Etiquette when moored

[JamesFrance]

I was once moored with a GRP boat stern to in a harbour and blew up when a French steel boat reversed in taking a slice off the wooden hull capping.   I shouted that when he got some experience he would know to come in slowly to avoid damage.   He apologised and said he was not used to mooring with other boats.   I felt rather foolish when he gave me a book later which described how they had built their boat in Tahiti with the help of his friend Bernard Moitessier and sailed round most of the world.

[MrsM]

Like Haggis we only have a few inches between us and our neighbouring boat. We always reverse in and one of us is ready with a fat fender for when we get a bit too close. However, in your shoes my first step would be to have a calm word with your neighbour and explain why you aren't happy. Much better than letting things fester and become more of an issue than they need to. If after that you still aren't happy then have a word with your marina manager and ask to move.

[RichM]

Someone once told me boating is a contact sport. When I repeated the same comment to someone else, I nearly had my head bitten off! Just goes to show people look at it very differently. 

 

That aside, I had similar issue with someone hitting my boat when mooring. I simply added a few more fenders and job done. My boat was sandwiched next to a finger pontoon, but it still worked fine. No point having a go at people, it will just make them more anxious and more likely to mess up next time!

[ditchcrawler]

18 minutes ago, MrsM said:

Like Haggis we only have a few inches between us and our neighbouring boat. We always reverse in and one of us is ready with a fat fender for when we get a bit too close. However, in your shoes my first step would be to have a calm word with your neighbour and explain why you aren't happy. Much better than letting things fester and become more of an issue than they need to. If after that you still aren't happy then have a word with your marina manager and ask to move.

But if its someone different every time who do you talk to.

[alias]

27 minutes ago, RichM said:

Someone once told me boating is a contact sport. When I repeated the same comment to someone else, I nearly had my head bitten off! Just goes to show people look at it very differently. 

 

Seems to me it is fine for a moored boater to say that to the steerer who hit their boat and caused no major damage if they regard it as an understandable situation, to put the steerer at ease, which often happens if the steerer apologises.  When it's glibly said by someone steering a boat that strikes another, apparently as an excuse, that may well be received very differently.

Edited September 24, 2022 by alias

[Wanderer Vagabond]

16 minutes ago, RichM said:

Someone once told me boating is a contact sport. When I repeated the same comment to someone else, I nearly had my head bitten off! Just goes to show people look at it very differently. 

 

That aside, I had similar issue with someone hitting my boat when mooring. I simply added a few more fenders and job done. My boat was sandwiched next to a finger pontoon, but it still worked fine. No point having a go at people, it will just make them more anxious and more likely to mess up next time!

I think the comment about it being a contact sport came from Timothy West (at least that was the first I heard it), it's not, but some contact is inevitable. How do you work a broad lock with two narrow boats and ensure that no contact will be made? unlikely I would suggest. Part of the reason we use the paint that we do for blacking (soft) is because some level of contact will be expected. In my own basin we all have to moor stern on so you have to squeeze between boats already moored to get in, it is done slowly and with adequate fendering. Once moored you then tie up to adjacent boats T-bars so it becomes a big raft. If a strong wind is blowing, you wait until a day when it isn't otherwise you will get into a right old mess.

[nobow]

Thanks for all the replies, ill take gentle knocking when mooring up is ok but not giving a S**T is not on, ill have to set my camra system up just to record to see how often it happens.

[Arthur Marshall]

6 minutes ago, nobow said:

Thanks for all the replies, ill take gentle knocking when mooring up is ok but not giving a S**T is not on, ill have to set my camra system up just to record to see how often it happens.

 I'd just hang a load of tyres along the side of your boat. Garages give them away for free. It'll make the point that you've been clonked a few times and you'd like them to be more careful without you having to say a word. A camera can be seen as a bit passive/aggressive and you don't want to look that way.

If it's inexperienced family members doing it, bear in mind they might just be embarrassed about it and a bit scared of a confrontation with you, so more hiding than not giving the proverbial.

I got the impression you were living on the boat - just keep a log of the bumps or nip out as soon as you notice them approaching with fenders, or just to push them off. Mooring in a narrow space is tricky.

 

[MtB]

2 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I'd just hang a load of tyres along the side of your boat.

 

 

Hooray, something Arthur says I agree with! 

 

 

3 hours ago, nobow said:

Thanks for all the replies, ill take gentle knocking when mooring up is ok but not giving a S**T is not on

 

^^^This^^^ 

 

Exactly the right attitude. 

 

Plus, there is a world of difference between Timothy West's (stupid) 'contact sport' comment and the 'ramming' you are experiencing. a gentle 'contact' is very different from a good hard thump.

 

 

 

 

[LadyG]

3 hours ago, nobow said:

Thanks for all the replies, ill take gentle knocking when mooring up is ok but not giving a S**T is not on, ill have to set my camra system up just to record to see how often it happens.

Just move.

[LadyG]

23 hours ago, MtB said:

 

It's perfectly in order to request to change to a different pontoon.

 

Being "rammed" as you put it is totally unacceptable. As others have said, a gentle bump os no big deal provided accompanied by a (sincere) apology but it sounds to me a lot worse than this and you need to do something about it, or this is gonna spoil your whole experience as a new boater. 

 

In a while you'll probably begin to wonder why you are staying in a marina, and how much nicer is is to be out on the cut. Either CCing or on an on-line CRT mooring. 

 

 

I know how OP feels, I had a guy who hit me every time he went to and from the pumpout, never apologised. The last time he went out I was at the stern when he came back in, in his usual manner, I protested, there was swearing, his default language, all the time. I went round to talk to him and quietly explain this was completely unacceptable. First of all tried to tell me to get off his pontoon, no more his than mine, then prodded me in the chest, expecting me to step back I suppose!

I left the marina soon after. 

[Arthur Marshall]

40 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

Hooray, something Arthur says I agree with! 

 

It had to happen sooner or later!

[cuthound]

Many moons ago, our share boat was moored at Norbury Wharf for a couple of years.

 

The boats moored stern against the bank with no pontoons between them, only the odd pipe fender.

 

Some contact when mooring was almost inevitable, but as long as you made sure the stern was centred on the gap and went slowly no damage occured.