What is the best entrance you have seen.

Seastoke

Seastoke

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Sep 2011
Messages
13,683
Visit site
We were sitting in the restaurant Below Decks in side the harbour wall in Torquay. When everybody turned and looked up the slip comes a 30ft sea legs along the quay pulls up outside the entrance 4 people jump out and order a meal from the bar. What have you seen that made you smile.
 
Rear sundeck of 130 ish foot boat entering St Tropez, 6 girls doing a well lit and loud perfect dance to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face'........ the name of the boat!
 
I saw the same sea legs approach the same slip earlier this year. They were playing the James Bond music very loud, the sealegs had a fault and would not wheel up the slip.
 
There is a dude near us, I won't name the boat to save embarrassment..

But even in an F6 going sideways, he just parks his fin keeled sailing yacht with a little more speed in reverse, perfectly lined up, with a burst of forwards at exactly the right time to come to a halt about a metre from the pontoon astern and half a metre off the pontoon side.

The crew have either already lassoed a midships cleat or delicately step ashore with lines.

It's very annoying to watch in some respects: you are always expecting some sort of disaster, but it never happens.
 
I can lay claim to a fairly spectacular entrance myself, at least from the applause I received from other anchored vessels. The engine in my Nic 32 had given up the ghost in Sardinia, so I sailed her back to Spain engineless and managed to get into Denia. There after much fiddling I got the engine to run on 3 cylinders, enough to get me out of Denia and bound under sail alone for Torrevieja where I had managed to arrange for a Winter berth.
Approaching Torrevieja in half an onshore gale and lumpy seas I sailed past the entrance and then went about and headed for the breakwater end. If you know Torrevieja you will know that if you go to port of the entrance you end up amongst the kids and their sand castles on the beach...:D

I held onto full sail for as long as I dared and streaked through the entrance without being pushed to port. I locked the wheel, hauled the headsail in on the furling line, leapt up to the mast and dropped the main. The inside of the curved Breakwater loomed ahead as did a collection of local family boats all anchored in it's lee as it was too rough outside for them. Concerned Spanish faces stared at me as the Nic stormed towards them.

Don't listen to people who say Delta anchors don't hold...:LOL: I shot from the mast to the foredeck, kicked the brake off the Windlass and and let the chain run before screwing on the brake after just a few seconds. The Delta bit and the Nic swung through 180 degrees with her stern a good boat's length from the nearest locals...

Anchored nearby was this Norwegian flagged vessel

Her decks lined with hairy Norwegian youngsters who had watched in amazement. They all suddenly broke into cheers and clapping applause, this triggered all the locals to join in and I got a standing ovation from everybody...for about two minutes until some official from the Port of Torrevieja arrived. He had obviously seen my antics and went completely berserk, shouting and yelling at me for breaking some harbour rule about sailing within the Harbour confines.

The Norskis saved the day, speaking Spanish they explained my lack of engine but need for speed to get through the entrance in the onshore gale and sea. They even towed me to a berth which I was eventually allocated, with their big 12 foot Rib.
Safe in my berth with her mast down prior to being taken home by lorry for a re-fit. ...(y)
 
veshengro said:
I can lay claim to a fairly spectacular entrance myself, at least from the applause I received from other anchored vessels. The engine in my Nic 32 had given up the ghost in Sardinia, so I sailed her back to Spain engineless and managed to get into Denia. There after much fiddling I got the engine to run on 3 cylinders, enough to get me out of Denia and bound under sail alone for Torrevieja where I had managed to arrange for a Winter berth.
Approaching Torrevieja in half an onshore gale and lumpy seas I sailed past the entrance and then went about and headed for the breakwater end. If you know Torrevieja you will know that if you go to port of the entrance you end up amongst the kids and their sand castles on the beach...:D

I held onto full sail for as long as I dared and streaked through the entrance without being pushed to port. I locked the wheel, hauled the headsail in on the furling line, leapt up to the mast and dropped the main. The inside of the curved Breakwater loomed ahead as did a collection of local family boats all anchored in it's lee as it was too rough outside for them. Concerned Spanish faces stared at me as the Nic stormed towards them.

Don't listen to people who say Delta anchors don't hold...:LOL: I shot from the mast to the foredeck, kicked the brake off the Windlass and and let the chain run before screwing on the brake after just a few seconds. The Delta bit and the Nic swung through 180 degrees with her stern a good boat's length from the nearest locals...

Anchored nearby was this Norwegian flagged vessel

Her decks lined with hairy Norwegian youngsters who had watched in amazement. They all suddenly broke into cheers and clapping applause, this triggered all the locals to join in and I got a standing ovation from everybody...for about two minutes until some official from the Port of Torrevieja arrived. He had obviously seen my antics and went completely berserk, shouting and yelling at me for breaking some harbour rule about sailing within the Harbour confines.

The Norskis saved the day, speaking Spanish they explained my lack of engine but need for speed to get through the entrance in the onshore gale and sea. They even towed me to a berth which I was eventually allocated, with their big 12 foot Rib.
Safe in my berth with her mast down prior to being taken home by lorry for a re-fit. ...(y)
Click to expand...
Great story 👍👍👍👍
 
SC35 said:
There is a dude near us, I won't name the boat to save embarrassment..

But even in an F6 going sideways, he just parks his fin keeled sailing yacht with a little more speed in reverse, perfectly lined up, with a burst of forwards at exactly the right time to come to a halt about a metre from the pontoon astern and half a metre off the pontoon side.

The crew have either already lassoed a midships cleat or delicately step ashore with lines.

It's very annoying to watch in some respects: you are always expecting some sort of disaster, but it never happens.
Click to expand...
is that at Swanwick?
 
Me. There's a bay in Antigua called Half Moon. There's a big reef that runs across the whole entrance except one tiny corner. My Dad showed me in his little 30ft wooden sailboat how to creep in and make the sharp turn under sail. Later I ran the private marina at the nearby Mill Reef club. We had a Blackfin 32' sportfisher which I had learned how to enter at about 20 knots depending on which wave to ride in on. The guests used to close their eyes or cross their fingers and I always got a cheer once we were in. Even the local small boat fishermen don't do it. It was a bit of a jump to get back out
 
Entering Monaco harbour on a forumites boat to the strains of the James Bond theme at full volume.
Then calmly disembarking and walking to our cruise ship (mini one) moored next to us.
1692253290236.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • 1692253121405.jpeg
    1692253121405.jpeg
    149 KB · Views: 27
My best one was about 20 years ago. I mainly motor boat but I do sail a bit too. A friend had lent me his sailing dinghy, a beautiful varnished clinker boat of about 16ft - looking stunning. She was on the inside pontoon down here at Mylor. I took my 14 year old daughter out and we had a lovely sail around the Fal for a few hours and then headed for home. There was a good breeze and I - cockily, in hindsight - decided to sail to the pontoon. We dropped the jib and coasted gently towards the pontoon, the plan was to let go of the mainsheet and spill the wind. Just as we neared the pontoon there was a big windshift and strong gust that picked up the main and drove us straight for the pontoon.
There was no time to drop the main, no room to turn so I grabbed the pulpit rails of a boat as we went past. I ended up at full stretch hovering over the water hanging onto the pulpit rail with just my toes hooked over the transom of the dinghy, at the same time yelling at Louise to drop the main. The bow of the boat was inches from a right angle step in the pontoon. She dropped the main and I hauled the dinghy astern drawing her back with my toes until I could drop back into the boat.
Of course the first thing I did was to check to see if anyone was watching - male ego and all that. My shins were raked to hell by the top of the transom. I was so close to trashing my mate's boat that he had spent scores of hours on.
Lesson learned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top