Rafting up etiquette

[jimi]

I don't mind rafting up, but there's one thing that get on my tits... the geyser inside who says .. aha but I'm leaving at 03:48 am to catch the tide.. surely in that situation the decent thing to do is find a buoy somewhere or anchor up and avoid being a nuisance to everyone else. I think 0600 should be the earliest time allowable for disruption, whatdiya think?

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I think if you plan to leave early you have the right to refuse anyone who wishes to raft alongside you.

As skipper you have to make sure the following days passage is carried out safely and to plan, this includes an unhindered exit from your berth.

 

[tcm]

I don't think this is a problem: I make sure one of the kids is detailed to go and wake them up 20mins or so in advance of their planned departure.

 

[jimi]

Erm .. perhaps the harbour master might have something to say in a crowded harbour!!

and perhaps the objectives of an unhindered exit would be best served elsewhere than on an alongside berth in a busy harbour?

 

[iangrant]

If i'm leaving early I normally move to the outside of the raft in the evening it is easier than disturbing sleeping hungover Scotsmen!!

Ian

 

[jhr]

Seasonal posting etiquette

Wrong time of year for this topic, surely? Try again in June, when everybody's trying to get into Yarmouth.

February's topic of the month is either "should I put lanolin on my prop, and if so, should it be fried or boiled"? or "I'm going completely hatstand because my boat's still out of the water".

Please conform, or you will be Kimmerised.

 

[tcm]

Nonsense! A boat has no such right to unhindered exit. The early start gambit is widely used by selfish creeps who would understandably like no rafting, but nevertheless want alongside berth, and they rarely if ever leave early, hence my wakey wakey post if they insist on staying inside.

For a (real) very early start, anchor or a mooring buoy is the sensible option, and by far the most considerate: If not an option cos too rolly or whatever, decent person would have to say, look actually i really AM going at 4am, so i'll bog off over there and come back as the last on the raft, or otherwise rearrange the night before.

all imho

 

[john_morris_uk]

Re: Seasonal posting etiquette

Don't mind where people berth, I don't think that you can deny someone an alongside berth just because they got there first and are leaving early. I agree that it would be generous and polite to move to a mooring if you are leaving at an unsocial hour, or simply move to the outside berth of the raft

What annoys me far far more are the people who suggest that you can't raft up because they are leaving and then don't leave anyway. Happens all too often.

When people say that they are leaving at some ungodly hour I usually say, "that's ok - I'll be up to let you out" and then either see the horror on their faces as they realise that their bluff is called, or the realisation that they really do have to get up at 0300...

With some crews, knocking on their hatch to remind them to get up is sometimes too much to resist...

 

[Evadne]

Actually I don't mind rafting and I like to sail in company. Often, boats outside me thoughtfully leave their shorelines off, which I take as an invitation to cast off and take them with me. It certainly means I always get an unhindered exit. On a calm day I can get all the way to my mooring in Chichester harbour with two or three of them still snoozing blissfully, though they're usually gone by the following week. Thanks to the wonders of GPS they can usually work out where they are, eventually. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Sgeir]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually I don't mind rafting and I like to sail in company. Often, boats outside me thoughtfully leave their shorelines off, which I take as an invitation to cast off and take them with me. It certainly means I always get an unhindered exit. On a calm day I can get all the way to my mooring in Chichester harbour with two or three of them still snoozing blissfully.........

[/ QUOTE ]
I hope you make the breakfast for them.

 

[jimi]

Reminds me of last summer, when on the waiting pontoon at St Peter Port, the frenchman outside of me shot for the entrance with his outside rafter still firmly attached .. much mayhem in the dark!!

 

[LittleShip]

I always call peoples bluff by saying that I will get up to let them out as well! However one time in a little harbour on the Mull (Cladda I think) the fishermen told me they were going early am, woke up to find they had and I didnt even hear them. My boat was tied up ever so well where they had been.
Must go back and buy them a drink!!

 

[Evadne]

Ah, that will be Jacque Leblanc, my french cousin. He is a right little joker.

 

[Evadne]

Since I have thoughtfully let them have a lie-in, I expect them to make tea and bacon butties for me!

 

[dom]

I don't know if this a bit of a Solent thing. In France mostly when inner boats say that they are leaving at a certain time one can just wake up to help them get away and retie. If things are the other way around and we are going first usually other boats are quite happy to help us depart. In Cherbourg for example there are no buoys and who wants to anchor? However, in say Yarmouth who on earth would want to get out of there 5am when they could sit on a buoy for the easiest dparture possible? That is why there is probably more little lies being told here!!

 

[ianwright]

Or three years ago in Middleburg. The inside boat on the raft waiting for the Harbourmaster got his berthing instructions first, naturally, then cast off the whole string of boats so he could get to his berth quickly. The remaining skippers waiting in the line at the office watched their boats and loved ones, and wives, drift across the basin. He was English too,,,,,,,
IanW /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[claymore]

Don\'t give me that tosh

Ye've nivver rafted up in your life ye marina dwellin' wee scaldie. Get yersel intae _Portpatrick wi its high walls an boats rafted oot 10 deep an nivver an inch tae spare an try saein "We are going early in the morning" - the chances are the reply wid be - 'weel tha's grand sae are wee - ets ra tide d'ye ken.'
Rafting Etiquette indeed - can ye no find somethin' original tae witteroan aboot - ah wiz hauled ower ra coals 3 years sin fer suggestin ah didnae like boats wi bairns oan skrikin a' the while - an dogs too alangside me.

 

[SparkyLeisure]

Re: Don\'t give me that tosh

aye nae bother.. Big Willie R wouldne stan fer it in the Port.
Us norn Iron folk think its gran....... an anyhu why would ye after a trip tae the crown or the harbour house?


Thank you for your time and patience. Is it not etiquette that a larger craft should not raft against a smaller one? Also if fenders are not on the 'open' side is it not a sign that you should not raft to them?

 

[Lizzie_B]

Re: Don\'t give me that tosh

or like Claymore, you're too mean to buy enough fenders for both sides. I personaly don't mind bigger boats rafting outside me as long as they take their weight on the shore lines and it's a very sheltered site eg Lymington Town Quay. Wouldn't like it in any sort of swell tho'. I usually offer tea, coffee or something stronger from my ever ready kettle and am never in a hurry to leave early in the morning. Have made many friends that way over the years! One of the benefits of rafting up. Americans that I've met seem totally confused by the concept! Or was I just unfortunate in the one that I met?

 

[claymore]

Re: Don\'t give me that tosh

Jings mon - Help ma Boab - BUY FENDERS???
Did ye no see ra price o' they wee rascals -
The whole point o' gettin folks tae raft alangside is tae run thru ra great Claymore Fendershufflin' routine where ye end up wi yin er twa mair than ye set aff wi' Buy them indeed!