mooring

[skinner]

is there a simple way of explaining to me the intracasies of mooring,i always enter my mooring against the tide as instructed but as soon as i cut my speed the wind takes my boat (shetland 570 )to the opposite side of the mooring.you've probably guessed,this is my first boat!!

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[andyball]

Practice helps of course & I found reading various books helps. Peter White's one (forget the title) is pretty good.....what sort of mooring is it?

it's easy to come in too slowly in a light,easily blown boat like that & often a waste trying to keep head to wind since it'll always blow off one way or the other....I find it easier to have the wind on one bow , if poss. Tell us more about the mooring

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[skinner]

its just a solid mooring on a boatyard at st olaves on the broads,3 posts secured to a walkway

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[muchy_]

It's just a case of practice makes perfect. If your anything like me you will never do it perfectly every time. I've been on my moorings at Stalham for nearly two years and still get it wrong sometimes. Don't worry too much about it though, everyones in the same boat ;-)
Let me know if your ever up my way, praps well have a beer or three.

Regards.....Mike

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[jalsrs]

Look at the other boats, they will be lying to the wind or tide, approach you mooring in the same direction.

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[Birdseye]

you only come in bows to the tide if your boat is more affected by the tide than the wind, and to retain steerage way with water flowing over the rudder even when the boat is stopped .

you will have to experiment. dont worry - not only have we all been there, but many of us (myself included) still are there, even after 15 years!

just console yourslf that parking a boat requires way more skill than parking a car, so even if you occasionally mess up, you're really very skillfull.

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[jacksong]

It all comes down to balancing the application of power and steering and the effects of wind and tide.It's a technique that I found best demonstrated, even after having read it in books many times I still had problems. I have the same boat [called a Kestrel Express in my case but it's the same basic boat] as yourself and initially had all sorts of problems picking up my mooring, which is a swinging mooring in a very strong tidal stream in North Devon. Kept overshooting it, missing it, fouling the prop on the line connecting the tender to the mooring etc etc etc.

In the end I went on a RYA powerboat Level 2 course where they teach things like coming alongside and picking up a swinging mooring and you do it practically many times over until you get it right. I'd wholly recommend such a course to yourself, especially if this is your first boat, as it teaches all sorts of useful basic skills and also gives you access to the ICC should you choose to trail the boat abroad.

J

<hr width=100% size=1>--
I am not a Frog, I am a free Womble

 

[vyv_cox]

If you watch professionals moving boats about marinas you will see that they rarely use minimum revs, more like going from hard forward to hard astern. You may have thought that this was to demonstrate their manliness (or womanliness) and a generally high testosterone level, but in fact it overcomes the problem that you describe. Coming in fast, slamming it into astern and stopping dead in the water gives the wind no opportunity to blow the boat away. The worst thing you can do is what you are doing, although it is perfectly understandable that you do. Trickling through the water at minimum speed allows the wind to push you where it wants and there is little that you can do about it.

There's a little more to it than that, of course. You always need to remember that the wind blows the bows of a sailing boat sideways faster/more than it does the stern. Once you have puzzled this out you can make it work for you instead of against.

It's practice that enables the professionals to do it so well, they are moving boats every day. Get yourself to somewhere where there is not much to hit and motor in all directions, up-tide, down-tide, up-wind, down-wind and find how your boat reacts.

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[andyball]

quite right: I've a similar behaving boat & coming in slowly is the hardest thing to do- it takes much more juggling of gears/throttle.



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[pheran]

Absolutely true. We spent a few days in Sixhaven in Amsterdam where they really pack 'em in. The Havenmeester is a real star and if any skipper appears the slightest degree tentative, the HM is likely to leap aboard, seize the wheel and throttle(s) and with great fistfuls of backwards and forwards, park anything up to 50' of Dutch steel on a sixpence. Great entertainment!!

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue>A hangover is just the Wrath of Grapes</font color=blue>

 

[BrendanS]

Depends on the boat you have. Loads of wellie on a yacht is one thing, trying similar on a sportsboat is a little on or off, and gentle jabs are more in order.

<hr width=100% size=1>Err, let me know if Depsol enters the forum, I'll go and hide

 

[brianrunyard]

Look at any other boats on moorings near you (preferably one similar to yours), see which way they are laying from their moorings and approach your mooring from the same direction, you are then allowing for tide and wind.

<hr width=100% size=1>Brian
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/brunyard