Pilot House - Manoeuvring In Marina (No Bowthruster)

[Cbjroms]

For the last few years I have had a small sailing cruiser on a swing mooring. New (to me) for this season is a Merry Fisher pilothouse which I am keeping in a marina.

I have just lauched the Merry Fisher and the yard boat took me around to my pontoon. So I am prepearing for my first trip out this weekend and want to get some manoeuvring practice under my belt.

I am conscious that the Merry Fisher (645) is quite a small boat and so should be easy to manouevre. On he other hand the pilothouse is clearly going to act like a sail and cause a lot of windage. Unlike a sailing boat there is no keel beneath the water to provide laterla stability.

Just wondering what sort of tips and tricks others adopt when turning into a marina bay with the pontoon to windward and a neigbouring boat to leeward? Obviously fenders both side will be essential and my midships cleat can be used to keep the boat against the pontoon whilst I fix bow and stern. How can I best allow for the bow being blown away from the pontoon whilst I get the stern alongside?

 

[BruceK]

I have no bow thruster and the bow really picks up wind. I have an advantage over you with two engines but not much. What I was told by an experienced member here and it works a treat is once the midship cleat is on keep the engine in gear in idle and it will pull you in. I approach the pontoon at a sufficient angle to counter wind and tide to do so. Not my ideas, but they made life a whole lot easier.

 

[Sailorsam101]

I used to single hand a lot on a yacht and this develops some good skills.

One very good thing to do is to get used to using ropes...springs...to arrive and leave. I've done time on a searay 240 with a single outdrive and parking the thing was horrible until i changed my ways.

Have a line from the bow cleat midships and back to the bow..making a big loop. come into a pontoon at a steep angle....very steep...get crew on the bow to throw the loop over a cleat in the middle of where you want to stop.

Then turn wheel away from the pontoon and add slight forward power. this will bring you alongside in any wind.

You can use this while leaving as well. Set the line up the same...wheel away from pontoon and in forward. This will hold you fast. Then when ready turn the wheel towards the pontoon and the stern will spring out. When you are pointing in the direction you want to be off on the power...slip the line and off you go.

With two engines and a thruster i don't often use ropes like this anymore but it's all there if i need to.

 

[Canopy Locked]

I have a special rope I carry on the boat that runs from midshp cleat to the cleat on the end of the pontoon finger (if you have no midship cleat then a rope from the bow is fine)

Before entering the harbour, I loop one end of the rope around the midship cleat and as I glide into the berth I hook the other end loop over the pontoon cleat. - The boat can't go anywhere now and as others have said a nudge of the throttle and turn away from pontoon, will bring your back end in.

Regards manoeuvring ... ideally find someone to come with you who is experienced and can show you how to manoeuvre around the marina and then .... practice... practice and practice. You've probably heard of student pilots doing "Circuits and bumps" when they are practicing landings... it's exactly the same with a boat.

 

[rwoofer]

I have the same MF645 and also still have my small sailing boat which I came from, so similar situation to yourself.

Personally I haven't found spring ropes as useful as I do on a sailing boat (I do most of my manoevres singlehanded). If I have enough time to get a spring on, then I'm pretty much berthed anyway. The issues seem to all happen before that point and apart from learning to predict how the boat behaves in certain conditions, the most useful thing to me is to be able to reverse into the difficult situations, as the boat tends to follow the outboard. Given what you have described is the exact opposite I would be tempted to come along side the neighbour, using the wind to blow you on and then warp across to your pontoon.

 

[Paul_S123]

I echo what the others said about a midships spring. I have a pilothouse boat too and it's a bit frantic if you are single handed (which I often am), to leave the cabin get the line on etc. I took the concept a little further, I have the correct sized line, permanently attached to my midship cleat. At the other end I have a piece of black pvc pipe (about 1m long) which my line if fed through...to a looped end, which is through a piece of clear hose, which helps it keep shape. Basically between the loop, the pvc pipe and my arm, I can hook the loop onto the pontoon cleat from up to 2 1/2m+ away. Quite reassuring if there is no one in the pilothouse as you approach. Then as said, turn away from the dock and motor gently ahead and the boat will pull itself alongside the pontoon and stay there until you put it in neutral. I keep the power on, get out and secure the other lines then put in neutral and shut it down. Has a very high success rate in most situations.

 

[MapisM]

How can I best allow for the bow being blown away from the pontoon whilst I get the stern alongside?

I'm afraid that the only effective trick is the one you don't want to use while still practicing, i.e. maneuvering pretty fast.
In fact, with a boat like yours, a way to avoid getting the bow blown away in crosswind simply does not exist, and all you can do is give the wind as little time as possible to take its toll.
But of course, it will take a while to get there. Don't ask me to refund the damages after reversing at WOT and climbing on another boat!
Anyway, all the best!

 

[wipe_out]

Had similar concerns with our old boat (26ft single stern drive and no thruster) which was a total nightmare in the wind and getting the bow around into the wind was very difficult.. Best thing I did was get 1 days professional tuition on our boat just moving around the marina and getting into and out of the berth.. As it happened it was a windy day when I had the tuition so picked up some very good tips.. Probably the most useful was learning when you are reaching the point of no return and if its not looking good to leave yourself enough time to pull out, compose yourself, get into the right position and then have another go.. This alone reduces the stress, even if you have to have 5 or more attempts to get into the berth who cares, it's all practice after all and that is the best way to learn the characteristics of the boat..

 

[sprocker]

I have a special rope I carry on the boat that runs from midshp cleat to the cleat on the end of the pontoon finger (if you have no midship cleat then a rope from the bow is fine)

Before entering the harbour, I loop one end of the rope around the midship cleat and as I glide into the berth I hook the other end loop over the pontoon cleat. - The boat can't go anywhere now and as others have said a nudge of the throttle and turn away from pontoon, will bring your back end in.

I have a MF645, new to us last season, and use exactly this method for docking. Our pontoon is positioned so that the prevailing SW wind constantly blows us off the pontoon.

I usually approach at a fairly steep angle into the wind, to lessen the wind effect as much as possible, then turn in as late as possible to allow SWMBO to slip the loop over the pontoon end cleat. Once she has that I start to breath again and idle the boat alongside.

Last year was a massive learning curve for us, and we didn't get it right all the time (No doubt we wont this year either!), but lots of fenders on each side prevents any damage.

 

[darrenw]

We struggle with exactly the same on our single engine Jeanneau Leader 705, which is an open top version of a Merry Fisher. The bow is very susceptible to cross winds and many's a time I've had to spin the long way round when manoeuvring as it refuses to turn into the wind.

And unfortunately for us the hardest manoeuvre is berthing on our own pontoon, as like you, the prevailing wind always seems to be blowing us off and onto a neighbouring boat.

My other half doesn't like going up on the bow, so she attempts to lasso the pontoon from behind me at the helm. But as that's quite far back on the boat, we're not really getting the leverage point that we need to stop the bow wandering.

We're going to try with her at the helm and me on the bow, but she's a bit nervous on the controls as they are a bit sticky and the thought of hitting the wall means a slow tentative approach, but as another poster has said, that gives the wind more chance to take effect.

So long and the short, I'm currently looking into the cost of fitting a bow thruster, as the potential 'stress' of parking can sometimes put us off even going out.

Interesting points about the spring too, as we were taught to get the bow line on and then steer towards the pontoon and drop into reverse. But the advice above seems to be to get the bow or mid line on and then steer away and nudge forward. Must give that a go.

 

[Sailorsam101]

A bow line on going forward with the boat astern and steering towards the pontoon will bring the boat in ok. But the bow line to the end of the finger pontoon and the steer away works better.

Just make sure that the bow line look is the right length to allow you to step off the back and short enough to stop you going too far forward. it does take practice but well worth it.

One previous post had it bang on when saying about the point of no return. When i sued to teach mooring on yachts i would set up situations where i knew people would get it wrong....not to hit anything mind you.

This taught people to identify as early as possible when it's going wrong...this gives them more time to throw it away and have another go. It's all about practice and learning what your boat can do.

This year i went from big yachts to a twin outdrive with a thruster...easy you may think...oh no it's not...i'm still learning but i am getting there bit by bit.

 

[CX54WEK]

With our small 25ft single engine cruiser, also with no bow thruster we have found that if the wind is blowing us off of our berth then there is really not much point trying to counter act it.

We simply put lots of fenders down and gently come alongside the neighbouring boat. Then we get our stern rope around the rear most cleat on our pontoon (the simplicity of this depends on your lasooing skills!), put the motor in tickover dead ahead and the boat gently brings itself alongside our own pontoon.

 

[wipe_out]

Interesting reading the advice on the spring line from the bow.. I was taught at one stage to have a rope on the stern cleat and get the line onto the pontoon cleat nearest to it then steer into the pontoon and have the engine in forward which would pull the bow into the pontoon..

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Big fenders! ...

 

[Cbjroms]

Thanks for all the posts here. I had a training day with Paul Drake from duck-2-water and it was absolutely invaluable. We spent most of the day maneuvering and learnt how to do it properly. My wife (who has never been into boats but really enjoyed the day due to Paul's approach and reassurance) and I both agreed that we now know what to do even though much more practice is required to get it right every time. We have, however, managed to come into our pontoon solo at least 6 times without any of the usual dramas such as fending-off with the boat-hook, making that leap of faith and shouting at each other. Even having been around boats for 40 years, I know that our trips out since Paul's training have been much more relaxed, confident and enjoyable than they would otherwise have been.

I have no business connection to Paul. Just a satisfied customer who liked being taught by somebody who knows what they are doing and is a thoroughly nice guy.