This morning a ~40ft Spanish sailing boat approached our dock. He came in backwards, very slowly and struggling to maintain steerage. The wind was blowing about 20knots and he was clearly out of control. 100ft from our boat we could see that his eyes were very wide and he was sweating hard. Oh dear.
The space on the dock he was aiming for was a bit tight. Plus it was apparent he had little to no control of his boat's direction as he was moving at about 1 knot in a brisk wind. He pushed his throttle back and forth, seemingly not realizing its effect. Each time the boat only just starting make headway, perpendicular to the dock, but with no useful speed. His rudders were essentially useless with no way on. The wind pushed his furled foresails relentlessly, nudging him closer and closer to other boats. A crash was imminent.
At the last second or so, before impact, he slammed the gas into hard reverse and the boat shot backwards. He turned the wrong way, as his steering had been full over to starboard. He had completely lost awareness of his helm position as he had had no way on. He hit the dock hard. The aluminum floating dock shuddered with the impact. A loud bang.
Feeling the shudder and upon hearing the bang, heads popped up from various companionways all over the dock....well-meaning people started running up the dock, towards him. He sensed this stampede of incoming onlookers and his nerves broke.
Completely panicked now, the captain was clearly hoping at this point in time to be suddenly teleported up into space by a handy overhead flying saucer, never to be seen again on planet Earth. But handy aliens were not available for such an escape today. Instead, slamming into full forwards now, he again shot back out of the finger pontoon area.. and, we think, heading back at full throttle, back to Spain.
Poor guy. It'll be hard to get the necessary level of confidence back. We felt for him.
After this poor guy had left, an hour later, another boat turned up. German. This time, from 20ft away, the captain threw an aft line to a guy on the dock who put a single wrap over a dock cleat and held on to it ... he then told the captain to stop his engine so that his prop wouldn't catch the lazy line. Oh dear. This was not gong to go well. The wind grabbed the boat's furled foresails and before long the boat had drifted 90 degrees out of position. The dock hand left the single docking line go and the boat was adrift with no one at the helm and the captain trying to grab the lazy line. The dock hands scrambled to try to get a lazy line lifted up onto the boat to straighten the boat out again. But too late, the boat drifted into another... there was a Crunch of plastic.
Time and again, we watched this happen. Lots of near misses and clearly, a lack of technique...
On numerous occasions, we came across sailors who had little control when trying to dock, especially on windy days. Big Wide eyes when it's windy is common to see. Dock hands often give very poor instructions to a captain who is lacking confidence.
To perhaps help a little we wanted to lay out, a strategy for so called 'Medi Mooring' and offer up some insight for what works for us. Perhaps, it may be useful for others.
First some important realizations.
The Captain of the boat is in charge. Dock hands are not in charge and should not instruct captains. Captains should ask for help clearly, specifically, confidently and with full awareness of the situation.
Wind will try to push your bow. Your furled up foresails are the culprit. Check it out some time by sitting stationary with furled up sails, in a breeze. You'll soon get a sense that you bow is where you loose control. You pivot on your keel, or centerboard in our case.
Your bow thrusters are not that strong. They will struggle to push your bow laterally; competing with a wind of 20+ knots. So you need a separate strategy to maintain control. Bow thrusters are 10 times LESS powerful that your diesel engine.
Your engine is very powerful and can accelerate your boat surprisingly quickly and is a powerful tool for lateral control when used in conjunction with a rope.
We'll leave the concepts of prop wash and prop walk out here as they are each so dependent upon your particular keel and rudder design of any given boat. If you own a boat, you should find out about these effects specific to your own boat's design. Chloe has twin rudders and thus no prop wash at all. Her prop walk offers reasonable control however as she has a narrow 3m deep centerboard. She's nothing like a displacement keel boat.
Next, we'll layout some steps that will help to Med-Moor without incident. But first a definition.
What is Med-Mooring?
Medi mooring, aka. Med Mooring or Med-mooring is the most common technique of mooring in the Med. It's not used so much in the Atlantic. Why in the Med? The Medi is essentially a closed sea. The tides are minimal especially by the time you get far east into Turkey and Greece. As Western Europe continue to fill up with people (and boats), the Medi marinas like to pack in a lot of boats into a dense space along a quay or a dock. Stern to perpendicular docking also allows simple access to shore via the stern platform of a yacht or a passarelle/gangway if you have one.
Med-mooring is a 3 point holding system. One line on the bow and two lines on your stern. Your bow line can be either your anchor & chain or a connection to a permanent marina installed mooring anchor with a so called lazy line. The lazy line is installed by the marina and runs from the sub-marine anchor to the dock. It's usually a 1/2"~1" polyester or nylon line that is visible as tied to the dock. Its often made from two pieces of ope, tied end on end. One thick one, using to the sub-marine anchor and one thinner one tied to the dock. From the dock it just disappears into the water. Spotting a lazy line is an important step, so it's important to be able to recognize what they look like.
The general idea it to reverse to the point where you want to stop and to fix your boat at these there points, under tension, so she can't move.
Let's start with the lazy line situation first.
Medi Mooring with a Lazy Line System
Step 1. Situational awareness.
Look for your target point on the dock. Where you want to get too. Note the wind direction and speed. Look other boats underway and let them get out of your way. Is there a lazy line on the dock? Is any one there to help? How high is the dock? Where are the cleats or rings? And what are they like?
Step 2. Check you're ready to dock.
Fenders in place. Lines on each stern cleat and hanging from outside the boat to inside, over the life line or railing. Coiled and ready to pick up and throw. Boat hook ready to grab the lazy line.
Helmsman ready. Linesman ready on the windward stern line. Bow thrusters ON. Bow thrusters tested with a quick burst left and right. Get you dinghy into a useful position, often by tying its painter off to the bow. You're going to want to leave your stern clear of any dinghy so that you can get on and off your boat from the transom.
Step 3. Position the boat.
You're going to try to get to the dock at about 2 knots in reverse, before stopping yourself with a forward burst of the engine. 2 knots is needed so that your rudders work. If there is wind, you need to account for any lateral drift by crabbing into your intended, target, slot. To ensure a simple run, initially position your boat far enough away from the end goal so as to allow enough speed for good steerage. Once aligned, center your rudder so you're ready to go. Get forward of the helm and face backwards - so you feel comfortable driving the boat "forwards", relative to your face and shoulders.
Step 4. Start your run
Once you're pointed in a good direction and you're comfortable that you have a simple, unrestricted run, punch your reverse gas for two full seconds to get your way on quickly. Once you're moving at >1 knot, you'll have steerage. Next, ease back to idle. You should be moving at about 1.5~2knots.
Step 5. Dock approach
As you approach your target position on the dock, your lines-man throws the up-wind stern line to the dock helper. Or, holding both ends of the coiled rope, lassoo's the cleat. Do your best to get within 2~3 m of the dock to make this easy. The key here is to make your up-wind stern line your first line to secure you to the dock. Lock it off. A full turn round the cleat and then the locking figure of eight on top.
Step 6. Don't get too close to the dock.
About 10 ft (2~3m) is ideal. This positions your boat further away from the dock than you want it to be finally. Final adjustment comes later. Make sure your stern windward dock line it secure. It can be tied off at the dock, or looped back to you boat if you have lassoed the cleat. Make sure it's locked off.
Step 7. Now, power forwards. Slowly!
This is the point where you regain complete control of your stationary but drifting boat. The wind has grabbed you and your bow has stated to drift down-wind. But, with your SINGLE line holding you to the dock, and your engine powering very slowly forwards, you can push the boat bow back into the wind, pivoting on your aft dock line and pushed by your engine. At the right (idle) engine speed, you should be able to hold yourself on the dock in this position. As you back off the engine revs, the wind will again take your bow and if you then again power up the motor harder, you'll again pivot back into the wind. Practice this balancing act for a few cycles, back and forth. This is the key that will give you confidence to dock on ONE line.
Thus a boat should be able to dock on one line and the engine. Alone. This is the key point for when Medi mooring.
Step 8. Loosely secure the second leeward aft line.
Also to a dock cleat. At this stage you have two lines running aft and locked off and your running engine is still holding you forwards and against any later wind.
Step 9. Sort out your lazy line.
If someone's helping you on the dock, they might grab the lazy line and hold it up high. This will allow you to either grab it with your hands or using a boat hook. If no one's helping, just fish for it with your boat hook. Once you have your lazy line in hand, walk it up the side of the boat to the bow, lifting it out of the water as you go. Maintain tension on the forwards running lazy line. It's secure to an anchor forward of your bow so you can pull on it as hard as you can, by hand. Just let it flow back into the water behind you.
You may discover that the last line gets thicker as you get closer towards the bow; but not always the case.
Step 10. Secure the lazy line.
Pull the boat forwards with the lazy line forwards as tight as you can. Lock it off on a forward facing cleat. Now you're attached at three points, but with little tension.
Step 11. Tighten up.
Even though the boat is now attached at 3 points, the lines are not very tight. There is not enough tension to stop a strong wind from taking control of you, once you throttle down. So, next you slowly switch the engine back into reverse; Idle reverse. This will put a lot of tension onto the lazy line serving as your bow line. As the resultant slack develops on your two stern lines, take it in and position your boat to its final position. You're probably looking to take up about a meter of slack on the bow line, and thus the boat will move back to the dock by the same amount. Lock off your stern lines and put the engine in neutral. Wait for a few seconds to check your boat is secure. You should now have good tension on both the lazy line and your two stern lines.
Step 12. Close down
Engine down. Deploy your Passerelle, which should be now an ideal distance to the dock at about 1~2m. Adjust your lines on the dock. Remember, lasso'd lines are not the greatest if the boat moves for an unforeseeable reason. It's always better to tie them with a cleat hitch to avoid chafe.
Step 14. Engine & Batteries off and it's time for a beer!
Medi mooring with an anchor.
This variation is for docks without lazy lines.
The over all technique is the same as when using a lazy-line but with some extra pieces.
Make sure you're allowed to anchor in the location you're at. Many docks don't allow this for several good reasons.
The situation and approach is the same, other than you drop your anchor before attaching the stern lines, a boat length or so before you get to the dock. This replaces the lazy line.
So the order is : Anchor, Windward Stern line, Leeward Stern line. Tighten on anchor. Tighten on stern lines to bring you back to the dock under anchor chain tension.
Given that you have a 'secure' anchor in place by the time you hav arrived at the dock, your nose will not swing off the wind, as is the case when using a last line.
Please feel free to comment on this post. We do realize that there are always better ways to do pretty much anything. We'd very much like to improve this...
Good luck!!
S/V Chloe
