A Simple Trick to Help You Moor Your Boat | ⛵ Sailing Britaly ⛵

How to dock a boat? This is the kind of question that is virtually impossible to answer, as there are a million variables and no two berths will be the same. Even if you ARE coming to dock in the same berth, different weather conditions may call for a completely different approach to mooring on different days... This simple trick is just one more small piece of knowledge that can commit to memory and even if it's not relevent to you right now, may help you easily and safely moor your boat at some point in the future.

⛵ Sailing Britaly ⛵ brings you the sailing shenanigans of Chris (British) and Rossella (Italian), as we sail our 30ft sloop. We make sailing vlogs of our cruising adventures and share any tips and tricks we can along the way. After all, sailors are one big family!

More Sailing Britaly here:

Fair winds! 👍
Chris and Rossella

Music used in this episode:
'Summer Holiday' Vyray
'Silver Lakes' Wes Hutchinson

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[mrmimo]

The risk of taking this relatively thin line into your propeller or thruster is high. It's a matter of time it will get into. On the other hand, if your docking space is clear of floating lines the easiest technique is to throw the stern lines and give your boat some forward throttle. Then you have plenty of time to secure the bow. Mediterranean sailing schools even teach you that before you take off, you need to stay on forward throttle and stern lines, drop the bow lines, WAIT FOR THEM TO SINK, and only then you may go forward.

[ErnestV]

Nice trick, but it requires you to mount the floats before - so you need to go in without them at least once. And when roaming around the Egean you will not possibly come back to that very slip soon, or if you did it is quite likely another boat has already occupied the space...

I'll briefly describe what I usually do in these occasions - and I have an about 60% success rate, and if something doesn't work out as planned abort prematurely and start over:

Aim at the slot from farther out, and reverse in with "high speed" so the boat keeps going and remains more or less steerable until the last 2 meters, then brutally stop it with WOT forward.

Of course before this manouever I have
-) meticoulously prepared both stern lines
-) made sure that either a crew member is ready to step over at given command, or made sure that I have a helping hand at the pontoon

After stopping at the last 2 meters the crew guy steps over with (or I throw) the windward line and makes a quick fastener somewhere, approx. less than a boat width to windward. Then put the gear in forward and balance the boat with the rudder to lee, which will keep the boat straight for the next few minutes.

When this is over there's every time of the world to:
-) fetch the mooring line, walk to the bow and fasten it onto the cleat
-) then idle the engine and loosen the stern line a meter or so - the mooring will pull the boat out a bit
-) retighten the mooring and pull the boat back to the pontoon, using either the engine or winching it in, which will give you a nice and safe tension on the mooring, w/o needing to pull it in all by yourself
-) finally attach the leeward stern line and beautify the windward stern line

Now step off the boat, walk over to the cafe and get yourself a beer.

[dss]

As always I love your training lessons.
Thank you.
***And thank you so much for honoring and loving your wife so much that you respect her and do not "use" her to get more views. She was created for your eyes only and vice versa.
Fair Winds
🌎⛵️

[oceancrossingutopia]

Nice trick, Guys.
I'm mostly single-handing, so I have 2 scenarios.
1) There is a boat in one or both slips next to mine. In this case, I simply put plenty fenders in place and tie up to the boat next to me. Then fix my bow lines and finally sterns lines.
2) There is no boats next to me. I tie one side to the pontoon, fix a single stern line, grab windward bow line and pull my boat out. My boat is small enough that I can do this in most cases.
Thanks again for the trick. I makes for a quick and easy solution when 2 or more aboard.

[saveriogrossi]

Good idea but...often the owner of the marina would not admit the use of a float object, fearing the possibilitythat the line would somehow get in to propeller. Another way to solve the problem of med mooring in the absence of other boats very near to the one you're mooring is to prepare a line of the port or starboard side (depending on the wind direction) and to rapidly secure THAT line. After the the helm must turned to the opposite direction in respect to the wind and full throttle applied so that the bow will move to the right direction gining the time to fix the bow line. It seems difficult but it works!!

[rossslater]

Excellent, we have this set up here in Orihuela, and coming into our berth can be stressful, I'm so grateful for this sensible straight forward advice. I always look forward to your videos. Thanks Again.

[richarddavies-scourfield]

How did you pick up the mooring line to attach your floats?

[lungarotta]

It seems a good advice. I already knew this trick and I had bought a small floating plastic ring, the type they use for floating lines which border the landing stripe for motorboats in beaches, but I could never use it because in the marina where I have my boat they forbid to have this float.

I usually am single handed so I have developed my own technique for mooring with strong wind pushing you directly towards the pontoon. Of course you need the assistance of someone on the pontoon.

1) After many years of experience I have a precious advice to give to all sailors: when the wind is superior to 25 kt, and it's blowing towards the pontoon or with a small angle, NEVER moor stern to pontoon, unless you have a bow-thruster. The moment you are reversing is very delicate and if a gust arrives when you are manoeuvring it will make you crash against other boats. I've witnessed lots of crashes because the skippers insisted in mooring stern to pontoon.

2) Instead prepare two mooring lines at the bow and moor bow to pontoon. In this way you can manoeuvre the boat much more easily and it will take less time too (and time is the key factor here). Stop the boat about 2- 2, 5 m from the pontoon with a strong push of the reverse gear, then set it neutral.

3) Run to the bow and throw one line to the man in the pontoon and immediately rush back at the helm to set again the gear on reverse when the man has fastened the line on the cleat. This will keep the boat steady against the wind, so you can relax and take the long mooring line attached to the mooring post (trappa in Italian) and fasten it at your stern. 2 metres is a safe distance even with strong wind which will give you time to ran back to the helm before the wind pushes the boat to the pontoon.

4) Finally you go back to the bow and throw the second line to the man and everything is settled. I've experimented this with 40 kts of wind and everything went smooth.

But if there is no one to help you then your float is much better.

[FreedomForce]

Such a smart idea! Congratulations et all the best for the new baby!

[tiborkiss]

Last summer at a mooring like you showed here - at knots headwind and no boats around us - our chartered 42 feet boat was also pushed sideways, so we ended up taking the neighboring mooring line - I do not understand why the marinas not use this simple method...

[williambunting]

Hi, I did actually mean birth, but then after I realised that had happened some time ago. Oh well, and a great result I see. I really like this solution using the floats and will be implementing when the situation arises. I am marina bound for at least another year, damn it, and the problem here is the embarrassment when I stuff up an approach, I am still wearing the crunch mark from my first outing (first in 40 years) powering in reverse into a pier. At the moment I am thinking of single hander docking strategies to make docking safe and automatic. At the moment the thinking is one line that is both a springer and bow line so powering aft pulls the boat in against the fenders and will stay secure as long as is needed to set up the rest of the lines. Still working on this but would love to see everything that you have learnt.
Another project I have is to solve the problem of rolling anchorages, sufficient so that you never have to abandon an anchorage again. Happy to share if you are interested and want to test it in due course.

[islandaerial]

Good one. Don't see that way of docking up here in Canada, as we have big tide swings. Will archive if I ever get closer to the equator, for sure!

[billderinbaja]

Lazy Line? Concrete Block? Obviously you guys aren't in Greece. We loved our daily sails and late afternoon moorings in the tiny harbors all around the Greek Isles. However... it was strictly traditional Med moor... drop anchor, back in & 2-point tie, tension anchor line... with 3, or 4, or 5 layers of boats arriving and ringing the basin by the end of the evening. Getting out in the morning was a whole series of nightmares with a giant spaghetti tangle of anchors and anchor lines all over the little harbor. Bring on the Ouzo and Raki for breakfast! Fun!

[donGiulio]

Thanks for sharing, generally this is not done out of concern of tangling your prop on the floating line. How do you make sure you don't get into deep troubles by tangling the prop?

[mmanut]

Great idea, Very Clever Guys ‼️👍👍. Vinny 🇺🇸

[realulli]

I've seen a setup like that at the Dreamyachtcharter dock in Le Marin on Martinique. They don't allow charterers to dock or launch by themselves, they always send some guy on board who does the maneuver until the propellers are clear of the floats... I guess they learned that the floats can and do tangle in the prop if you don't know what you're doing...

[bobaquaplane]

I'm on a swinging mooring, I have a fender as a pickup buoy. Works for me and if I'm feeling brave I can sail on to it.

[jackrabbit]

Wow! Backing into a space like that must take a lot of skill, especially with prop walk, wind, etc..

[banjomarla]

Stern lines first, steam gently ahead to keep stern off dock. Pick up cormort from quai running forward, take up slack, tie it off. Adjust stern.

[ProjectManaia]

Nice trick you guys! Thank you for sharing!