Yacht "NO BERTHING" Kirkcudbright

D

DavidGrieves

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 Aug 2001
Messages
423
Location
West Cumbria, Cumbria
www.wsandba.co.uk
Went up to Kirkcudbright for a short visit, as we have done on numerous occasions.

We were approaching the pontoon in the middle of the river looking for a space to tie up, we saw a man rushing across the deck of his boat and starts tying a sign to his guard wires. Sign reads "NO BERTHING" he then shouts over to me "there is a space further down the pontoon". Quite a tight space I might add with a 2 knt current pushing us along. I told the said guy that I was going go alongside the "big yacht". to which he replies "NO YOU ARE NOT". I had no intention of going along side but just wanted to let him know I'd seen his sign going up and that I didn't think much of his un seaman like, antisocial attitude.

I had plenty fenders out, two crew standing on deck with bow and stern lines in hands waiting to secure us up.

Any body else experienced this before? or do you keep a "NO BERTHING" sign in your locker?

Sorry can't spin the picture round....
 
DavidGrieves said:
Went up to Kirkcudbright for a short visit, as we have done on numerous occasions.

We were approaching the pontoon in the middle of the river looking for a space to tie up, we saw a man rushing across the deck of his boat and starts tying a sign to his guard wires. Sign reads "NO BERTHING" he then shouts over to me "there is a space further down the pontoon". Quite a tight space I might add with a 2 knt current pushing us along. I told the said guy that I was going go alongside the "big yacht". to which he replies "NO YOU ARE NOT". I had no intention of going along side but just wanted to let him know I'd seen his sign going up and that I didn't think much of his un seaman like, antisocial attitude.

I had plenty fenders out, two crew standing on deck with bow and stern lines in hands waiting to secure us up.

Any body else experienced this before? or do you keep a "NO BERTHING" sign in your locker?

Sorry can't spin the picture round....
Click to expand...

Point one it's not his harbour though would you want to push it and listen to him whine all night! I've been in that situation when a HM has told them if the didn't want to raft then they could leave , though the HM was much less diplomatic , I thought the pompas prat was going to have a stroke he stayed I rafted he whined ha ha
 
Are you sure it was the owner of the boat and not the harbourmaster?

The deal at Kirkcudbright is that visitors do not raft up to residents, and these signs get moved around to show what's available and what isn't. They'll also put them up on residents' berth when they are away but expected back. Depths along the pontoon vary from 1 - 3m at low tide, so for bigger/deeper boats in particular it can be a real pain if an unwitting visitor takes the wrong berth.
 
When we had the Albin Vega, we found we were often actively encouraged to raft-up, I suspect because being small/light we wouldn't put much strain on the inside boat and more importantly, were too small for a third yacht to raft onto us. That said, we had a corker in the Ionian in about 2008 I can't remember the first harbour we were in, but a yacht (35 footish) arrived one evening and a British yacht flagged 42' Halberg was absolutely adamant that neither he, nor anyone else was rafting on his outside; one comment I do recall was "I don't care if everyone else allows it, I consider it unsafe; you should've known that it'd be busy here and arrived in decent time.". The chap was really unpleasant, so to avoid what looked like becoming an international incident, we came off the quay, let the arriving 36' yacht in and then went back alongside him; come dusk, the whole quay was 3 and four boats deep, other than the sole Halberg. About a week later, we in Frikes on Ithaca and it was packed - two charter fleets in- when what should arrive but the Halberg, it did a couple of laps of the harbour, then bore down on us announcing: "Make ready to take my lines, I'll be coming alongside you." I pointed out that 42' against 27' just wouldn't work, that sadly, even if I was to come off the wall there wasn't enough quay-space to fit a 42' boat inside us anyway and then directed him to the free-standing pontoon in the NW of the harbour - is it still there? It was a boat-wrecker! When I also appraised him of our having witnessed his behaviour the week before, I was told that: "The circumstances that day were completely different." He did have a fair point, as that day he had secured a berth, the second time it was he who didn't.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Are you sure it was the owner of the boat and not the harbourmaster?

The deal at Kirkcudbright is that visitors do not raft up to residents, and these signs get moved around to show what's available and what isn't.
Click to expand...

There are similar signs at Lymington Town Quay - once each raft gets to a certain depth the harbour staff will issue a sign to hang on the outside. If anyone else were to join the raft, they would block the harbour.

These signs have "by order of the Harbourmaster" on them, or words to that effect, so that people know it isn't just the boatowner being a dick.

Pete
 
Sorry, I'm Back; Lesley just reminded me of a corker:
We were anchored in Turkey and had some German friends aboard for sundowners when some yacht came into the anchorage and did something foolish and/or unpleasant- I really can't remember what it was, it certainly didn't effect us - and Lisl immediately said: "What a complete and utter f***ing knob head". Now Lisl's a very polite and proper German lady and whilst her English is way better than my German, it's far from fluent, but this comment was expressed perfectly (and accurately), with the precise pronunciation and inflection that you'd expect from a Brit? I enquired as to where/how/why she'd learnt this phrase (I didn't reckon it'd get covered in the German equivalent to O-levels?) whereupon she related a tale of their trip down to the Med: They'd gone into a marina somewhere on the Normandy coast and made preparations to raft-up alongside a British yacht (It does seem to be Brits more than most who get uppity about rafting?) as instructed by the Harbourmaster. However, as they'd made their final approach, the owner of this already docked yacht had appeared on deck and informed them that they "couldn't raft on him as he was leaving at 04:00 in the morning." Lisl on the bow had reported the Harbourmasters instruction to them and also enquired as to how it would be possible for him to leave then, as they too wanted to leave early, but the Harbourmaster had just told them that the marina's gate/sill would not drop any earlier than 08:30? The chap had apparently then ranted, raved and been generally abusive, I think along the lines of none of your business how I'm going/we won the war/bugger-off. As they'd stood off wondering what to do about the situation, they'd heard a shout from a yacht further along the pontoon (also British) who'd waved for them to come alongside his boat, taken their lines and invited them aboard for some beers once they were settled. During their conversation over the beers they'd discussed the man further up the quay and "During this conversation our new friend taught us this new and many times useful English sentence."
 
DavidGrieves said:
Went up to Kirkcudbright for a short visit, as we have done on numerous occasions.

We were approaching the pontoon in the middle of the river looking for a space to tie up, we saw a man rushing across the deck of his boat and starts tying a sign to his guard wires. Sign reads "NO BERTHING" he then shouts over to me "there is a space further down the pontoon". Quite a tight space I might add with a 2 knt current pushing us along. I told the said guy that I was going go alongside the "big yacht". to which he replies "NO YOU ARE NOT". I had no intention of going along side but just wanted to let him know I'd seen his sign going up and that I didn't think much of his un seaman like, antisocial attitude.

I had plenty fenders out, two crew standing on deck with bow and stern lines in hands waiting to secure us up.

Any body else experienced this before? or do you keep a "NO BERTHING" sign in your locker?

Sorry can't spin the picture round....
Click to expand...

How very sad that you choose to do this. I am the person who put the official harbour master sign up. And you are well aware that it was an official sign. Having just returned to harbour it was put back up as is the norm as per jumbleducks comment and if you have been before you are well aware of this. Visitors raft to each other and not bertholders for good reason.

I also was good enough to offer to take your lines as did my wife when it was pointed out that there was space on the pontoon without rafting up to a boat with an official no berthing sign. When you came into the pontoon and were unable to stop your boat while going INTO a 2 knot tide I quickly stepped backwards from out the front of your boat and I pulled you up to avoid a collision with the boat in front. The reason my wife did not do it from behind your boat was that one of your crew had came ashore and got in the way of the aft line! And your crew willingly threw lines to us which is surprising considering your comments above. Both at the time and next morning civil pleasantries were exchanged with your crew but I note that you could only look the other way. Perhaps embarrassment at your mistake the day before? You certainly voiced no remarks face to face.
Anyway another Whitehaven boat, xxxxxxxx, subsequently rafted outside you later. Next morning you swapped around for some reason. As you stood off awaiting xxxxxxxx to manoeuvre into the inside space, which was done in astern against a fast flowing ebb you witnessed xxxxxxxx bouncing loudly off the boat I was good enough to stop you hitting the night before. I suppose you showed concern for the absent boat owner?
The official signs are for good reason. I have in the past came in and did not have a space, I have driven to the boat to go out on the ebb to find a boat rafted out but no one about and been unable to leave, I have had bent stanchions and also very deep gouge out off the side of a boat. All damage at MY expense.
If you don't like the rules at Kirkcudbright discuss with the Harbour Master but to do the above and have no comment face to face is pityfull. Did you discuss this with the Harbour Master or leave a comment along with your dues in the honesty box if he wasn't about?

There is ALWAYS 2 sides to any story. How SAD you post a picture of a boat the owner of which gave you assistance. Is this in some way to start some campaign to encourage others to raft up against said boat? Rant over. And I can assure anyone that there is complete truth in my comments.
 
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Well this will become an interesting thread, there are a lot of moaners on here, where only one side of the story comes out. it will be interesting to see all of the responses. if needed a conference call along with skype videoing needs to be arranged. ( this is a pay per view event)
 
I will always remember the day I got my boat back in the water, having sold her, regretted it, had another boat in the meantime then finally got the A22 back; as soon as we had the mast up I and my crew - a novice chum from work - tootled along to Itchenor visitor's buoys.

The only buoy with just one boat on had a black Vancouver 27; I set up lines and fenders and shaped up to go alongside - as soon as I did this a gimlet eyed tosser appeared like a Polaris from the hatch, ' Eye saay we're leaving at daaawn '.

" That's fine chum, we'll be made on to the buoy, have a good trip ! "

Had all this before, the berk thought smaller boat = novice...

We went alongside, my crew had quite a struggle with all the junk left on the Vancouver's foredeck but the couple just watched from the cockpit, never lifted a finger to help.

Duly tied to the buoy as well and settled down - wonder of wonders, the Vancouver didn't leave at dawn !

The prat then tried to engage me in conversation, ' I hope we didn't appear unfriendly '--- " of course you were ! "

' I've had extra water tankage fitted you know ' --- " well that should make it even slower then ! ".

Another favourite trick of the ' don't come here we want the whole harbour ' brigade is to put an inflated dinghy alongside, which to me reads as international code for ' please shove this out of the way and make a point of coming here ' !
 
To me that sign doesn't look like an official sign. So I would be sceptical if I saw that sign on a boat. The permanent berth holders should really get the sign amended to suggest otherwise.
 
Seajet said:
I will always remember the day I got my boat back in the water, having sold her, regretted it, had another boat in the meantime then finally got the A22 back; as soon as we had the mast up I and my crew - a novice chum from work - tootled along to Itchenor visitor's buoys.

The only buoy with just one boat on had a black Vancouver 27; I set up lines and fenders and shaped up to go alongside - as soon as I did this a gimlet eyed tosser appeared like a Polaris from the hatch, 'Eye saay we're leaving at daaawn '.
Click to expand...

I enjoy peeps like that particularly when pontoon rafting. So much so that, depending on the attitude, I have been known to set my alarm clock for just before their intended departure and then bang loudly on their coach roof and let 'em know that I am up to assist with their scheduled departure! Sad I know but being ancient (as my daughter keeps reminding me) one's sleep is sometimes "interrupted" so some "sport" makes it worthwhile!!! ;)

An old trick to deter possible "alongsiders" used to be to hang some terry toweling nappies from the guard wires!
 
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