Passarelle for the Med?

stiknstring

stiknstring

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In final stages of planning for next year's departure for the Med. We are planning to overwinter in GIB next year and then to Balearics, Southern France, Sardinia, etc towards Turkey over the next 3-4 years. Most of the time we will be in marinas as we will be living on board only 2 months of every year to begin with.

Question is: How necessary is it to have a passarelle? If necessary, any recomendations as to make (Travis Perkins for a plank is well understood!)? Are they secure or do they get stolen (I note how expensive they are)? Any other guidance?

many thanks for those taking the time to respond - keenly await your advice

Thanks, Stiknstring
 
stiknstring said:
In final stages of planning for next year's departure for the Med. We are planning to overwinter in GIB next year and then to Balearics, Southern France, Sardinia, etc towards Turkey over the next 3-4 years. Most of the time we will be in marinas as we will be living on board only 2 months of every year to begin with.

Question is: How necessary is it to have a passarelle? If necessary, any recomendations as to make (Travis Perkins for a plank is well understood!)? Are they secure or do they get stolen (I note how expensive they are)? Any other guidance?

many thanks for those taking the time to respond - keenly await your advice

Thanks, Stiknstring
Click to expand...

Things I wish I had had for my Med trip 2006-2009

Portable generator - Honda Eu20i
Rocna, or similar, anchor
Passarelle
Better Bimini
Water maker
Air con
Inboard diesel generator


Mooring stern-to was generally stressful. The ability to lower a passarelle to just above quay level would have improved things significantly. In addition, it would have made getting on and off much less of a challenge on many occasions.
 
You can make your own. However you will probably find a "proper" one a good investment.

I fitted a Trem folding teak and aluminium one available from Force4 at £500 (p123 or the catalogue) - much cheaper than buying it in Europe. There are also more sophisticated / expensive ones available from Calibra Marine in Deacons Boatyard.

You will need to fit a socket - worth buying a second one so that you can have a low and high mounting (depending on your transom arrangements) to cope with different height quays and an uphaul either from the masthead or the split in the backstays if you have a split backstay arrangement.

Just seen Richards post. Agree - good bimini, passarelle and anchor essential. Other things nice to have but dependent on your boat size and level of power hungry equipment.
 
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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-MOT...71?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item588f009f83

More flash than a plank ( paint white with boat name down the side, add scooter wheels at outboard end and a pasarelle hinge at the boat end ) and significantly cheaper than a 'proper' pasarelle.

The only pasarelle I have had go missing was a nice scaffold plank fitted with some carpeting that was swapped out by some bloody pirate for a tatty old plank!
 
For lightness, shortish 2-3m aluminium ladder, with 6mm plywood screw attached to it, some nice self adhesive non-slip, rig it however you want, line to top of mast (topping lift? on out board end) its light, cheap, looks good and easy.
 
ccscott49 said:
For lightness, shortish 2-3m aluminium ladder, with 6mm plywood screw attached to it, some nice self adhesive non-slip, rig it however you want, line to top of mast (topping lift? on out board end) its light, cheap, looks good and easy.
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That's what we have, although our plywood is heavier than 6 mm, 12 mm I think. We had a plank but the ladder is far lighter to lift.

Answering the first question, some people who berth bows-to don't use one but it depends very much on the design of the pulpit, what is available to stand on, and your physical condition. When we first arrived in the Med we did this but it was inconvenient and ultimately Jill fell and injured herself. We then set the boat up for stern-to berthing with a transom platform and a passerelle. This is a far better system for long-term port and marina life. Stern-to berthing takes a little practice but once mastered is by far the best. The biggest problem in Greece is that the wall you are berthing to may vary in height from just above the water to almost a couple of metres above it. Your arrangements need to be flexible enough to cope with this.

For something a little more sophisticated have a look at this site.
 
The OP has a Beneteau Oceanis 50 which is well set up for stern to berthing and would normally have one passarelle socket on the bathing platform and one on the coaming on the transom - at least that is what a mate in Corfu had with the same boat. Worked very well with the same Trem passarelle that I have. On my Bavaria I compromised and built a bracket for the socket partway up the transom which also worked well.
 
We had what we thought was the solution, a litghtweight aluminium folding passerrelle. In Greece, it turned out to be a good deal too short, especially against high quay walls, so we bought a 2.5m plank which has proved a much better solution albeit more difficult to handle. Also much cheaper than any other solution by a factor of about 10.
 
we have a plank, actually two planks, side by side as SWMBO boke her ankle and cant manage a single plank - yet. The device we had before the injury is a modified motor cycle ramp aout £40 on ebay and it works very well, at 2.3 mtrs long is not bad. The bit of kit you must have however is a old fashioned lead line to determine the depth of water at the stern, taverna owners will tell you 4 mtrs but 2 is more normal, to hell with the plank, it only takes one ferry wash to smash your rudder - and many get smashed.
 
I (cheapskate) use a short ladder section with the fender boards lashed on, inboard end roped to the step of walk through pulpit. Use genoa halyard to hoist the shore end up. Dinghy hangs on stern gantry so have to go bows to.

Many people lash a tube across the toe rails, sticking out over the side a couple of feet and lash a plank to that.
 
1. Stern to mooring is simple, don't get hung up on it. Take your time and have a long run in to it (if possible) to take away any prop walk you may have - in an ideal world I need about 100m to able to steer as I want/need to to get onto a berth.

2. A plank/ladder with plywood is the most adaptable method and the cheapest means of getting on and off. Unless you find a nice passerelle cheap on a net, they are just a very, very expensive plank, and you could buy an awful lot of wine/beer/food/meals out for the cost of one and the fittings you'll need for it.

3. Working out when to drop the anchor (unless there are lazy lines) will be down to loads of practice, don't worry about cocking it up - we all have and we all still do. Nobody will laugh at you for the same reasons. I have a long length of rope 5-10m of 12mm at the bitter end just in case I run out of chain and you are just short of the wall. Normally you get you lines ashore and adjust so you are back onto your chain. If not then haul it all back and start again, as I said practice makes (nearly) perfect.
 
Ariadne said:
Working out when to drop the anchor (unless there are lazy lines) will be down to loads of practice, don't worry about cocking it up - we all have and we all still do. Nobody will laugh at you for the same reasons. I have a long length of rope 5-10m of 12mm at the bitter end just in case I run out of chain and you are just short of the wall. Normally you get you lines ashore and adjust so you are back onto your chain. If not then haul it all back and start again, as I said practice makes (nearly) perfect.
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Very true. I attempt to drop the anchor at four boat lengths = 42 metres. Several times I have stopped short of the wall with all my 60 metres out, plus a few metres of rope. It can be quite difficult to estimate, dependent on the length of boat you are attempting to berth next to. Once you are confident of the technique it is no problem to haul it all in and go again.
 
A passerelle becomes more essential the larger the boat. Planks can saw away at your deck and if they are teak that will be expensive. Splash out on one, you won't regret it.
 
The motor cycle loading ramp is suberb in my opinion, very strong good value for money and folds in half nicly.
You just need Jordenbasset of this parish to post the pictures of his to show you how its done.
 
Ours was the plank

FairbrightToulon1970.jpg
 
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Depending on your agility, for the first half of your cruise in West Med you're fine with a pasarrelle that can be attached to the bow. Makes mooring up easier, and particularly gives you more privacy in the cockpit.

I guess then by the time you've reached Greece you can then decide between a stern pasarrelle or a stern anchor.
 
Plank for us - left on the marina pontoon by somebody upgrading to a real one.

I'd love a folding one with rails (my wife would have fewer bruises from falling in) but that upgrade is a long way down the list of things to buy/do.
 
Funnily enough RupertW,how will your wife react to NOT getting that round of applause from onlookers when she trips lightly across the plank!
Downside of upgrading to that fiddly thing with guardwires,stanchions etc!
 
We have got one of the aluminium folding types but also have a plank as well.
The plank can double up as a fender board outside your fenders when against some of the concrete walls in the conventional mooring method. Because of ferry wash in some places you will be bounced around and without the wooden plank your fenders will be ripped to shreds.
 
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