The Bathing Platform

[Baitrunner]

Seen that happen to side on mooring as well - quay heading getting stuck under rubbing strips/gunnel overhangs. Need to adjust the fenders would help - maybe tricky with the swim platform though. You could always use your mud weight to keep you just off the quay heading and use your stern warps to pull yourself in when you need to get off/on. Or if in the pilings, use a spring line. It's all about being careful and thinking.

 

Also seen people mooring at Cantley when the bank has been really flooded. Wouldn't want to risk it myself in case I got stuck on the mooring posts..

[Matt]

Hi Marina,

It happens all the time at Beccles Yacht Station, having ropes too tight is the common problem.

Regards

Alan

Do the harbour masters not check the ropes?

I appreciate they are not 24/7...

[Baitrunner]

They will normally give some advise, but at the end of the day it's the skippers responsibility to make the vessel secure and safe on a mooring. I have been known to get up in the night to check things are OK if I know there is a big rise and fall in water levels.

 

It's also very difficult to offer advise as you don't know if it will upset the skipper or crew - normally I would make a judgement as to how competent they looked/acted and obviously if I spotted anything happening would do something about it to prevent an accident. Hopefully others would do the same?

 

I have had my ropes too tight once on my mooring and a kind soul slackened them off for me as I was not around.

 

Experience is there to be shared.

[Mowjo]

BR! getting stuck under qual headings is exactly why I keep a couple of spare fenders, I have two dumpy ones that I put out stern or side on, I started doing it after I saw the rubbing strakes ripped off the side of a boat,

 

Frank,,,,

[BroadScot]

When the tide drops are extra low, Loddon is one to be very wary of. I have over the years spoken to other skippers, mentioning how low it can drop there, and to adjust their ropes accordingly. I learned from my days of hiring next door at Astons yard just how low it can get there.

 

Iain.

[JennyMorgan]

On some boats, with springs and head-ropes well set up and when facing the oncoming tide, it's often possible to put the wheel over, and tie it with a lanyard, so the tide reacts against the rudder and the tide will hold you away from the shore. Worth trying. 

[Mowjo]

Peter! thats DIY auto pilot, I've done that on Barton, full lock and tied it off so I went in circles, I had an engine problem that only happened under load, it worked a treat and I solved the problem,,,

 

Frank,,,,

[ExUserGone]

For the overhanging quay edges I have 3 home made fenders that slot together so when clipped on the the cabin roof handrails they hang down to 12" below the chines, good for both high tides as well as overhangs, and they can be pulled apart to stow in the engine bay.

They are made from a load of 2" ID mains water pipe that had been dumped in the marsh near surlingham ferry house with aluminium spigots to slot them together, free fenders and a tidier marsh-win win!

[Guest]

It's certainly an important consideration to skippers of swim platform equipped boats, taking precautions about being "hung up" or "pushed under".

 

My stern-to home mooring has a side pier, and the well adjusted fore and aft springs keep it safely clear by about 6", with widely varying river levels.

 

I'd still never go back to a boat without a swim platform now, the plus points and significant safety advantages outweigh the very minor drawbacks.

[Wussername]

As a matter of interest I hired a boat from a Brundall boat yard some three weeks ago.

This particular boat had a bathing platform.

One of the hire conditions was that under no circumstances was this boat to be moored stern on.

[diesel falcon]

 

 

Fendered up but a stiff breeze blew the bow round, even with a bow rope on!!

[JennyMorgan]

As a matter of interest I hired a boat from a Brundall boat yard some three weeks ago.

This particular boat had a bathing platform.

One of the hire conditions was that under no circumstances was this boat to be moored stern on.

If that becomes general practice then many moorings are going to become no go areas for some boats.

[Guest]

As a matter of interest I hired a boat from a Brundall boat yard some three weeks ago.

This particular boat had a bathing platform.

One of the hire conditions was that under no circumstances was this boat to be moored stern on.

 

Are there any photos of that particular boat on the web Wussername ?

 

It would be interesting to see what sort of bathing platform it had.

 

It seems an extraordinary limitation to impose on a Broads hire craft.

 

Bathing platform stern design has now become the most popular, world-wide for small to medium motor cruisers.  Local Norfolk boatbuilders like Haines incorporate them into most of their craft, as it is so suited to stern-to mooring, for ease of access.

 

Here's a handful of images I grabbed from Google, including a new Haines in the bottom right.

 

If you walk around almost any Marina anywhere in the UK, you will see thousands moored stern-to, something that they were expressly designed for.

[Wussername]

I have just this minute had a look at the high tide, Oulton Broad, outside the Wherry mooring.

A challenge I suspect for boats without bathing platforms, particularly challenging for those with, I would imagine.

[riyadhcrew]

A bigger challenge for those without welly boots. lol

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Eric,

When we used to be moored at Ferry Marine on fixed moorings, wellies were also part of our boat kit.

The road at Brundall can and does get flooded at times, but the boat is safe on its floating pontoon.

Regards

Alan

[Wussername]

 

Wellie time?

[Wussername]

 

 

Hi Strow

 

To answer your request please see attached photo's of the boat mentioned. Hired from Buccaneer Boats, Brundall.

The boat itself was immaculate, the service provided by the owner of the boatyard was, as ever, superb.

We hired the boat for two days, and had hoped to moor at Loddon. However only stern on moorings were available. Not to be denied our visit to Loddon we moored side on at Pyes Mill. A most delightful place.

 

In the evening we dined at The Swan. A jolly good meal it was too. I consumed the best part of a bottle of Australians finest, from a Creek I think, owned by a bloke called Jacob.

 

Anyway, I led the way back to the mooring, in the dark, without a torch, across a boggy field full of cows.

 

What a challenge that turned out to be. Not the cows, Mrs Wussername. Whinged all the way back.

 

Thank god the old SAS training clicked in. (I have read all the books!)

 

 

[Wussername]

Oops!

Where have me pics gone.

Have I transgressed?

[Guest]

The suspense is killing me Wussername.. 

 

I did a google image search for buccaneer boats brundall, and it came back with this image......

 

(moored stern-to) 

 

 

[Wussername]

Strow

 

I will try again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Sorry Wussename,

 

That was down to me, you had a repeated post, both with pictures that would not load, I deleted your repeated post and for some reason it also deleted your pictures from the first post.

 

The pictures you have now loaded open correctly.

 

Regards

Alan

[Guest]

Thanks for the photos Wussername.

 

I'm even more intrigued now !

 

That particular swim platform looks quite a good design, where the platform is actually part of the hull moulding, and the very strong support braces at each end are at 45 degrees, which would help to stop it hanging up  over a straight quay heading.

 

They've even added a central stainless steel rod at the same angle to also avoid hang ups.

 

Their strict  "no stern mooring" edict seems a very poor marketing feature for a Broads hire craft business.

 

....(and my previous photo of another of their swim platform equipped boats makes it even more confusing).

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Strowager,

 

This is what Ranworth Breeze looks like out of the water.

 

 

Regards

Alan

[Guest]

I guess the flat underside of Ranworth Breeze could conceivably get hung up on quay heading, but I would imagine that all  the owners still find it far more useful than without.

 

All of the negative comments I've ever heard about swim platforms seem to come from people who've never actually owned a boat with one.