Med Mooring for catamarans

[monte]

Any tips on the best way to med moor a cat? I find its always a PITA. How much tension to have on the lines..as much as possible? Lines running to the outermost cleats and 45 degrees or as close as possible onto the dock?
I try to be 1.5 m from the dock but find she still sheers and sometimes comes close to .5m from the concrete which is a bit close for my liking.
Any tips or suggestions much appreciated.
Also, before tying up, what do you do, attach the dock lines first, then pull up the bow lines (assuming you are stern to) then tension as much as possible the bow lines, then reverse thrust to tension the stern, hopefully the desired distance from the dock?

[Rapanui]

We have a 38 ft cat and moor a lot stern and bow to in Croatia. Normally we pick up the weather lazyline first then the weather stern line followed by the leeward lazy line and stern line. If you only use 1 lazyline to one bow the boat will sheer, either secure on centreline or better still use 2 lines. Given that we cats pay a large mooring premium, that seems fair.
Often, because of other boats nearby it's not possible to get the stern lines at a good angle so we add cross lines at the stern to stop shearing i.e. port cleat to starboard shore ring and vice versa.
Have you considered coming in bow first? It has many advantages if there is no shore support. In that case we secure the bow lines first and then hold the boat off the quay using engine while we carefully lift and secure the stern lines. It also makes getting away in a cross wind and crowded harbour without fouling a lazyline easier.
We just tension the lines by hand swigging up. You need some give as there is some tide and in many places there can be surges of up to 1m or so. Particularly stern to, using the engine to tension the lines will eventually pick up a light leader rope to a lazyline which can prove expensive. Often the spare leader cords are coiled on the quayside so are quite dry. Watch how long they take to sink when re-immersed unless they are weighted

[monte]

THANKS for the tips mate, I did add the cross lines and it helps with the sheering.
We are bow to at the moment. We had quite strong winds blowing onto the dock last night so I winched in the lazy lines to pull us off more, but wasn't sure if easing the bowlines would help or best to keep maximum tension. The sheering was the main issue but as you said, diagonal lines help a lot. We are headed toward Croatia in a month or so, will look forward to buying you a beer

[Palarran]

That was a good post Rapanui. We are almost exactly the same but our first line is the windward to quay, whether stern or bow to.

We are always bow to if there are lazy lines and stern to if using the anchor. Our passarelle extends much further bow to so we can be off the quay more. I'm getting some special fenders in Lefkas that will protect the bow and stern better.

[Rapanui]

As our bows are plumb vertical, one improvement I have worked up is to get some shaped fenders for the bows and then come in bows first and hold the bows against the quay with the engines to allow my wife to step ashore, run the bow lines then retrieve and attach the lazy lines. Cannot see any reason why it will not work and would suit our normal complement of just us 2 onboard. At the moment, going stern first in a cross wind can be interesting, just too many corners to guard on a cat for 1

[Lagoon4us]

One place in Croatia to be very cautious of with regard the quayside is at BOL, there's a ferry that as he goes in front of the moored boats his prop's suck all the water from the quayside then as he passes it rushes back in.
Boats take off madly and violently some crashing there transoms destructively against the concrete..... BE CAREFUL.

[monte]

yes Im thinking Ill get something like this

Ocean PVM1 Bow Fender
hopefully can use it on the bow or transom as needed. Is that something like you have ordered Palarran and Rapanui? Theres none available here in Cannes but I'll keep an eye out along the coast or try order a pair of them from somewhere..

[Burls]

I’ve seen a few boats crunch onto the quay because of ferry wash (And ours has been very close on a couple of occasions!). We are no gurus, but right or wrong, we now use the following techniques to have the cat positioned well, and also safe from ‘crunching’ the quay:


) Firstly we always have fenders on the stern of each hull. This takes a lot of pressure off the whole experience in case you happen to get too close to the quay.
) If you’re using lazy lines/moorings for the bows, use one mooring line for each bow.
) If you’re using the anchor, then make sure you drop the anchor exactly in front of where you will tie up, otherwise the boat will never be square with the quay.
) Whether we are using lazy lines or the anchor, we initially tie off the stern lines with a fair length (say a few meters space between the boat and the quay), tighten up the bow mooring lines or anchor so she’s holding pretty firm. Then (making sure the lazy lines are well clear) pull some reverse power with the engines, and tighten the stern lines as the boat moves back towards the quay. Tie off the stern lines when you are at the desired distance from the quay, then bring the engines back to neutral. If you aren’t close enough to the quay when pulling a reasonable amount of engine power, then you’ll have to loosen off the lazy lines or anchor chain some and try again. (Basically all you are doing is putting some pre-tension on the anchor chain or lazy lines, which makes makes a significant reduction in the boat moving towards the quay when a swell comes through the harbour. This also prevents you from having to pull on the bow mooring lines like a gorilla, breaking your back, and working up a sweat, trying to get enough tension on the lines – which is what I used to do!)
) If using the anchor, then use a chain hook to off-load the windlass.
) As cats are nice and wide, I normally have the stern lines running straight back from the boat to the quay (To try and save space on the quay), and then sometimes add two lines from the inboard side of each hull to the quay (Crossed over), to prevent the boat from swinging left and right along the quay.

This seems to work well for us and you have to find the balance between allowing for some tidal change and making sure you have a good amount of pre-loading to keep the boat away from the quay when that ferry swell does come through. Would love to hear some other ideas too.

[Lagoon4us]

100% Spot on. We have the advantage of a hydraulic 3 stage Passerole which allows us to be 3metres+ from quayside....

Frank

[Palarran]

Frank, do you have any photo's of your Passerelle? I'd love to have a hydralic one.

Mine was made from a motorcycle ramp and is not very stable. Plus, I can't figure out how to suspend it off the quay. Bow in I could use my spin halyard but it would be off center. Stern too, no easy options.

[Palarran]

Burls, that was also a great descriptive post. We are almost identical except I have a feeling it doesn't look so coordinated when we are performing the maneuver.

[Burls]

I'm not sure about the ‘smoothness or coordination’ of our technique Palarran. All I know is just when you think you've got it mastered, the next one is usually an absolute disgrace and worthy of being posted on YouTube.

[Palarran]

Monte, I have 4 of these coming. I like them better than your sample because they have much more bumper and also the arms will allow, IMO, more options for tying off.

[karabil]

Pallarin what are these little beasts called and where are they available from? Much better than our "flat" fender

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by Palarran

Frank, do you have any photo's of your Passerelle? I'd love to have a hydralic one.

Mine was made from a motorcycle ramp and is not very stable. Plus, I can't figure out how to suspend it off the quay. Bow in I could use my spin halyard but it would be off center. Stern too, no easy options.

Will take some for you when the suns up, cheers.....