People helping to catch your lines

[vyv_cox]

In Greece we need to identify the profession of the line taker to be aware of what will happen. Yacht owners or people used to handling yachts will take the lines around cleats, rings or whatever and pass them back, which is the preferred method for most yacht owners. Fishermen and those used to fishing boats never do this, they make off the line to the fixed point, expecting the crew of the boat to haul the line in. Because we always make the standing part fast to our stern cleats this is quite tricky to do, leaving the yacht too far out for anyone to step ashore.

 

[capnsensible]

I was always taught to politely decline any offer from someone on the dock. They have no idea what you want and you have no idea of their abilities.
I have happily passed this on to many students with positive feedback. Even when pro mariners turn up in many continental marinas.
The exceptions begin, I reckon, once you get to larger yachts of say sixty feet or more. Then it most definitely must be a pro. You could easily break a casual passer by with the loads on the dock lines.
On a standard five day course on an average thirty five foot or so school yacht, it's easy to get everyone to be able to lasso a cleat or bollard safely whilst remaining on board. ?

 

[newtothis]

Sure, this would have been a perfectly sensible way to do it, but the midships line option wasn't my plan and not what the helper was asked to do!

Ah, okay. I thought I read that your wife was putting a midship line on in the original post.
I always let my partner deal with line handlers. She has a brilliant way of smiling sweetly and doing exactly what she had planned to do when given advice from the shore.

 

[newtothis]

it's easy to get everyone to be able to lasso a cleat or bollard safely whilst remaining on board. ?

Apart from those bastard closed hoop cleats they have [or used to have] in St Peter Port.

 

[ProDave]

If the bow line is secure, engine on ahead slow, tiller hard towards the pontoon and it will walk the stern back to the pontoon.

What am I missing?

 

[Iain C]

It can go the other way too. I was watching a fairly elderly gentleman singlehanded on a big boat, probably 45' or so, looking to come onto a pontoon. I asked if he'd like me to take a line, and he barked back "yes" without any thanks as such. I took the bow line he threw me, and he then promptly started to screw the whole thing up. I know what I did with the line was absolutely the right thing, but he gave absolutely zero instruction as to what he actually wanted me to do with it. When it started to go more pear shaped I gently suggested we bring it to a cleat further back on the pontoon, while he motored ahead with the helm over and we could sort the rest out as the boat held herself against the pontoon, but he told me to stop being stupid and blamed me for the whole thing (even though it was all still perfectly recoverable at this point). I asked what he'd like me to do, to which he replied I'd already messed it all up for him. With that I coiled the rope up neatly, put it back over his pulpit, and told him to get on with it, turned around and walked away.

 

[RJJ]

I sympathize.

If you have a plan, you need to be able to stick to it. If I am ashore I will do something menial like fend off, but will typically only handle or adjust a line if the skipper asks me to.

I would probably be fairly abrupt if somebody started trying to take charge of my boat or giving my crew conflicting instructions.

 

[ProDave]

Why not throw a mid ship line? Much easier to hold a boat on that while you sort out the rest of the string.

 

[mattonthesea]

As a helper, I always ask what they want me to to do.

As a helm I tell my crew to look to me if help is offered. I will then make a decision to accept or not, depending on the circumstances. Light winds in a sheltered lock or so then yes. Tricky berth then usually no.

Once I was coaching a novice into coming alongside when the stern suddenly started moving out so we were pointing at the wall. Similar to OP. It turned out my forward line crew member had totally ignored my instruction to wait until we had come to a stop; he'd snubbed the first cleat he found!

 

[johnalison]

My wife will hand a line to a person on shore occasionally, but is under a strict instruction not to throw it unless I say so because that is the road to hell. My default position is not to trust anyone ashore unless they are known to me, and almost every time our sense of politeness has overcome our caution they have let me down. The commonest fault is to imagine that they can hold the line against the force of the wind blowing on 5 tons, when a turn round the cleat by their feet will solve the problem, which is probably what they have been asked to do. There are a few occasions when one has to make an exception, but I make them as few as possible, a windward berth as described being a likely reason.

Without knowing the exact geometry of the OP's berth, it is hard to comment, but ideally, one might have thought that a centre-cleat spring would have been enough, but maybe this wasn't practicable in the time. There comes a point when it is better to back off and try again, which can be undignified, but a lot better than a nasty scratch.

A knowledgable helper at the bow on a finger-berth or box mooring can be a godsend, however. This is especially the case with boxes with very low pontoons, but in practice someone almost always seems to appear when needed.

It is indeed frustrating to give skilled assistance and then be ignored at best, but I think that most of us will keep on trying.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Hand the helpful bystander a fender and ask them to hold it twixt boat and pontoon. Use an old one in case they drop it in the drink.

 

[Birdseye]

what happened to the wife and the centre cleat line? That should have been the first one to tie off with the skipper on the wheel ready yo apply forward or stern propulsion to keep the boat in place whilst swmbo then went off to tie on the bow line and stern line.

That said I often see roles wrongly alocated. The stronger husband on the wheel being master of all he surveys whilst the weaker wife is the one left to struggle with the ropes. When picking up a mooring abuoy my wife always drives the boat whilst I am the one with the boat hook applying the muscle as needed.

 

[dulls]

It's always nice to catch lines and help people berth their boat, but how do you react if the assistant on the shore causes you to get in to difficulty? I think it depends perhaps on what unfolds.

Here is a scenario which I am sure many are familiar with!!

Recently I was aiming the boat for a linear berth at the end of a walkway which had finger berths attached. A yacht was berthed on the last finger so I was aiming to berth on the walkway beside it. My good lady was holding the midships line ready to lasso a suitable pontoon cleat. Our long bow line was ready and brought back towards the aft gate, along with a shorter stern line ready for me to step off the boat and tie off. It is a well practiced and repeatable berthing method we have used for years. On this occasion there was a light but significant breeze blowing the boat off the pontoon as we made our approach.

So the story goes that I made a good approach and had the boat touching the pontoon, but had to act quickly due to the breeze. I was just about to step off with the stern line and a helpful chap on the pontoon came to assist, which immediately distracted me from my strategy. Spotting the potential problem of blowing off, I asked him to grab the stern line as the boat was indeed starting to blow off. For whatever reason, he decided to head towards the bow, grabbed the bow line and secured it to the pontoon. I really did not want that as the bowthruster would deal with that end of the boat. Now the stern was blowing off and as he had secured the bow I was starting to get in a bit of a pickle as the boat was heading for a 90 degree orientation to the pontoon. I had a yacht berthed on a finger behind and a stone wall about 30 feet in front. Immediately I thought "oh sh1t this is a problem", whilst I was trying frantically to think of a way of helming the boat out of the situation, given the restricted area and the fact the bow was tied off.

He then clearly felt that I didn't know what I was doing and started to coach me and give instructions to my wife, who was now getting different instructions from both me and him at the same time! My wife started to slightly panic and understandably got a bit confused on what to do. Of course as you might expect, she starts to ignore me as the other guy must know best. She is probably quite right. I have only being doing this boating malarky for over 30 years and still a total novice! . The reality is that she is nice and polite, especially to strangers offering help. Anyway, I had to get a bit assertive and managed to get him to remove the bowline and chuck it back on board, so I could then get some control back into the situation.

That's the gist of that episode. We got berthed but my good lady wasn't too happy with my assertive manner towards the chap who was only trying to help. A fair comment from her, but under pressure and someone causing me all sorts of problems I am afraid I can't help getting a bit agitated. As we all know, bad things can happen very quickly when a boat starts to go out of control and someone has secured the wrong part of the boat to the pontoon on a long line. His actions although well meaning nearly resulted in a bump with the boat behind whilst I was being "instructed" to go astern by our new shore instructor, which fortunately I spotted at the last second and took avoiding action. Nevertheless the chap caused me all sorts of difficulty controlling the boat. I also had to endure a few frosty hours from SWMBO as I was apparently a cheeky pig and I should have been a lot nicer towards the man who came to help us. For the record, I didn't say anything too outrageous or very cheeky and thanked him for his "help"!

By contrast, the day before I was going astern into a marina pontoon in a stronger wind which was more tricky. On that occasion a guy came to assist and knew exactly what to do. Without any words from me, grabbed the lines, tied them instinctively to the pontoon perfectly to secure the boat safely. The pontoon was about 32ft and our boat is 45ft, so securing the boat takes a bit of experience, but there was no drama and the whole process took around 30 seconds or so. i thanked him and he went back to his boat as if nothing had happened.

If anyone thinks i handled the situation badly please do not hesitate to tell me, as I am not too sure what else I could have done as events unfolded. What do you do if you detect that the person helping is starting to make things difficult for you? Fortunately in our experience this episode was unusual and for 99% of the time we really welcome assistance and always offer help to others. Having said that I make a point of not tying off a line to a cleat unless it's berthed and obviously safe and sound. I regard the person on the helm as the boss and will always listen and follow any instructions from him/her.

If i have help it has been usually good. The only time i was agitated was when bringing the yacht into a stbd side birth with wind blowing from the starboard side. Long keel boat one real chance and no bow thruster. Usual arrangement of a boat birth with other yacht to port. Wife and i made plan and mounted all our lines and fenders on the port side. I knew i would not get a 12 ton yacht along side with the wind blowing us off. Our plan and it works very well is to go into the pen and be blown onto the down wind boat . We go along side it and then move the boat across by throwing warps across and pulling her across. As we approach a fellow offers help and we point to the birth we are going in. He sees are warp and fenders are on the wrong side and starts shouting for us to change them round. I said quietly to the wife just focus on what we planned. I shouted to him politely that we were going along side other boat and pulling her across after. He returned that he could get a warp on quick enough to stop us going down wind. Whatever his capabilities a change in plan in the jaws of the approach was not on. I said no it wont happen that way. I was flustered as i needed the concentration but was able to ignore him as the advice came thick and fast. I would have preferred that he went with my plan instead of the chat all the way to the dockside. I knew diplomacy is important so once along side i was able to chuck him the stern line to help pull us across. I thanked him for his help so we parted on good terms. What i learnt my self was if i ever help a yacht coming in i will quickly ask what line shall i take and what cleat do you want it on. I think it is best not to interfere with the plan and just help enable it if you can..

 

[Bobc]

I've got to the point of telling the wife to ignore everyone else and do what she normally does. We find that when we are left to get on with it, things work fine, but as soon as someone takes a line or something, it all starts to go wrong. We also had a couple of instances where people from the marina started a discussion with her whilst we were parking, distracting her, which didn't end well. In the lock at Arzal recently I lost it with her a bit because the lock keeper told her something different to me, and she chose to do what the lock-keeper said, and we ended-up in a mess.

So from now on, we don't take help or instruction from anyone.

 

[pvb]

I think it depends on the weather. If it's blowing a hoolie in the marina, I'll sometimes go and offer help with lines, especially if the boat appears to be short-handed. If it's just a light breeze, I won't. But I'm very conscious of my own reactions when people offer me help. I'm often singlehanded, and have a well-rehearsed and (usually) successful method of getting back to my berth. If people offer help, I usually politely decline.

 

[asteven221]

If the bow line is secure, engine on ahead slow, tiller hard towards the pontoon and it will walk the stern back to the pontoon.

What am I missing?

In our case the bow line was tied off way to long. Had I gone fwd on that the boat would probably started to pivot around the end of the walkway. Not ideal. Had it been a lot shorter then yes that could have been an option.

 

[38mess]

I usually polity refuse unless i know the person. It's easy for me just to put my midship line on and go from there.
Last time I accepted help the guy pulled my bowline so tight that the stern was almost across the lock.
So I prefer to do it myself.

 

[asteven221]

Interesting responses to my situation. As a footnote our boat us 45ft and as my wife cant jump or step off the boat due to a paralysed foot. I am basically single handed. Thats why we have our set procedure. Yes she does lasso the midship line assuming a cleat is suitable on the pontoon. We have visited this particular berth many times without any issues. Unfortunately she got totally distracted by the assistant and got confused on what to do!! Then it all went pete tong. All ended ok except I am on the naughty step for being grumpy towards the very nice man who came to help us.

 

[capnsensible]

Apart from those bastard closed hoop cleats they have [or used to have] in St Peter Port.

Yeah, seen those in a few places. Not very helpful at all.

 

[capnsensible]

Interesting responses to my situation. As a footnote our boat us 45ft and as my wife cant jump or step off the boat due to a paralysed foot. I am basically single handed. Thats why we have our set procedure. Yes she does lasso the midship line assuming a cleat is suitable on the pontoon. We have visited this particular berth many times without any issues. Unfortunately she got totally distracted by the assistant and got confused on what to do!! Then it all went pete tong. All ended ok except I am on the naughty step for being grumpy towards the very nice man who came to help us.

You can always ask your wife to steer whilst you do the lines? Works for us when we are out on our own boat.