Wobbly pontoon fingers

[Poignard]

I was once in a French marina which had very narrow, very wobbly pontoons. A British boat on a nearby pontoon left after a lot of faffing about, leaving its stern line attached to the pontoon. As the boat disappeared out of sight I said to myself "Well, if they don't want it, I'll have it" and crawled out on the pontoon and retrieved it. I crawled carefully backwards to the root of the pontoon with my prize and, as I got to my feet, a voice behind me said "Cheers mate. We had to go round to the fuel pontoon anyway and I thought it would be easier to leave the line and walk back for it." :ambivalence:

 

[AliM]

If you think the pontoon fingers are wobbly, then you should try the booms that are reasonably common in Sweden. They are just long steel bars, with loops at the end and floats which keep them just above water-level. You head in between them, tie up the bows to something on the pontoon, and then try to get your stern lines onto these loops. Ideally, you have one of the clip things for one, but still have to lie on the deck and do some sort of gymnastics to get at the other. The particularly choice ones have the bow loops also a little way along the booms, so you have to do those gymnastics for all four lines. Luckily, everyone helps, and you usually have a helpful Swede hanging onto your boat and offering advice (in Swedish) and an audience of mixed nationalities offering more conflicting advice in various other languages. We now have experience in several of the odder mooring techniques of the Nordic races, and wobbly pontoon fingers are an awful lot easier than most of the alternatives!

 

[pks1702]

Can't say i've ever noticed any problems at Shotley.

+1

I was moored on H pontoon for a number of years and cant say I found them to be a problem. Have not checked the marina map to see what length of boat E Pontoon takes.

 

[Supine Being]

'A' pontoon at BYH has especially wobbly finger pontoons. My kids learned pretty quickly that they needed to coordinate who would step off the boat first when coming in, this being a rare instance of cooperation between the two of them. I'm pretty sure that standing on the end of one of the fingers for 5 minutes would provide great exercise, providing you lasted that long.

 

[johnalison]

If you think the pontoon fingers are wobbly, then you should try the booms that are reasonably common in Sweden. They are just long steel bars, with loops at the end and floats which keep them just above water-level. You head in between them, tie up the bows to something on the pontoon, and then try to get your stern lines onto these loops. Ideally, you have one of the clip things for one, but still have to lie on the deck and do some sort of gymnastics to get at the other. The particularly choice ones have the bow loops also a little way along the booms, so you have to do those gymnastics for all four lines. Luckily, everyone helps, and you usually have a helpful Swede hanging onto your boat and offering advice (in Swedish) and an audience of mixed nationalities offering more conflicting advice in various other languages. We now have experience in several of the odder mooring techniques of the Nordic races, and wobbly pontoon fingers are an awful lot easier than most of the alternatives!

I quite like these booms, and they make efficient use of the space. Just get a boat with lower freeboard.

Easier still is the arrangement in Leba, where good fingers alternate with these booms.

 

[AliM]

We liked the booms too, as long as there is not too much crosswind, because once you are in and have secured the bows, then you can sort out the rest of the mooring at leisure.