The use of a center mooring rope

When you moor a yacht alongside a pontoon in a marina, if the wind is blowing the boat away from the dock during the approach to the mooring it is quite difficult to secure the mooring ropes fast enough so that the boat does not blow away from the berth. It can then be very difficult to pull back in, especially when the wind is blowing hard.

This is even more of a problem when short handed, as there are not enough people to attach all the mooring lines fast enough.

A simpler solution is to rig a center mooring rope. If this line has a bowline tied in the outer end, then runs through a fairlead amidships, it can be led back to one of the winches and on to the helmsman.

All the crew need do, is drop the loop of the bowline over a cleat near the center of the vessel, then they are free to take the bow line ashore and make it fast. In the mean time, the helm can tighten the center rope by pulling in the slack around the winch, and by using gentle forwards drive, keep the boat pressing on to the pontoon.

This will keep the bow of the yacht up to the pontoon, if it starts to blow off, the helmsman just needs to increase the forwards drive from the engine making sure that the center mooring rope is secure.

When leaving the berth a similar approach can be used to hold the boat in place until you are ready to depart.

 

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