Mooring up fun

[MagicalArmchair]

Last weekend we had a lovely weekend at anchor on Sharfleet creek. Very little wind to speak of, but we still managed a bit of a sail coming back up river. When we arrived, the wind (very light) was holding us off our berth.

I had two options, lay to the other pontoon and rope her across, or get one line on quickly, and chug against that. I chose the latter to demonstrate my mooring prowess... We chugged up and the wind pushed us off, so I backed away, and went again, lining us up perfectly with the pontoon and stopping her perfectly and smugly in position. We got the bowline onto the mid pontoon cleat (Cleats are green blobs in the below), with a view to putting the helm hard to port to pull the stern in.

The line was expertly attached by the first mate (she did give it a yank though), and I put the engine into forwards and the helm hard over to port. The stern still swung out as below:

Not giving much time, I casually looking as if I meant for this to be happening, whilst internally red faced and furious my plan hadn't worked out, I threw the stern line over, jumped off the pullpit and squared her away.

Should I have persevered with the engine? Given her some more revs? Would the bow have come around or would the wind have won?

Our plan next time, with the first sheet, is to get it on the midships cleat on the boat, to the mid pontoon cleat to suck amiships in I think. If I chug against that there isn't really far she can go no matter the wind.

 

[JumbleDuck]

In my boat (long keel) my Plan A would have been to attach a short rope from the centre cleat to a cleat on the pontoon. The boat can pivot about it, slightly, but she's always up against the pontoon there. Plan B if that didn't work would have been to drift across to the downwind berth and use ropes to move back.

Using long ropes for this always seems a bit overcomplicated to me. If i want the middle of the boat next to the pontoon, why not tie the middle of the boat onto the pontoon?

 

[Seajet]

As JumbleDuck describes, with tiller or wheel hard to starboard.

 

[julianmingham]

In this situation using the bow line as described is unlikely to work out well.
I would want the 1st line to be from the mid-ships cleat on the boat to the outermost cleat on the finger pontoon (the one adjacent to the cockpit). The bow may swing to port a little but forward power and turn to starboard would fix that. Then attach all other lines at your leisure.

 

[duncan99210]

When going alongside, we rig bow, midships and stern lines. The bow and stern lines are led to the midships cleat, the person going ashore steps ashore with the midships line and makes it fast. Bow and stern lines are then taken ashore and fixed.
A short midships line to whatever shoreside cleat is available minimises the chances of bow or stern being blown off, the person ashore will make which ever line going to be most affected by wind/tide fast first.
Very rarely will the helm need to use the engine to stay put: a nice short quickly fastened midships line usually sorts it out.

 

[Crazy-Diamond]

Have you considered using a stern bridle ?

 

[ProDave]

I guess our technique shows the advantage of a very small boat in a sheltered harbour with high walls so not much wind in the harbour.

We motor alongside the pontoon, grab the rail with the boat hook, pull the boat in and hold it with the boat hook while looping our lines over the cleats. All 4 lines at the home berth stay on the pontoon and have loops spliced in the ends to slip over the cleats on the boat. All done without leaving the boat.

 

[FairweatherDave]

Out of curiosity presume you have some degree of prop walk in astern? Nice if it kicked you to starboard.
I'm a Duncan Wells fan and very much a berthing amateur but I usually prepare like Duncan99210 above as it covers most options and you may not know the conditions until almost in the berth. A midship line is the standard answer here for good reason but I wonder if the location of your midship cleat on the deck had anything to do with your issue (too far forward?).

 

[JumbleDuck]

In this situation using the bow line as described is unlikely to work out well.
I would want the 1st line to be from the mid-ships cleat on the boat to the outermost cleat on the finger pontoon (the one adjacent to the cockpit). The bow may swing to port a little but forward power and turn to starboard would fix that. Then attach all other lines at your leisure.

Why not to a cleat immediately beside it on the pontoon? I can't see any advantage to taking it aft, but that may be because I am missing something.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

And if, like me, you don't have an amidships cleat, the base of the shrouds will do, but low down, so as to prevent a bending moment on the turnbuckle.
Alternatively, what I do is use a halyard winch; I tie a large bowline loop in the end of a warp, put this over the winch and lead a bight out under the lower lifeline (aft of the nearest stanchion) and back to the winch. If the bight is big enough, it can be tossed, to lasso the pontoon cleat, and then surged, to stop the boat gently. Motoring at low revs with the tiller towards the pontoon then keeps the stern under control while we step off and secure bow and stern lines.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Out of curiosity presume you have some degree of prop walk in astern? Nice if it kicked you to starboard.
I'm a Duncan Wells fan and very much a berthing amateur but I usually prepare like Duncan99210 above as it covers most options and you may not know the conditions until almost in the berth. A midship line is the standard answer here for good reason but I wonder if the location of your midship cleat on the deck had anything to do with your issue (too far forward?).

The OP says he used the bow line, secured to a cleat at the middle of pontoon. This is at the root of his problem. Huge leverage is available to even to the smallest puff of breeze, to push the stern out overcoming the effort of an engine at low revs.
He says he "put the helm hard over to port". This is fine if he has a wheel, he doesn't say, but a tiller should be pushed towards the pontoon, in this case, starboard. Prop walk would not have been an issue, as he does not mention using reverse to stop, just motoring gently into the berth, and motoring gently against the warp that had been secured.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

Thank you for the replies.

As JumbleDuck describes, with tiller or wheel hard to starboard.

Fascinating I had my logic backwards. I was working with the principle of the boat pivoting on its central point using the spring, so turning the bow to port would then tuck the stern to starboard.

Have you considered using a stern bridle ?

A what a what now? How does one?

I guess our technique shows the advantage of a very small boat in a sheltered harbour with high walls so not much wind in the harbour.

We motor alongside the pontoon, grab the rail with the boat hook, pull the boat in and hold it with the boat hook while looping our lines over the cleats. All 4 lines at the home berth stay on the pontoon and have loops spliced in the ends to slip over the cleats on the boat. All done without leaving the boat.

My old lovely 30 foot Albin Ballad I could do that with. Now with a lot more windage and another ten foot of lovely Bavaria boat, I am always fascinated by how amplified the forces involved are. It's a job to explain to the crew calmly that there is no way you will hold the weight of the boat, without it sweated around a cleat or made off. Glass fibre is easily repaired, people less so (apart from the skipper, he is largely expendable).

The OP says he used the bow line, secured to a cleat at the middle of pontoon. This is at the root of his problem. Huge leverage is available to even to the smallest puff of breeze, to push the stern out. He says he "put the helm hard over to port". This is fine if he has a wheel, he doesn't say, but a tiller should be pushed towards the pontoon, in this case, starboard.

Yup yup, I have a wheel. So I was trying to do this:

 

[Mataji]

In this situation using the bow line as described is unlikely to work out well.
I would want the 1st line to be from the mid-ships cleat on the boat to the outermost cleat on the finger pontoon (the one adjacent to the cockpit). The bow may swing to port a little but forward power and turn to starboard would fix that. Then attach all other lines at your leisure.

Agree, except you should turn to port. The bow will start to turn to port but will be prevented from doing so by the stern moving to starboard ( a good fender required on the boats starboard quarter). Keeping the engine on tickover in forward gear will see the boat settle gently against the pontoon. The knack is in getting a large bowline (ideally held open with a short piece of stiff hose) over the first Cleat on the pontoon as you reach it, the other end attached to boats midship cleat.

 

[Biggles Wader]

ISTM that your initial plan should work if you stop the boat with the spring and keep the rudder hard to port with the engine running slow ahead. However----do you have a saildrive that is miles away from the rudder? If so you dont get the same effect of pushing the stern onto the pontoon with the rudder hard over. Plan B then required

 

[prv]

The knack is in getting a large bowline (ideally held open with a short piece of stiff hose) over the first Cleat on the pontoon as you reach it

Indeed that‘s the critical part. Get a bow fender and you can eliminate it entirely - stop the boat by nudging gently into the main pontoon ahead, then apply revs against the angled rudder to swing in the stern. All done from the helm, no running around the deck with a boathook or frantically throwing ropes at a rapidly-receding cleat. Step off and attach breast lines at your leisure, then stop the engine and drift back into the proper position to rig springs.

Pete

 

[MagicalArmchair]

ISTM that your initial plan should work if you stop the boat with the spring and keep the rudder hard to port with the engine running slow ahead. However----do you have a saildrive that is miles away from the rudder? If so you dont get the same effect of pushing the stern onto the pontoon with the rudder hard over. Plan B then required

Yes, I think this is where my plan fell down I think. Old boat had a fin and skeg, so rudder right by propeller, Mirage has a sail drive a mile back from the rudder, so there is a pause between power and effect. With the skeg this would then never have worked Biggles? Or would it have just been delayed as the water made its way towards the rudder and perseverance would have won the day?

 

[johnalison]

We had a similar problem in Colijnsplaat a while ago, with the additional restriction of several boats' sterns to leeward and a nasty unfendered corner exactly where we would drift to if not attached. Fifteen knots of wind didn't help, but from just ahead of the beam. We had a line from the centre cleat which my wife skilfully but under dire threats got onto the end cleat of the finger, after which I motored in and helmed out as described. It was one of the rare occasions when I had no exit plan B but it turned out as planned, naturally, as there was no-one to watch.

 

[TernVI]

What th e OP did will work with some boats, where all the flow from the prop hits the rudder.
On our boat the prop is more forwards and angling down, so the prop will not effectively angle the thrust very far.
I would have got a line ready on our centre cleat and got it on a pontoon cleat. Maybe the one on the end of the pontoon, I can always warp or spring the boat forwards at my leisure.

One might ask if there's a big clue in all the other boats pointing the other way? Probably not in this case but I think it always pays to ask yourself!

 

[MagicalArmchair]

...It was one of the rare occasions when I had no exit plan B but it turned out as planned, naturally, as there was no-one to watch.

This was partly the problem, lots of folks sitting around drinking G and Ts! If the place was empty I would probably have aced it...

...One might ask if there's a big clue in all the other boats pointing the other way? Probably not in this case but I think it always pays to ask yourself!

We like being bow in for privacy whilst on the boat. Being bow in does make getting out interesting too. That said, she does steer great backwards (arguably better than forwards ), so we tend to come all the way out of the pontoons in astern when on our way out.

 

[FairweatherDave]

Prop walk would not have been an issue, as he does not mention using reverse to stop, just motoring gently into the berth, and motoring gently against the warp that had been secured.

Seems a reasonable question to ask since with a short midship line on a burst of reverse would put the stern back to the pontoon