Location: 'ang on a mo, I'll just take some bearings
Posts: 18,482
Rather thought breast ropes had been replaced by brassieres some time ago.
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There are three kinds of people:
Those who learn by reading.
Those who learn by observation.
Those who have to pee on an electric fence for themselves.
I'm sure T C refers to Springs and Bow/stern lines, not breast-ropes. Consider a parallel ruler; one side is the quay, the other the boat as the tide rises and falls.
You would have to be forever adjusting breast-ropes and could not leave the boat. Or sleep.
By observation,I think less and les yachts are ever moored to anything other then a floating pontoon ,so springs and bow/stern lines are not understood as you describe them. Not so many moor alongside quay walls.
I carry short lines for marina mooring ;I don't intend to disclose the length of lines I carry for alongside mooring!
I have often used a single spring (my properly long strops for tidal walls) to make off the fore and aft and bring back to the centre cleat to act as springs.
I am not going to empty my rope locker to tie up to a pontoon.
Ditto. And it also depends on the boat and position of the quayside cleats.
As long as it doesn't come adrift and crash into my boat, I don't really care.
Thats OK but if you are rafted outboard of someone its worth taking an interest in how he is tied on. I always a take a bow and stern line to the jetty if at all possible but you still need springs on the inside boat.
Thats OK but if you are rafted outboard of someone its worth taking an interest in how he is tied on. I always a take a bow and stern line to the jetty if at all possible but you still need springs on the inside boat.
You can rest assured I take the keenest interest in how anything I am rafted up to is secured, and running my own lines ashore is something I would not dream of not doing.
I often use a long warp for two functions - I don't have a problem with that at all. Also regularly don't tie off to a pontoon cleat but run the rope from the boat, through the pontoon cleat and back to the boat - then I always have control of the rope and it can be easily slipped when leaving. It all depends on the situation, wind, tide etc at the time. I don't remember being taught 'one line for one job'.
By observation,I think less and les yachts are ever moored to anything other then a floating pontoon ,so springs and bow/stern lines are not understood as you describe them. Not so many moor alongside quay walls.....
True, and more and more yachties remain in blissful ignoarance of how to properly secure alongside a quay. Regrettably, the result can be damaging to more boats than their own.
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Everyone, without exception, is limited by their own experience.
I made the silly mistake the other day of buying a copy of Sailing Today from the news stand. Don't ask - I honestly can't remember why - I know there's no excuse for it.
Anyway, I was amazed to read what ST was passing for sound advice in an article by some instructor, about warping your boat round on a mooring and then tying up again. It advocated a bowline to a figure of eight around a bow cleat - and then *the same line* back to amidships as a spring. And the same arrangement at the stern: stern to pontoon cleat, figure of eight and carry on knitting forward to tie it off amidships. All complete with photos of the finished pontoon embroidery and a description of the author's OXO method: one loop all the way round the cleat, figure of eight on the cleat and a further loop all the way round it, before shooting the warp off in the direction of your next deck cleat.
Would fellow forumites say:
(a) "that's ridiculous. Your boat'll be secure but a bugger to move when you want to. For God's sake, any instructor not showing people that one line for one job is best for all purposes should be stripped of his ticket"
(b) "what's wrong with that?"
(c) "it's really a subjective matter and it would be equally fine for an RYA instructor to publish an article explaining to newbies that you should take your mooring warps to a round turn and two half hitches around the masts of the fore and aft yachts on the pontoon if he thinks that system has merits"
Very amused by this, was you the person who put the post up about motor sailing with no cone up?!
Clearly your bored and you cant find anything to do.
I would be answear b most of the time, I have moored in various places and never had problems.
Very relieved to read this thread, I've seen the one rope one job mantra repeated so often, but much prefer my own routine for alongside berthing: bow rope to pontoon cleat and then back to stern cleat as a spring, stern rope to pontoon cleat and then forward to bow cleat as the other spring. I don't have centre cleats.
Leaving, cast off whichever end of the ropes aren't under strain first, coil up these ends, uncleat, shove off bow or stern and step aboard with the coil.
Can always rig a slip rope as a spring say when it's really needed.
Singlehanded you can just cast off at the pontoon cleats, toss the lines over the guardrails and sort out later.
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