Successful sailboat docking in gusty wind (Mykonos)

Hard docking a sailboat on 31st of July 2013 in marina Mykonos (Greece). Wind (meltemi) was blowing with gusts over 30 knots. Video is for education purposes.

Težavno pristajanje jadrnice v močnem in sunkovitem vetru (meltemi) dne 31. julija 2013 v marini Mikonos v Grčiji. Sunki vetra so presegali 30 vozlov. Video ima izobraževalni namen.

[awanderer]

The more wind there is, the more power one needs to keep control of the boat. The skipper in the video is using too little power. Actually, the wind direction is not that bad, it is blowing almost from the dock he is aiming at (N wind, meltemi). The way to do it: pick up speed by making a longer approach, maintain enough speed to keep the boat bow against the wind and under control (in this case that would mean starting well outside of the space between the pontoons and not just in front of the berth), only slow down at the very last moment where the boat can lean against the leeward boat and lines can be thrown (at this moment a bow thruster is handy to keep the bow straight for some more seconds). In general, no bow thruster will work against really strong wind, only speedy approach. Bow thruster is just some extra help.

[billleskeep]

I have done this repeatedly in similar situations. Bottom line is, most skippers lack that particular skill unless they live in a very windy environment and come and go repeatedly in such. For the masses, he did quite well, he was careful and patient, his crew was willing to fend off, the other slip owners were helpful to assist. At the end of so many minutes he safely got his vessel tied-to. Good job.

[pestiz]

Docking a boat in 30 knots of side wind, without damaging anything, is  good docking . He may worked longer and harder than a professional, but he's got the job done  .

[chgodoys]

Thanks for the video. From time to time I look for videos with difficult docking conditions and try to imagin what I would do in such situation. Best regards from Chile.
Carlos

[mlegge]

A tricky job, well done. not having had nearly enough practice in such wind conditions, I wouldn't dare attempt it. I think I'd dock on the pontoon opposite, and argue with the harbour master until the weather calmed down a bit.

[vangloberlos]

I salute all the couch skippers in the comments....especially the ones that suggest various approach tactics, better than the tactic the skipper in the video employed...which mostly proves that they have never been in a situation like this...because if they had they would know that, in situations like this, the best a spectator can do is to keep their opinions to themselves and their big mouth shut....

[KeepYourDaydream]

Glad to see the boat tucked in nicely at the end... that's all that matters.

[sportsman]

An addition: Most people think they have to rush to attach the mooringline to the cleat on the bow, to prevent the bow to drift to the side, especially if there's no other docked boat on your leeward side. Just do this, and you have all the time in the world for the mooringline: When you're (almost) docked, just attach the line from the stern, windward side. Put the engine in forward and steer a bit to keep the boat in the right position. Then you can take as much time you want to attach the mooring line and the line from the stern, leeward side.

[conradpreen]

Always fun here in the Cyclades :-) the bigger the boat the fun you have !!!

[andrewkeene]

Boat safely tied, take as long as you like I say in those conditions. Humble, slow, methodical. The beer tastes better when there’s no damage to boat or folk. 😊

[marz]

having on mind the conditions and available space, -good job...

[nearlythere]

The wind was blowing his bow off, the wind will always control the bow, that is why he finished up across the bow of the boat on his St'bd side. If he had motored forward into the gap between the two pontoons (if there was enough room in front of him) and then reversed in, he could have used the wind to bring the bow around as he reversed in. A precise move and you have to be confident and decisive to pull it off.

[robertdahlgren]

It looks to me like the problem was the approach. He has the bow pointed downwind, and the wind was trying to push it off even further. Plus the prop walk would want to move the stern to port. If he has come in pointing upwind (to the right from the camera perspective) then started backing, the wind would have been pushing the bow to the right and prop walk pushing the stern to port and he would have been able to slide right into the slip without a dangerous amount of speed.

[subarokec]

There were quite a few mistakes done at this docking.

1. First of all the skipper has to prepare the crew and the boat for the docking. That has to be done before even entering the marina, especially in rough weather like this. Each crew member has to know exactly how the docking is going to be carried out, what is his position and what he has to do.
In this case, it would be perfect to have two crew members at the stern - the first one on portside and second one on starboard side and they should both have stern lines and untied fenders in their hands. On this video, they almost damaged the sailboats because there was no fender at hand to put it between the boats. All other fenders should be positioned more to the stern in this case as they are no use at the bow. The third crew member should be positioned at the middle of the portside - first for watching not to hit the neighboring sailboat and then to carry the mooring line to the bow, which he gets from the fourth crew member who has - ideally - just caught the mooring line with boat hook standing at the stern. This is just one of possible crew positions, the exact formation always depends on the number of the crew members, boat, type of docking, wind, docking itself ...

2. The skipper should approach the docking with stern towards the wind, faster, in a straight line (perpendicular to the moored boats) then making quick turn towards the docking. Bow thruster can be a very helpful piece of equipment in a situation like this, but only to make small corrections while going backwards, it is not strong enough to keep or even turn the boat upwind at such situation. So never rely on a bow thruster to do the job instead of you and the main engine.

3. As the skipper saw that he cannot perform the docking without correcting the angle, he should have repeated the whole maneuver and not just trying to make some "last minute" adjustments, because by exposing the side of the sailboat to the wind gusts and then stopping the vessel, you can easily loose control of the sailboat by drifting aside and hit the dock, other boats or get trapped in some mooring lines. He has a lot of room at the bow in this case, but it is still not a good decision. The next thing is to react gentle on the throttle. Do not panic or make sudden throttle maneuvers. That is why it is very important to make a good docking plan in your head before you are in the marina, where you have limited space and time, and that are - combined with lack of experiences - a reason for panic and bad decisions. If you do not know the situation before you get to the dock, it is often the best to get to the dock, check the currents, wind and docking situation and if it is not an easy job, go back out of the close quarters, make a good plan and explain it to the crew and than start the docking from the beginning. If something goes wrong, repeat the whole docking as many times as needed. That is the best recipe.

Well, I didn't want to be so long, hopefully someone will still read my post :)

Be safe at sea everybody!

[kylefng]

I’ve lived this and learned coming in now first, back the stern and let the wind blow the bow over worked pretty good. Tough with that wind.

[akisantoniou]

Only one way to do it. Pick your reverse speed way out and reverse into the spot steady and non stop. Confidence is essential and accuracy on the steering. If you miss it go out and come back again. Stopping and messing around in front of the spot is a disaster. The bow thruster is of little help. Having said that every boat behaves different and you must know yours well.

[Keramx]

I have more than 52 weeks as skipper at the sea on the charter boats from 30 to 56 ft and I have to say that it is not easy to dock the boat at this situation. It must be fast and coordinated, yes... but... It depends of the boat quality and length. As bigger boat, as exponentially bigger problem with side wind. So somebody experienced from 26-33 ft ship cannot help much by some advice to 46-56 boat skipper. What is easy to do with 30ft can be extremely difficult with 46+ ft. (bigger side wind area, much less space at marina for docking, bigger momentum etc...)
And next... there is big difference how "nicely" the boats goes reverse. Some (mostly Bavaria, new OC 45, 48 etc...) you can dock like a car. You just put reverse on engine and the boat goes straight on back with the big power. It stop "immediately" if goes forward. You can start maneuver from the place. Some (older SO, Oceanis) goes to the side (not back) long time with very low power. I was trying to stop one OC36 by reverse engine at 12kt back wind when the boat goes 3-4 kt with the wind without sails and it needs 5 lengths of the boat to stop! Then I was diving under the boat, if there is some propeller? :). (Finally, it was not original propeller.) So with this boat I was docking from very, very far. On the other hand, with some "nice reverse going boats" I just went in marina and dock.
And next... Some ones has counter-clockwise, some opposite propeller => some goes nicely back to the left, some to the right. You must remember it. If you will need turn to the side on which boat goes nicely, you will need much less space for prepare. On the other side, lets go from far with the higher speed and make turn fast, even without throttle during turning, if you need really small radius of curve. You have to know your boat and crew and work with this. So there are not some universal plan of docking. So, check all this at the open sea, when you have some charter boat for the first time.
As I can compare how I saw other crews docking, this crew has 85%.

[jeremyrowley]

In strong winds a yacht will always try to weathercock if there is very little flow over the keel with the bow falling off to leeward. I would have motored well past the gap in forward and then reversed in allowing wind to help the yacht to turn in. However, docking in those conditions is not for the faint-hearted and the skipper got there in the end, so all is well.

[kz]

He did very well considering a cross wind, plenty of hands were there and fenders, I would had expect I would had had the same problem, straightening up power was no room to, so man handle in was best, well done, love reading all the experts below, till they are on the helm, welll done

[multikult]

I succeed to dock alone 43ft at 25kts wind portside (90 degrees from left). His wind is strong but quite from back. He docks without speed with short manouvres. Take 200m distance, catch speed and turn hard left. If affraid, dock foreward.