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Another Newbie 🙈

WonkyDocker

By WonkyDocker
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WonkyDocker

WonkyDocker

Posted
Posted

Hi all!

Been spying on the forums for a long time so about time I joined formally!

Relatively new to the boards, a few day hires and a few weeks as a syndicate which has primarily been used for me as a day boat so far to be fair. 

Taking to the broads for at least 3-4 times this year so just warning you all (and apologising) for any questions I ask that I haven’t found elsewhere!!

If you see a boat and think “what on earth are they doing”, that might be me! Gimme a wave 😅

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Smoggy

Smoggy

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23 minutes ago, MargeandParge said:

Welcome to the forum. There is only one stupid question and that ìs the question you never asked. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

But there may be some stupid answers....

I apologise in advance... :default_blush:

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YnysMon

YnysMon

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I’m sure we’ve all had our dodgy mooring moments! My favourite was last summer when the boat we were on lost the ability to go into reverse as we were trying to stern moor in Beccles. That was ‘interesting’. Luckily the guy who owned the boat that we had borrowed was on hand to hop on board and give instructions, otherwise I think we would have been stuck bow first in someone else’s private mooring. 

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catcouk

catcouk

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My favourite mooring moment of disaster is not on the broads. We had a senior instructor at a sailing centre; he was a great guy and really knew his stuff but he'd give us a hard time of we ballsed up. At the end of one session, we were bringing our groups back in and we could all see the pontoon. The boss was closest and, to this day, I don't know what went wrong. His boat came in far too fast. My guess is that he was trying to show off some fancy move (he was helming). They were so fast in fact that his boat didn't just hit the pontoon, it ended up sat on top of it. Funniest thing I ever saw as a sailing instructor. And yes, the boss did quite a bit of flack from all of us over that one!

So yes, even the best of us have dodgy mooring moments!

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Wussername

Wussername

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Boating, or rather helming a boat, albeit sail or motor, is never ever, about getting it right.

May I mention a strange analogy, it is with regard to flying an aircraft and I have done that as well although I have to say I am not a pilot.

On an approach, heading whatever, visibility, height, wind, QFR, on a VFR approach (Visual Flight Rules) things go wrong. It would seem to me that one is always correcting a mistake at 800 ft.

Same with boats. Experience does not only tell you how to moor a boat. It also informs you that it is not going how it should. So, you adjust. Calmly. Some do not. Go around, no shame in that. Try again. 

Wind, tide, visibility, hazards, all enter the mix. 

Therefor it it is never ever about doing it right it is knowing that it is not as it should be,  and what to do about it.

That is experience and you cannot teach that. 

Fear not, it comes very quickly and in time you will become a boatman.

You may with justification ask the question. Who are you?

Just an old Norfolk man, nothing special about me I can assure you. All I did was move boats, stern on moorings mostly, all day on turn round day, Oh! and also trial runs. 

I have done more stern moorings than any of you in my life. 

They were all perfect. The ones that were not were carried out by my mate who looked like me. 

 

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WonkyDocker

WonkyDocker

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20 hours ago, YnysMon said:

I’m sure we’ve all had our dodgy mooring moments! My favourite was last summer when the boat we were on lost the ability to go into reverse as we were trying to stern moor in Beccles. That was ‘interesting’. Luckily the guy who owned the boat that we had borrowed was on hand to hop on board and give instructions, otherwise I think we would have been stuck bow first in someone else’s private mooring. 

Crickey!! Nice bit of fun to be had there!!

I’m an amateur when it comes to mooring, but having watched some YouTube videos of boats bouncing off other boats repeatedly I think I’m not that bad after all having not made contact with any boats to date 😅

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WonkyDocker

WonkyDocker

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19 hours ago, catcouk said:

My favourite mooring moment of disaster is not on the broads. We had a senior instructor at a sailing centre; he was a great guy and really knew his stuff but he'd give us a hard time of we ballsed up. At the end of one session, we were bringing our groups back in and we could all see the pontoon. The boss was closest and, to this day, I don't know what went wrong. His boat came in far too fast. My guess is that he was trying to show off some fancy move (he was helming). They were so fast in fact that his boat didn't just hit the pontoon, it ended up sat on top of it. Funniest thing I ever saw as a sailing instructor. And yes, the boss did quite a bit of flack from all of us over that one!

So yes, even the best of us have dodgy mooring moments!

🤣🤣🤣 ahem. Well… there’s one experience I hope to never beat 😅

Sounds like a right £250 you’ve been framed moment!

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WonkyDocker

WonkyDocker

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18 hours ago, Wussername said:

Boating, or rather helming a boat, albeit sail or motor, is never ever, about getting it right.

May I mention a strange analogy, it is with regard to flying an aircraft and I have done that as well although I have to say I am not a pilot.

On an approach, heading whatever, visibility, height, wind, QFR, on a VFR approach (Visual Flight Rules) things go wrong. It would seem to me that one is always correcting a mistake at 800 ft.

Same with boats. Experience does not only tell you how to moor a boat. It also informs you that it is not going how it should. So, you adjust. Calmly. Some do not. Go around, no shame in that. Try again. 

Wind, tide, visibility, hazards, all enter the mix. 

Therefor it it is never ever about doing it right it is knowing that it is not as it should be,  and what to do about it.

That is experience and you cannot teach that. 

Fear not, it comes very quickly and in time you will become a boatman.

You may with justification ask the question. Who are you?

Just an old Norfolk man, nothing special about me I can assure you. All I did was move boats, stern on moorings mostly, all day on turn round day, Oh! and also trial runs. 

I have done more stern moorings than any of you in my life. 

They were all perfect. The ones that were not were carried out by my mate who looked like me. 

 

🤣🤣 some very good info there.

Lucky, so far, my worst mooring attempt was by far my worst… and I learned my mistake the minute I finished tying the ropes.

Each time I started to go wrong I used a little more power, then needed more power in reverse and got that lovely pendulum affect going - didn’t figure that out at the time… I would have loved to see what the boat looked like at the time given it’s not designed to ping around like a ping pong ball!

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grendel

grendel

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by far my worst yet was while I was as usual solo helming, pulled up alongside the mooring going into the tide, stepped off with bow and stern ropes, started fixing the bow rope when I noticed the stern drifting out into the river (as If I had moored with the tide) then not managing to get  a rhond anchor in ( as the wind had now taken the boat away from the bank) at about the time I had figured that the boat wasnt responding to my pulling either, I decided to leave the rope and made a jump for the bow, scrambled aboard and was now drifting sideways downstream with boats heading toward me. got it back n gear and approached the mooring facing the other way around and proceeded to try again, this time sucessfully, luckily nobody was watching this debacle, and luckily I made the bow of the boat when I jumped and managed to scramble aboard. we have all done it.

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