Julian Swindell
Username: Julian_swindell
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 - 10:58 am:
I was just thinking about ideas I have nicked from others and this was a particularly good one.
I have two large horn cleats fitted either side of the cabin bulkhead, which I had seen on another WB as a way of quickly tying on a dinghy. What I then did was to fit two permanent bow mooring lines, one each side. Each has a loop going over a cleat on the fore deck, then out through a bow fairlead and back outside all the shrouds to be belayed to one of these cleats, with a long loose end. When I come alongside, I just step out holding the appropriate loose end and I have got immediate control of the boat by pulling it in from amidships. No problems with the stern swinging out as can happen with just a bow line. I often also use this midships line as the final brake when coming alongside a pontoon. I drop it (if I'm lucky) over the cleat at the end of the pontoon and use it to brake the speed of the boat (usually with the aid of a mumbled prayer to the god-of-single-handed-sailors. )For a short stop, this single line is all you need, it holds a small boat like a WB neatly against a pontoon or another boat. For a longer stop I tie on a stern line and then uncleat the bow line from the midships cleat and use it as a conventional bow mooring line. It works a treat.
Another unexpected benefit was when my engine wouldn't start just outside the entrance to Poole Harbour (anyone who has sailed there will know that this is NOT a good thing). There was a Harbour Masters rib just there, and I only had to uncleat my midship line and pass it to him and he towed me into safety. No going forward to rig a tow line or anything scary like that. The photo should just about show the lines and cleats in place