Sailing into marina berth

[Colin_S]

Well done srm for starting IMO the best thread of the year so far. Apart from sailing a dinghy into a tight harbour with only about 2 hours sailing experience and where the wind came from a different direction every 10 feet or so last year, I can't add anything interesting to this thread but found it really interesting.

 

[Guest]

Re: Rod kickers ... it was a prod and comic post !!

I know that many boats have not Topping Lifts with Rod systems. Personal scale - I think its a good idea to have a topping lift anyway ....

I don't actually scandalise mains myself - as the sail bundle has still considerable windage ... I prefer to drop the sail - even if its an untidy bundle / mess on deck. Anyway - my boat is best handled with the genny - not the main. So having had the pleasure of duff engine ... I have used the genny to do it .... furling it in bit by bit as you approach berth ...

I don't know if its only me - but I always felt some years ago most boats used genny to negotiate tight areas / sail on / off buoys etc. and then later people starting using main instead ... I consider myself old-school on this !!

 

[Ships_Cat]

Size and weight of the boat is a lot to do with it

I tend to agree with you but as I often see kids sailing their boats into marina berths and some older ones who turn their outboards off some way from their berth it must be quite easy for us for those of us who are real sailors.

For example, I regularly sail with a friend on his 126 foot yacht and we most always sail it into its marina berth. This is how we do it.

On our way in we send the tender off with a 32mm line which he attaches to the pile on the opposite side of the aisle from the berth. As we come in the marina entrance we furl the genoa and turn up into the fairway on main alone (this, of course, because the genoa otherwise has to be furled going through head to wind on each tack). The prevailing wind means we normally have to tack up the fairway which gives us and the electric winches a fair work out as the fairway is, for us, less than two boat widths wide. We find that we are ALWAYS the stand on boat while doing this.

Meanwhile a crew member is winched up the mast on a spare halyard and comes back down the leech releasing the ends of the full length battens finally shackling the end of the halyard to the boom end, while another two sledge out the clevis for the hydraulic vang and lower the vang to the deck with a tackle. That all, of course, so we can scandalise the main as explained shortly. Complicated by the tacking but we find that if the battens are released any earlier they can come out (only happened once for us to learn that, fortunately with just one of the shorter ones, only 50 foot long that one).

We do a right angle turn into our aisle so onto a reach and hoist the boom end spilling wind so we don't get up too much speed. As we approach the berth the tender hands a crew member on our stern the line previously attached to the pile and takes it in through an aft fairlead and cleats it to a premade mark on the line. Then as we right angle turn into our berth, fortunately normally into the wind, we put full bow thrust on and the tender does a big push on the bow to swing it around within the boat length of water available so that we straighten up just as we head between our neighbour and the dock. At the same time the main is fully scandalised (as are some of the onlookers, with their gins dribbling down their chins from agape mouths).

As we run alongside two crew lower the gangway to the dock at the same time as the boat comes up hard, to a stop, on the line to the pile across the aisle. Four crew walk smartly down the gangway to the dock and take the lines and make them to the dock cleats before we drift off.

From turning into the aisle to being safely tucked in takes about 10 seconds, no time for us real sailors to even work up a sweat. Chef then appears on deck with trays of drinks, canapes, freshly baked savories, cake, etc all set out before the linesmen ashore and the tender are back on board.

We have done all this in over 30 knots but don't do so in winds exceeding this anymore. Not because we are not capable, of course, but because others who do not understand real sailors' abilities start to panic on shore.

Maybe some of the forumites who report that they also sail regularly into their berths could also tell us their heavy boat procedure? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John

 

[Guest]

By an odd coincidence this is almost exactly the same procedure that I use on my Contessa, with one or two minor modifications when singlehanded (then I have to bring up my own canapes and freshly baked savouries).

 

[Ships_Cat]

I assume this is your "Contessa" at http://www.centralyachtagent.com/yachts.php?id=1000&d=1&uid=518&psize= /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif - bit small, but full marks for doing it single handed.

Seems we are the only ones /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

John