I arrived at 2 in the morning on a cloudy night a couple of years ago. Luckily the hammerhead was free, so we tied up temporarily there and I sent the crew down the pontoon with a glowstick to find n empty spot and then stand on the end of the finger as mobile lighthouse.
But, uncannily, the potential for it all going pear-shaped remains the same!
Sorry, I don't agree. The cock-up potential is directly proportional to the number of spectators.But, uncannily, the potential for it all going pear-shaped remains the same!
Which is why, when you make the absolutely perfect manoeuvre into your berth, there is no appreciative audience.?
Yea a sort of Non Event I suppose then, just oneof that days well done tasks, done and dusted I suppose {
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Judging from this thread I think I will have to change my ways. For 35 years I have thought that lending a hand when a boat approaches a berth was part of sailing, not of the etiquette, but of the way of life, you offer help and hope that one day when you need it someone will be there. That is certainly the way it works on our pontoon and the way I have known it to work in most other places. That has lead to very nice encounters, interesting exchanges, drinks in the cockpit, even longstanding friendships.
No. You have got the wrong end of the stick. National self-denigration is a sport that engages almost all true Brits, and complaining about aspects of national character or behaviour is part of it. I have been the recipient of helpful shore-persons at home and across much of the northern Continent. I would say that the willingness to help, and the utility of the help given, are actually much the same here and abroad. Similiarly, the attitude of skippers to proffered help is also much the same, though I think that possibly the effect of having a mutual language tends to bias us towards being bloody-minded towards our fellow nationals.
I think most of the replies have been relating to UK mooring practices, mostly when coming alongside. For those of us based in the Med, almost all our mooring is stern-to, either to a jetty or a quayside. Standard practice is to reverse in with a stern line on each quarter of the boat, ready to throw to someone on the jetty / quayside. They slip the line through a ring or round a bollard and throw the end back to you, to make fast on the boat. There is almost always someone there to help, usually a marinero or somebody from the next door moored boat. About once a year the jetty / quayside is deserted, leading to a frantic effort to lower the passerelle or to find one of our crew still fit enough to jump the gap!
We've just purchased a bow fender exactly because of this. We've found it very common in France.Many French marinas have short catways with no cleats on them. At the outer end is a curved piece of steel tube sleeved in plastic.
Unless you have a line-threading boathook with jaws wide enough to pass over the tube, someone has to step onto the catway to pass a line around the tube and either pass it back on board or tie it with a knot.
Duncan Wells, a practical sailor if ever there was one, uses a folding grapnel which he attaches to a midships spring and drops it through the hoop. I haven't tried that but there's no reason I can see why it wouldn't work.
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A technique I have seen the French use is to have a bow fender rigged and just slowly motor up until the fender is in contact with the walkway at the inner end of the catway, leave the engine in slow ahead and lash the tiller over to the side where the catway is.
The boat will then sit there without moving for as long as required while the crew rigs shore lines.
While this technique might cause purists of the old school to raise their hands in horror (as they invariably do when anyone suggests anything new
The only problem is when someone comes to help you and doesn't understand what you are doing. You then get the situation of someone desperately trying to keep your bow off the walkway while the engine is pushing it on and shouting "arrière" at you.
It all adds to the fun of sailing.
I think it's sometimes hard to know whether to offer or not, personally I tend to offer a hand or maybe stand ready in case things go off-piste. Sometimes the boat coming into the pontoon might have inexperienced cew, sometimes the skipper might be having a bad day. Sometimes their engine or gear might be playing up. sometimes they are singlehanded or old and the winds got up more than expected.