Passerelles use and storage onboard

[Fire99]

Hi gang,

My Trader has a manual passerelle (boarding gangway) which slots into the steps above the bathing platform. I won't lie, I've never used one before and it's a cumbersome thing with a big round pin that slots into one of the steps and two little wheels that no doubt make contact with the pontoon.
So firstly any tips on using the thing? As in does it need support ropes to hold it up should the boat move beyond its reach to the pontoon?

Also, how on earth do you store the thing onboard when you go anywhere? I've kinda temporarily dismantled it and put it on the aft deck roof for now but when you don't have an electric one, how do you normally store the things?

Kind regards, Passerelle dummy.

 

[PlanB]

Well, you'll normally only use it when mooring stern to.
Till we needed ours when we got to the Med, we stored it behind the ladder on the bathing platform (we had an aft cabin).
When it was in use, we used a pulley system on the davits to raise it and lower it as needed.
We gauged the correct amount of cable according to the tide/sea state.
We found it was helpful to raise it at night to avoid the noise of the wheels on the pantalan.
We would also raise it manually when ashore for security.

 

[DavidJ]

Ours folds and used to live on the back and I lowered it down with a “clever” pulley system. The “pin“ stays in place. After not needing to use it for many years it now lives in the lazarette and will only come out on rare occasions if we visit a marina mooring that needs it.
We never had support ropes as there is generally little wheel movement and we could easily pull it up (have I mentioned my “clever“ pulley system ) if the weather got rough or for night time security.

An old pic of mine and a bit shocked how many fenders I’ve got out….I was clearly worried about something.

 

[Fire99]

Thanks guys.. David, yours looks like it folds...
Mine is one long piece but it does have some quite nice wooden latticework in the middle..
I'll dig it out and take a few pics. I have an aft cabin and mine hooks into the penultimate step before boarding but that would stop the platform from being able to be lifted entirely vertically so I'm not too sure exactly how best to store it other than flat on the bathing platform that looks a bit awkward and messy.

 

[Fire99]

Ours folds and used to live on the back and I lowered it down with a “clever” pulley system. The “pin“ stays in place. After not needing to use it for many years it now lives in the lazarette and will only come out on rare occasions if we visit a marina mooring that needs it.
We never had support ropes as there is generally little wheel movement and we could easily pull it up (have I mentioned my “clever“ pulley system ) if the weather got rough or for night time security.

An old pic of mine and a bit shocked how many fenders I’ve got out….I was clearly worried about something.

View attachment 151644

Ps.. David, yep looks like you had a bad dream the night before about boats crashing into your moored boat.