Worst Med Mooring Ever - Just when you think you've seen everything!!

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Oohla

But he had a bow thruster! Doesn’t that guarantee success?

Bow thrusters are counter productive.

[argonauta1]

Well folks, I have med moored many times. There are two types: one where the anchor is used and the other where the marina has installed mooring lines attached to underwater fixtures which are picked up with a boat hook as one enters the slip either bow or stern-in. Personally, I prefer the anchor type. That is because one can get it down a good distance out and back in to position. The drag from the anchor and chain provides significant lateral stability which aids in the backing in process. Coordination though with the bow person letting out chain is necessary to avoid hang ups. That is unless one has a remote for the anchor at the helm.

Backing in to pick up mooring lines is much trickier. That is where I have run into trouble trying it with a crew of two. Never managed to put on a show like on this video though! I now choose to go bow-to when mooring lines have to be used. In such places an anchor cannot be deployed as it will foul underwater fixtures.

What we are looking at here is a charter crew in Greece with no idea what to do. I guess that is stating the obvious. Likely, they come from a part of the world where med mooring is not done. Perhaps they are from North America??

It is an anchor med moor situation. The skipper has the anchor dangling but he does not appear to know when and where to drop it hence his lateral darts at the presumed slip with attendant side swipes of the adjacent yachts.

The charter company has not provided the skipper with any guidance and he is left to hoper grope. The only way this situation was likely resolved was for some nearby crew person to dinghy over and offer assistance and a little instruction. Hopefully the damage done was not severe although it looks like his Passerelle took a hit.

[ErnestV]

Originally Posted by Haddock1

However, he is clearly inexperienced and if it's a med charter you have to have the minimum of an ICC. Did the charter company check his license? Assuming he had a license you have to ask whoever passed him? Boat manoeuvring is part of the practical test.

Having an ICC simply tells that you passed handling the boat ONCE. No ICC is proof of experience. It is the same as with pilots - its the number of starts, approaches and landings that make you an experienced pilot, not the hours of flying time.

[capn ken]

I have seen Kontiki, and you sir are no con Kiki!

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

Perhaps they are from North America??

Romanian.

Very few NA sailors wear matching shirts. You knew they weren't French or Italian because they were wearing shirts. German's would never get in this situation. French, well they would have blamed the other boats. Brits - well, they could have been Brit's for sure but were in fact Romanian's.

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by Haddock1

However, he is clearly inexperienced and if it's a med charter you have to have the minimum of an ICC. Did the charter company check his license? Assuming he had a license you have to ask whoever passed him? Boat manoeuvring is part of the practical test.

a 'licence' like that is absolutely no guarantee that someone knows what they are doing. total waste of time

some of the most experienced small boat handlers i know have never bothered with a piece of paper, and holders of this vital piece of paper often wind up in videos like this !

cheers,

[Fidsplice]

As is oft the case on this forum, lots of opinions and shoulda coulda woulda.

It is a fantastic training video, and I will use it both formally and informally!

• Boat speed (many references)
• Steering behaviour of a boat ( think wheelbarrow - you have to get behind the front to direct it there)
• From that, you can see the skipper had wrong helm many times
• Stop the manoeuvre- regroup ( many posts)
• Safety - wow, lucky no serious injuries
• Use of prop walk
• Use of bow thrusters
• Roaming fenders should have lines at each end so they can be deployed horizontally

And I’m sure much more. I will study and learn. I feel for the skipper. Controlling anxiety is an essential attribute of a leader. It ain’t easy when the fan is well covered!

[parkstone bay]

The major issue is that having got into a problem in the first place, he got panicked, and therefore fixated on his first plan. When I've done PB training, I've always said "there are no new mistakes in powerboating - first of all, they've all been done before - and, second, your instructors have done most of them themselves". It would have helped if he'd thought things through first, and run through the options, (including the bail out plan) with his crew.
There, but for the grace of God ........

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Holy Cow! Did ya notice the propwash at one point whilst fouled with the boat on the left? Nothing like full speed ahead while entangled with another boat.

Jim

When in doubt in a close docking situation, FULL POWER!

[Knotical]

Originally Posted by Fidsplice

[*]Steering behaviour of a boat ( think wheelbarrow - you have to get behind the front to direct it

Can you please explain this? I understand how wheelbarrow works but don’t get the reference to a boat. Thanks. (Not trolling, genuinely interested)

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Knotical

Can you please explain this? I understand how wheelbarrow works but don’t get the reference to a boat. Thanks. (Not trolling, genuinely interested)

It's the idea that you're steering from behind with a pivot point forward of the steering point. On a fin keel sailboat, it'll typically pivot around the keel, more or less. So you're pushing the stern sideways to pivot the boat, much like pushing the handles of a wheelbarrow sideways to pivot it around the front wheel.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Palarran

I had to painfully watch this several times. Unbelievable.

https://www.facebook.com/piotr.swirk...2629547801957/

Painfully?


That's just so outlandishly bad what can you do but laugh. I especially liked the part where he rips off the pasarelle.


That's just clearly a charter skipper with no skill or experience. He just doesn't understand that when you turn a boat, unlike a car, the stern swings as well as the bow. That's really all there is to it.

[Knotical]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

It's the idea that you're steering from behind with a pivot point forward of the steering point. On a fin keel sailboat, it'll typically pivot around the keel, more or less. So you're pushing the stern sideways to pivot the boat, much like pushing the handles of a wheelbarrow sideways to pivot it around the front wheel.

Got it. I understand turning around a pivot point but was imagining something completely different 😊.

Thank you.

[Sailmonkey]

I may be missing something here.

The wind is directly onshore? Yes?

Is there something faux pa about dropping the hook upwind and using it to control your bow while backing to the wall?

[HeinSdL]

Originally Posted by ErnestV

Having an ICC simply tells that you passed handling the boat ONCE. No ICC is proof of experience. It is the same as with pilots - its the number of starts, approaches and landings that make you an experienced pilot, not the hours of flying time.

Indeed, the ICC does not mean that much: in my experience in NL, there isn't even a practical. So I am not a fan of certificates really. I am a fan though of putting in the many hours of practice and slowly but surely becoming competent (not that that means that disasters don't happen, they just happen less and less frequently and are not likely to be of the type shown in this youtube clip).

On the subject of competence: when mooring or moored stern to quay in the Med I am quite aware and OK with potential damage, the scratch here or there, as I make the manoeuvre or when others come alongside. In any case when it's windy, it's simply not always a very easy manoeuvre, I find. But the other day, during a completely calm evening (mirror like conditions) a boat came alongside and it would have been quite fine to simply cut the engine and drift backwards, helping the boat into the slot by hand. But no, instead the engine was either full in reverse of full ahead and the new arrival takes out one of my stanchions. WTF. That was incompetence.

A few nights later, a Swan 55 does the most beautiful stern to mooring in one of the most crowded places in southern Corsica. And the skipper did not say a word or twitch a nerve. And there was very little engine and no bow thruster. That was competence.

The Swan skipper is the person I aspire to be. So far what I find works well is go easy on the engine and keep your mouth shut.