single handed berthing idea

[Odysseus]

I have made a bow fender of a different type, it has a very hard core sponge in a canvas bag that has bungy in the  halyard.

When I go into a berth I motor up to the crossing pontoon and gently hit it, then  with the motor on slow tick over forward and the wheel hard over port or starboard it keeps the boat in position and I do not need to run around like a mad thing, even in moderate winds.

The height of the fender can be estimated for the marinas you enter,  and the whole thing can be deployed like a fender when required.

This is my second season and my wife thinks it is "magic".

Hope this helps

Odysseus


Hope this helps
Odysseus

[nornie lees]

? why not use a mid ship warp?

[Odysseus]

I do, but its still a lot easier this way. At 72 it takes a little longer to do things.

Odysseus

[nornie lees]

point taken, i best study yours! only 5 years to go.

[stevem]

Old age and cunning will always overcome youth and enthusiasum

Well done!

[Trapeze Artist]

I really rather like this idea. I've tried the hitting the pontoon bit already  but without the fender. I've got myself in a tizz and not noticed that I was in idle astern, but then did wonder why I was moving vaguely sternwards. I haven't yet perfected the art of lassooing cleats on pontoons: the warp generally lands in the right place, but immediately bounces off.

I like the idea of making up something that is quick to fit, has plenty of leeway on height adjustment and is not going to skid sideways off the bow. So I'm thinking of making something simmilar to the OP but with a vertical bend in it so it will always settle nicely on the bow.

[Nigel]

I wondered about using a Fender Step:

[Trapeze Artist]

I think it would be too liable to being pushed to one side when it touches the pontoon. I have something like this http://www.force4.co.uk/7305/Anchor-Marine-Bow-Fender-With-Strap.html but I rarely use it because it is too fiddly to get the height just right.

[Odysseus]

I have used fender steps in the past but as readers say they move off the bow, the canvas method has been in use for 5 years now modified twice but now settled on this model.
It has been used from Makkum in Holland down to Spain and a lot of ports in between,  the height of pontoon was a modification in length and now seems to cope with variations.

The 2 things that I found important was, bungee in the attachments this stopped movement of the block by stretching.

And length of cavas block to satisfy various pontoons heights.

Useing a block of foam allows the block to mould its self around what ever shape potoon you come across and not just bounce off, so needs to be dense enough to with stand a bump but flexible to mould its self.

My wifes yoga block of foam was the fix.

Odysseus

[Salty]

Hi All,

My boat is usually left on a swinging mooring, so single handed berthing tends not to be too much of a problem all the while I return to my own mooring. Last year I did a trip around Anglesey, and needed to moor to a buoy in the Menai Straits for the overnight period. Fortunately I was not alone, but when it came to the mooring I was a bit stumped as the mooring buoy presented only an iron hoop on top of the buoy, and no pick up rope. The problem, had I been on my own it appeared, would have been to get a line through the hoop before the current dragged the boat away. The trick that my colleague taught me was to take a mooring rope, secure one end to a mooring bitt on one side of the boat, then when close enough to the buoy, throw the bight of the rope over and beyond the buoy so that the rope then slips under the buoy and up to the buoy mooring chain/wire and the buoy had now become effectively lassoed, then secure the loose end of the rope to the bitts on the other side of the boat. Now with the boat tethered it was possible to tickle the engine ahead against the current, and taking in the slack in my mooring rope as progress towards the buoy is made. Once near enough resecure the lasso line and then feed a separate mooring line through the iron hoop and make both ends secure onboard. I left the lasso line there as an extra mooring (belt and braces !), so that I could sleep peacefully until next morning. Securing the ends of each rope onboard allowed each mooring to be slipped when I was ready to let go for the next part of my journey through the Swellies at high water slack next morning.
Easy peasy as it turned out, but each of the single handers sailing with us in convoy had given up and gone back when they learned that we could only berth to buoys in the straits for the overnight period.

[Mirror45184]

Salty,

Another method for single handed mooring pick up is to tie a mooring line from the bow to a cleat at the stern. Motor gently up to the mooring bouy and bring it close to the stern, where you are helming. Once there and steady, thread the mooring line run along the side of the boat throught the ring and re attach to the cleat at the stern. Put engine in idle, allow boat to drift back on the mooring line. Walk casually to bow replace the mooring line along the side of the vessel with a mooring bridle.  Stop the engine. Put kettle on!

[MarkTheBike]

Hi guys

Yeah, agree with Mirror on this , that's what I do although I do tend to hold the rope clear with the gaff-pole if the top ring is large and rusty. Oh, and don't drop the end into the water when fumbling with the threading process in the cold... (like I did once. I only want to use my rope-cutter on someone else's rope!).

[Baltic]

One more fender solution...

http://www.oceanfenders.com/product.php?id=6&category=1