A Tale of Two Raft-Ups

[Hoofsmit]

It's an interesting topic, I found the more expensive the boat you are directed to raft with, the less likely your welcome will be !
I also found when I had a 30' sports motor cruiser, I would be less likely to be welcomed than a sailing craft, ( it's a general assumption that motor boaters Are obviously interior seamen)
I obviously never met The Dockheads of the south cost of the UK more the pity.
As a tip, I often would tie up bow to stern as the deck was higher with full guard rails, thus I could disembark on the fore deck of the inner craft , the only polite way!



Sent from my iPad.......i apologise for the auto corrects !!!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Hoofsmit

It's an interesting topic, I found the more expensive the boat you are directed to raft with, the less likely your welcome will be !
I also found when I had a 30' sports motor cruiser, I would be less likely to be welcomed than a sailing craft, ( it's a general assumption that motor boaters Are obviously interior seamen)
I obviously never met The Dockheads of the south cost of the UK more the pity.
As a tip, I often would tie up bow to stern as the deck was higher with full guard rails, thus I could disembark on the fore deck of the inner craft , the only polite way!

I was cured of any latent prejudice against motorboaters during my first season sailing in UK waters. There are a lot of motor cruisers on the UK South Coast, and they tend to be skillfully handled and by very polite and considerate operators. If anything, motorboaters in the UK are more polite than sailors are, and in any case, the real menace in UK waters are the racers, who are sometimes (of course not always) extremely aggressive, rude, and heedless of COLREGS.

[monte]

Well the polite way to deter someone from coming alongside is to simply tell them you're planning on a 3am departure. Probably not so polite if you meet them on the dock at 9am though. Often the thought of having to walk past our dog makes us the less preferable berth.
Alongside etiquette... Try not walk through the neighbours cockpit unless invited to do so (we invite them if it's easier access)
Take off your shoes (especially black rubber work boots)
Always offer to help with the lines
Share the fendering responsibility
Invite the neighbours if you're having a party...

[Chris Whitney]

Learned a lesson about rafting this weekend to share. Only been on my Gulfstar since March I had not yet rafted. Fellow D Dock friend Rick does hull cleaning. Since we are not allowed to dive at our docks, we go out into the near by Banana River. This time we took both boats and "rafted together".

A third boat came along for a cleaning and he went on the other side of the ricks boat so the hooka would reach. We had used all the good fenders between Rick and I and the third a (power boat) just had a few little ones and not many places to tie one on. They seemed to be ok but not as protected as I would like (first lesson add more fenders, and as you will see later bigger the better). You learned a lot about how straight hulled power boats are and how round sailboats are but thats a different story.

Rick was down cleaning bottoms when the storm came up quick. All three boats had anchors out forward which in the light air worked great. As the storm hit 30 knots we were all rocking and the power boat smartly decided he was at risk with the little bumpers.

Here is the brilliant lesson. Instead of attempting to depart in the storm he merely disconnected from Rick, then let out much more anchor line then powered backwards to a clear distance remaining on the original anchor point. His boat swung clear during the storm! Great lesson for me not sure how others would have handled that.

Rick and I stayed tight together with bow and aft lines holding tight and two anchors holding us nose to the wind. I was worried with all the hobby horsing we might bump masts but never seemed to swing that way. Another lesson learned that doubling lines in a storm is a great idea, after the only 30 min storm the line we used at our bow had chaffed severely and likely would have failed in another 30 min. This would have been a very different post if that storm was a bit longer.

After the storm passed. We found the wind had turned the boats about 90 degrees from original anchoring swing we had some tangled anchor lines. After some debate we were able to get away happy at surviving the experience intact.

All in all a great day and valuable lesson learned about rafting!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by monte

Well the polite way to deter someone from coming alongside is to simply tell them you're planning on a 3am departure. Probably not so polite if you meet them on the dock at 9am though. .

LOL.

When you really have a 3AM departure, you should cast off and let the other guy go inside, and raft up yourself.

[bail-me-out]

Old thread I know but I was just watching a couple of you tube videos navigating lock systems. During one transit of the Welland Canal a sailboat was always asked to raft up to a power boat. No problems at all, i can understand why. But then a thought struck me, if the PB had pod drives how might/ would that affect the manouvering? Say the SB was rafted on the left and the PB needed to power to the right to get near the dock wall is it possible the SB could block the thrust or maybe change the thrust direction?