to the pontoon.

It was not easy for me and took me a good year to any sort of comfort doing it.

There's a saying at Gillingham "Berthing is a spectator sport only".

Never fear, they are very friendly folk and everyone knows it's tricky, so you will find plenty of help and understanding.
 
Pye_End said:
It's a matter of preference, but with a transom hung rudder, and an outboard, you may be better off not having these heading towards a pontoon? I don't know how single handers go stern to, but it is relatively easy from the cockpit to grab lines off the post on the way in. If you do this going backwards you will end up at the bow, fixing lines, when you might want to have access to power and rudder? I have seen plenty of crewed boats in Gillingham go stern to, but struggle to remember seeing a single hander. I have moored bows to hundreds of times single handed, but never tried stern to.
Click to expand...

If John on Water Gypsy is still there, he can show you how to do it single-handed! He rescued me a few times! He reversed mine in first go on his own.
 
Never fear, they are very friendly folk and everyone knows it's tricky, so you will find plenty of help and understanding
X 2
 
Try it and see - it is not hard once you get a routine going. There is no doubt somebody along that pontoon who single hands backwards, so worth trying to pick up tips. My previous post might have come across a bit negative and I didn't mean it to be - I meant to mean that I don't know how single handers go efficiently stern first, rather than imply it was too hard.

A big ball fender on the transom might help protect rudder/outboard?

There are some finger pontoons in the locked basin. There is also at least one boat in the tidal which is alongside rather than box - there is plenty of space up the far end, so you may be able to negotiate something if necessary.
 
It was more the climbing over the bow for access that bothered me maybe I'll have a chat being the guys in the office know im a newbie and work something out.
 
i find coming in stern first reasonably easy after a bit of practice , i motor up just past my berth and reverse in by either outboard or by hand by pulling on the ropes between the pontoon and pile tying off about 6 feet from the pontoon then tying bow ropes then stern, and springs when windy things get a bit more interesting
 
When I was at Gillingham there was plenty of space in the tidal basin, therefore I went through the widest gap between posts and moored alongside for over a year. No problems apart from the marina management occasionally grumbling about it.
 
There's Hoo marina across the river which has conventional pontoons. seems to be plenty of space at the moment. Dunno how it compares for cost nowadays
 
Choosing Gillingham because there are opportunities there to crew on other boats The little Westerly will be up for sale so I will only have something on the hard for a bit and need some sailing opportunities
Plus I hear at Hoo is gonna be focusing on livaboards in the future so the moorings will go.
 
Spuddy said:
There's Hoo marina across the river which has conventional pontoons. seems to be plenty of space at the moment. Dunno how it compares for cost nowadays
Click to expand...
Hoo certainly doesn't take visitors and AFAIK didn't take new berth holders either. It's silting up and unlikely to be dredged as they are a houseboat business these days.
 
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