What to do with keen helpers on the pontoon

[SimbaDog]

Last year in PYH with a strong NW wind blowing I walked over to a vacant berth & offered to take lines from a visiting Bav38, response was we don't need any help I walked back to my boat & watched them slam into the pile & bend their pullpit
Made a point of walking over later to view the damage

 

[exfinnsailor]

Help when its needed ...

We had a berth in Neptune Marina ( Ipswich ) when we first got the boat .. Brand new just out the showroom .. 3m longer than the last one .. Wider .. Inboard engine .. etc .. Our new berth was in a corner near the office and the only way in was backwards .. We meet Andrew during our first attempts at getting in .. If he was down he would walk round and make sure we missed the finger end .. Grab a line or whatever .. He lived in one of the flats overlooking the marina and if we were back late we would give him a ring as we came through the lock and he would walk down .. One night we rang and no reply .. Oh well .. Plenty of fenders and ..... We never looked back .. Our new home is on a swing mooring so you do miss the lock and the manoeuvres in tight corners and you do get out of practice .. We now always try to berth the boat ourselves .. SWMBO hops off using a fender step .. If she meets anyone who wants to take a line its usually " No that's ok. thanks .. I need the practice with my knots "

 

[VicS]

Some years ago just me and my son when he was fairly young.

Going alongside another boat, owners rally so all friends, someone there to take lines etc.

I briefed him on what to do, sending him to the bow where I'd already got a line ready. I told him to simply hand the line across to the person on the other boat when he could reach to do that.

What happened? Idiot on other boat refused to take the line because he had not heard me instruct the lad to pass it over!

 

[jonjo]

I hope this thread won't dissuade others from offering help to approaching yachts in future, as a single hander I am often highly dependent on some kind sole walking across and taking a line.

I do not recognize the trouble and grief about helpers reported in this thread but then this is the imaginary world of British cyber yachting so I am not surprised that trouble and strife reigns. Who needs to buy the Daily Mail when YBW.com offers a daily diet of yachting misery and outrage?

There is a body language art-form that has to developed when offering help, you need to give the impression that you just happened to be sauntering by but paused to watch an expert example of berthing seamanship BUT if it would help you'd be happy to take a line.

 

[Litotes]

I do not recognize the trouble and grief about helpers reported in this thread but then this is the imaginary world of British cyber yachting so I am not surprised that trouble and strife reigns. Who needs to buy the Daily Mail when YBW.com offers a daily diet of yachting misery and outrage?

Agree entirely. In the real world I meet cheerful, friendly, unpretentious, helpful people, most of whom know and obey the collision regulations, handle their boats competently, do the right thing, help each other berth without drama and don't give a tinkers what colour ensign anyone else is wearing or whether they have a big, posh boat or a scruffy little tub. There are always a few "bad apples", but certainly no more than in any other part of life.

Here in cyberspace, it's mostly bad news. Rants, moans, whinges, whines....

Well, anyone who takes the journalists' eye view as a guide to reality is deluded. The forums' eye view is no better. (Unless, that is, life in the south really is like that? I do hope not....)

 

[Master_and_Commander]

Just let em get on with it. You usually can't get through to them so it's easier to just sort it out yourself once they've gone.

As a frequent charterer I always end up with about 500 people trying to tell me what I should do, and loads of them shouting "Captain" or "Skipper" at every bloke on the boat and then looking surprised when I answer!

I usually stand back and then run round sorting it out when they've left.
And I did get an apology this year from some 'helpful' soul! I was amazed.

Bless 'em, they're usually well meaning, and far preferable to those who sit on their boats watching and never offer help (even worse when they get the video camera out!!)

 

[Danny Jo]

It's not the shore volunteers who make a pig's ear of Freestyle's approach to a pontoon or harbour wall. And it's not the crew, either, who usually do exactly what they are told, albeit biting their lips the while.

No, it's her utterly incompetent skipper, who seems incapable of adjusting his approach to meet the exigencies of wind and current. After three years of banging into things trying to get the hang of it, he's finally given up and installed a rubbing strake.

He has learned one thing, though. As others have pointed out, don't pass a line ashore or let your crew step ashore until you have stopped the boat - people just can't resist the temptation to stop it for you.