Rafting Up

Having only rafted a couple of times and reading these threads a couple of questions that the experts can answer.

What is the protocol about walking across another boats deck with regard to footwear, do you ask if deck shoes are OK and if no one is there to ask would you remove footwear? I know one guy who would go balistic if anyone set foot aboard with shoes that had been ashore.

What is the position regarding insurance if someone were to trip and injure themselves on your boat, has a claim for this ever been made.
 
That smug feeling of satisfaction, having carefully made sure your raft is all correctly tied up with springs and shorelines you then look out at midnight at the rafts in front.......








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thats a great picture, i notice your username, was that taken in the tamar? this is our home river.
 
The younger cruising sailor

sea said:
nice to hear there are some other young'ns out there. Yes i know the feeling about daddy's boat. I left home young so myself and my partner me 21 and Hannah 24 feel very proud of our home.

We have had some lovely evenings with our rafting neighbours, but i must say i do enjoy pulling up next to a nice new jenneau and seeing the look on the owners face, they are of course thinking i hope that kid isnt going to try to raft here.

Thats the thing with moving boats in marina's, you can always feel the eye's on you, but even more so when you are young!
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I'm still having the same with my boat at 32!

Took out a friends father the other week, he was asked twice how long he had had the boat!

Was visiting a marina and moved onto a private finger next to a very nice Nicky 40 something, you have never seen so many people appear out of nowhere (not off the Nicky) clutching fenders. As has been mentioned it is nice to surprise people and there were a couple of 'nicely handled' remarks

Stuart
 
Once came across a French (what else) home made steel boat that had solved the rafting problem by welding his cleats to the side of the hull and using tyres as fenders. Not surprisingly no one went near him

The person who told the OP that lines for rafting should only go ashore and not onto the next boat as well is an idiot. As the boats walse back and forwards with passing wash, only damage can result. you should always have springs on the next boat in my view.
 
snooks said:
...take over from her and ask her to check on the oven...
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That would go down well with my SWMBO! :D

The only thing I would add is to stand off if the boat you are rafting up to has only just gone alongside themselves. Twice this year I have had boats trying to pass me lines before I have even got my own made off.
 
LOL yes thats exactly it! They appear like the seagulls do.

My fav is when you have an audience go in stern first. And cowboy the pontoon!

Although i am impressed with the amount of people willing to drop what they are doing and help us berth up when they see only 2 people on board. (1 with little experience)
 
sea said:
Thats the thing with moving boats in marina's, you can always feel the eye's on you, but even more so when you are young!
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You should try working for Sunsail in the solent, and being in your early 20s! Never am I made to feel less welcome than when I'm working for Sunsail. It's almost like having "lepper" tatooed on your forehead. Doesn't seem to happen when I put away my Sunsail T-shirt and work for someone else.

One bloke I came alongside in Cowes (in 30kts coming to a perfect stop for my crew to gently step across) then started lecturing me in how I should have executed that manouver. The fact that his method would have had me coming in down tide and down wind probably exlplained the large gash in his topsides facing the pontoon!
 
michael_w said:
I'll try and raft up bow to stern. Bit more private and helps to stop the rigs getting too close.
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I generally tie up bow to stern if possible - I think it gives a bit more privacy if you aren't sitting cockpit to cockpit having to listen to each others conversations. Also, our current boat is centre cockpit but we tend to sit on a bench seat on the poop - if we go cockpit to cockpit, being slightly raised, we can see straight down the companionway of the boat alongside.
 
one day it was blowing up, so we went into st peter port to shelter for the night, we moored up to a pontoon, then 1, 2 -6 boats rafted up outside us, we told them their insurance was invalid if they didnt take a line ashore, the arrogant lot of them ignored us
in the middle of the night were all asleep, & our skipper gets up, he was used to handling the boat on his own, he starts the engine, casts off the aft line, & goes fwd to cast off, hes got six boats outside him, its gusting 7-8, & hes about to head out to sea while were all asleep,
then he wakes up
 
flaming said:
You should try working for Sunsail in the solent, and being in your early 20s! Never am I made to feel less welcome than when I'm working for Sunsail. It's almost like having "lepper" tatooed on your forehead. Doesn't seem to happen when I put away my Sunsail T-shirt and work for someone else.
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The funny things is Sunsail do not deserve their bad reputation.

I was sat once on a buoy in Cowes roads waiting for the water taxi and observed a school boat try to lasso a buoy. They took several tries and in the end ended up with the buoy under their keel accompained with lots of swearing and shouting. At the same time, a Sunsail boat came along and executed the same trick effortlessly and without error. So I now always have respect for Sunsail skippers. They certainly don't deserve some of the comments they recieve from certain members of the sailing community.
 
flaming said:
You should try working for Sunsail in the solent, and being in your early 20s!
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Got a question since you are here.

When SunSail is faced with shifting a fleet of 40 Sun Fasts from Cowes to Port Solent after a corporate event, where do they find 40 solo skippers on the day?
 
jonjo said:
Got a question since you are here.

When SunSail is faced with shifting a fleet of 40 Sun Fasts from Cowes to Port Solent after a corporate event, where do they find 40 solo skippers on the day?
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The skippers will have been on the boat all the time.

It's the most boring thing we do, the singlehanded deliveries, and a pain in the neck as there's no autopilot so it's engine on all the way. Often as not the tide (and wind) is going the wrong way and it just gets tedious.

When the boats are bareboat they will only be handed over at port solent.
 
The only time I can remember ever having felt unwelcome when wishing to raft up was last year in Camaret. The only space on the long pontoon in the inner marina was occupied by an immaculate British yacht with a particularly po-faced couple on board who glared at us as if we had trodden in something. [The wife resembled a bulldog chewing on a wasp.]

We didn't care for the look of them [nor they for us] so moved to the inside of the pontoon, and were graciously welcomed alongside a French yacht by a charming couple with whom we spent a pleasant evening in a restaurant. On our return we were delighted to see that the po-faces now had a rusty Swedish steel yacht alongside with a noisy party in full swing on it. A party to which the po-faces had apparently not been invited.

Despite the noise we slept very contentedly!
 
parsifal said:
The only time I can remember ever having felt unwelcome when wishing to raft up was last year in Camaret. The only space on the long pontoon in the inner marina was occupied by an immaculate British yacht with a particularly po-faced couple on board who glared at us as if we had trodden in something. [The wife resembled a bulldog chewing on a wasp.]

Despite the noise we slept very contentedly!
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Puts me in mind of a situation in Camaret 2 years ago, arriving very late and no slots anywhere, I spotted the sailing school berth and pulled in, reasoning that sailing schools do not normally travel that late. And if they did return we would vacate. Monsieur Merecat 2 boats away was up and glaring, telling us in no uncertain terms that the berth was not available. His look of horror when receiving a sensible explanation in French was memorable.
The continentals do have equivalents to our territorial merecats (so often sporting blue ensigns, need one ask!).

Too many part-time sherrifs in all marinas for my liking!

PWG
 
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