What do you do to prepare your boat for mooring up?

[RobbieH]

I love watching folk come into moor up, and there is no place better than Yarmouth on a windy day IMO.

..

I always thought everyone did it but noone actually admitted to it - a bit like sexual solitaire

 

[rubberduck]

Yep we do the same, but as weve only had the boat for 3 months i just assumed everyone did the same, when we got the boat it had one mooring rope!


Lynall

What you got ?

 

[Kawasaki]

this just reinforces to me I really must swot up on my knots coz I'm rubbish at remembering how to do them.
L

Lis me darlin
Knots when yer don't know which from where can come across as a right prob
BUT
It's a doddle
Tell yer sumatt
When I went to get me Instructors (basic) Cert some years ago, knots where me most weak link
There where more I found out on the Course
Learn Four
Sit in front of You Tube with some string/ rope!
An a piece of wood or or a bit of tube or sumatt
Learn
Bowline
Clove Hitch
Round Turn an two half Hitches
An
Sheet Bend
Oh! and how to coil a rope up and send it miles, even against the wind to catch a cleat or summat!
Makes berthing a whole lot easier
You tube is great
I had to fix a boat today
So last night I looked at someone else doing it!
So tonight I am an 'Expert'!

 

[lisilou]

If single handed I may rig a panama line on the midships cleat.

Ok please don't shout at me but what the hell is a panama line??

 

[rubberduck]

Nooooooo!!
But that's a whole different topic!

I know

 

[lisilou]

Lis me darlin
Knots when yer don't know which from where can come across as a right prob
BUT...

I'm on it. I'm bored as hell tonight so I'm gonna do that right now. Ta
L

 

[Kawasaki]

Ok please don't shout at me but what the hell is a panama line??

lisilou
U useless Person
Everybody knows what a Panama line is
'Tusk Tusk'!
Fix Me Puter an I'll tell yer what it is

 

[lisilou]

lisilou
U useless Person
Everybody knows what a Panama line is
'Tusk Tusk'!
Fix Me Puter an I'll tell yer what it is

hahahaha hope yer pooter crashes lol (that means breaks )

 

[l'escargot]

It's a mobo thing - raggies have to go forward and take down sails, putting on fenders, mooring lines etc gives them something to do on the way back

 

[Mike k]

We have fenders permanently tied on both sides, simply put the on the side walkways when under way. We also have ropes permanently tied at all corners, stored safely on rails or in suitable holes when underway. Wherever we go, therefore, we are prepared. Does no one else do this ?

yep +1

 

[LionsDen]

We always put fenders down both sides just in case we need to berth else where due to being a tight squeeze i.e boat adjacent sticking out to far on a short finger and we need to go in on alternative side.
I always ask swmbo to adjust fenders at different heights if we are not familiar with the marina - that way only 2 need to be finally adjusted thereby saving valuable time. Also its good to have a fender put on the bathing platform when reversing in places like cowes yacht haven north entrance - better to hit the pile with a fender than with your bathing platform

I always ask swmbo to put a mooring rope on the mid cleat as this holds the boat in sufficiently if being blown off or when berthing in a rip tide as in east cowes whilst the boat is being tied up.

Lastly has anyone been to Southampton Town Quay on the breakwater visitor pontoon.
Solid concrete and good 3 feet out of the water ouch.
We nearly got caught out the other week when the ferry came in at the same time.
swmbo threw the forward bow line to the berthing assistant - our boat got caught in trong under current pushing us towards boats berthed behind.
I put boat in reverse to pull the boat alongside the pontoon then noticed our bow was going towards the concrete dock - imminent impact only adverted by quick thinking - put large ball on front - did the job no damage caused

When a marina says call us for assistace when mooring up it generally means sh.t may happen.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Lastly check where your berth is on the almanac as I had a yachtie come in single handed recently right up my stern. 3 loud blasts later and he took no notice and cut me up instead - charter guy wot can I say always hitting other boats. Now I have a copy open in a sealed clear plastic zip bag so this does not get wet when on the flybridge.

Trust this info assists

 

[BartW]

We have fenders permanently tied on both sides, simply put the on the side walkways when under way. We also have ropes permanently tied at all corners, stored safely on rails or in suitable holes when underway. Wherever we go, therefore, we are prepared. Does no one else do this ?

thats what we were used to do some years ago, before I had some real training (from RYA school for YM licence)
there we learned to do the ropes and fenders and knots and mooring in a proper way.
I Believe you can learn that in the dayskipper course aswell but I'm not sure.

anyway, we have all neatly stowed away, and we "think" about our next mooring in advance, and swmbo prepares the fenders and ropes when we enter the port.
Mostly in the med is stern to mooring, so alway's fenders on bothe sides,
and prepare ropes the way she anticipates she will need them.

In windy conditions, I instruct a extra crew member or a guest to be prepared to place a extra fender between the boats when there is a potential risc for bumping in to each other, (happened only ones when the mistral on my beam was stronger then my bow thruster, but luckyly without any harm)

we have a fixed procedure for doing the mooring, briefly:
swmbo does first stern lines but 2m too far away from the quay
then she picks up the lazy lines, and fix the bow lines only by her manual force,
then I stop the engines, and help her to tighten the stern lines with the winch, and add spring stern lines.
Actually we tighten first, and add new stern lines, then untie the ropes from the which, and use these as stern spring's

 

[talltim]

Ok please don't shout at me but what the hell is a panama line??

+1

 

[rubberduck]

thats what we were used to do some years ago, before I had some real training (from RYA school for YM licence)
there we learned to do the ropes and fenders and knots and mooring in a proper way.
I Believe you can learn that in the dayskipper course aswell but I'm not sure.

anyway, we have all neatly stowed away, and we "think" about our next mooring in advance, and swmbo prepares the fenders and ropes when we enter the port.
Mostly in the med is stern to mooring, so alway's fenders on bothe sides,
and prepare ropes the way she anticipates she will need them.

In windy conditions, I instruct a extra crew member or a guest to be prepared to place a extra fender between the boats when there is a potential risc for bumping in to each other, (happened only ones when the mistral on my beam was stronger then my bow thruster, but luckyly without any harm)

we have a fixed procedure for doing the mooring, briefly:
swmbo does first stern lines but 2m too far away from the quay
then she picks up the lazy lines, and fix the bow lines only by her manual force,
then I stop the engines, and help her to tighten the stern lines with the winch, and add spring stern lines.
Actually we tighten first, and add new stern lines, then untie the ropes from the which, and use these as stern spring's

Did all the knots etc on our PB2 , just find it easier to do it like this, same as having a bow & stern thruster. Makes for less stress me thinks. If going on a long passage then maybe put it all away, but for river hoping as we do mainly, it works for us.

 

[BartW]

Did all the knots etc on our PB2 , just find it easier to do it like this, same as having a bow & stern thruster. Makes for less stress me thinks. If going on a long passage then maybe put it all away, but for river hoping as we do mainly, it works for us.

well I have to admid that with our Karnic (28ft) we still do it like you, and mostly leave ropes on the cleats, and fenders in the side gangway's, as thats the most convenient place on this boat.
when boat is on the trailer, all is stowed away ofcause.

 

[Golden Time]

We have fenders permanently tied on both sides, simply put the on the side walkways when under way. We also have ropes permanently tied at all corners, stored safely on rails or in suitable holes when underway. Wherever we go, therefore, we are prepared. Does no one else do this ?

+1 from me too I'm afraid. What's so bad about it? I don't have any of those special holders for fenders and I'm the only one brave enough to drive the boat or walk round the outside of the boat. Therefore I can't do both

General approach to the mooring though is to ask the wife to take out the door panel on the side we are mooring on so that when I've brought the boat to a stop close to the moorings I can step out onto the outside and onto the mooring. Then pull the boat the last few inches in.

If SWMBO helps any more than that she normally flails a boat hook around, eventually hooks onto something and pulls us so close at the stern that the bow starts swinging back out from the mooring. Which them makes her scream at me that I've messed up the parking and she is embarrassed!!!

 

[RupertW]

+1 from me too I'm afraid. What's so bad about it? I don't have any of those special holders for fenders and I'm the only one brave enough to drive the boat or walk round the outside of the boat. Therefore I can't do both

I'm a raggie type and many years ago used to do it the "RYA way" with everything put away then all put back out again later. Within a couple of years I'd figured out that there was nothing unprofessional about keeping bow, stern and midship ropes coiled and secured properly on their cleats, even for passages lasting a few days and nights. They are then all ready to go, and no matter what the berthing situation you find yourself in, you only have those points to use ropes from so lose no flexibility, just will usually have one or two redundant ropes each time - big deal.

However it's taken me decades to get over myself when dealing with fenders. By absolute rigid law we needed to ensure our lockers had sufficient space to untie them and pack them away within moments of leaving the berth and unpack the lockers then tie them all back on again when coming in.

Now we use the lockers for useful things, and either tie fenders off dangling over the stern or if the passage is daytime only and calmish will simply plonk them on the side deck. I now cope happily with the intense social embarrassment if one of them rolls off the side deck and hangs down for a minute when a bit of wash jiggles us about a bit. I just can't remember now why I ever cared.

 

[MapisM]

I just can't remember now why I ever cared.

Well, I do remember perfectly instead, 'cause I never did.
Good thing that I never had any RYA instruction, I suppose...
Out of curiosity, what's their rationale for that - if any?

 

[RupertW]

Well, I do remember perfectly instead, 'cause I never did.
Good thing that I never had any RYA instruction, I suppose...
Out of curiosity, what's their rationale for that - if any?

I think they start from a rote way of teaching which makes sense for "Competent Crew", a bit less for "Day Skipper" and so on. As skill develops then so does the capacity for making more rounded judgements. There's no doubt that if you tell everyone to keep their ropes on cleats then a few will secure them badly and get the loose ropes caught in props underway. However if you are experienced then you can make your own judgement about your own boat, and I take the very small risk that I will secure my own ropes badly and balance that against the PIA of tieing them and untying them every single time.

By the time I did a Yachtmaster Course then the RYA examiners were happy for each candidate to do pretty much anything as long as we could clearly show why we thought
it was best for us, and that we understood the decisions we were making. For example, during the exam I went over some shallows on the way into Portsmouth harbour just to save a five minute dogleg, without any written tidal calculations, just a quick glance at the chart which showed we only needed a little rise above low water and knew it was now 3 hours after low water.

 

[Bathdave]

So it's not just me then...

As newbie MOBO owners ( 3 months ...we love it) who did RYA day skipper on raggies 25 years ago, take the etiquette of fenders and practicalities of docking VERY seriously. SHMBO strict about it but also does the running around and stressing when we have close shaves ..well we are still learning.

Fender holders on rails plus the ' flip 'em over to the walkways' for the pair on each side to the stern works for us. We leaned the trick of a bow and stern line stowed neatly by the rear door and walk off point to the bathing platform in our seatrial, and it works well for us.

Irony is on a ' strange berth' like a visitors pontoon or teh fuel dock, we talk about the plan and execute flawlessly ( well every times so far...do I need an audience?) whilst on our home, we both now the plan but it is a bit tricky especially in a cross wind) so we have more ' communication breakdowns' than when away .. Still learning after a few immaculate entries, think ' I've cracked this' then it goes wrong.

SWMBO is very good on getting fenders down and ropes in place .. Teamwork and familiarity seem to me to be the key, visitors and guests can be a bit of a liability. I do recognise skippers duty to explain and give direction, but if you are still learning it is tough to manage the boat without trying to manage enthusiastic but dangerous amateur helpers. Well that s my view anyway. I would say our newness and inexperience, plus the Dayskipper arming makes us over prepare for entry !!!