French Lessons In Mooring

While waiting for bad weather to pass I have had a large amount of time to simply sit in the cockpit, enjoy the sun (what little we have had) and generally watch the world go by. In particular, I have had ample opportunity to learn from others mooring techniques. The most influential and educational by far is that of the French.

Most people in the boating world know that it’s usually fear of ‘failure’ that causes you to get nervous and inevitably mess up a mooring attempt. The French however, have no concept of ‘fear’, in each case approaching the pontoon at speeds I am generally more than happy sailing at. With one hand on the tiller (the other is used for smoking) and wife (or lover, they are French remember) standing on the coach roof ‘watching’, the pontoon gets rapidly closer.

As the pontoon gets to within a boat length away the turn is made by throwing the tiller (always a tiller, never a wheel) hard over at the last possible second and then applying ‘full speed astern’, kind of like a hand-break turn for boats!

Now with the boat generally stopped (but drifting) in the vicinity of the pontoon, the ‘other half’ generally continues to either remain standing on the coach roof or jump down (if close enough) with a single hand on the guard rails. It is only now that the skipper starts looking around for a piece of rope that might be used to fasten the boat to the berth.

Another major discovery I have made is that French boats must have stronger or more durable gelcoat than us British folk. It is a national embarrassment for any Frenchman to use more than two fenders at any one time during a mooring, furthermore, only lesser skippers put these out before attempting to berth. Real sailors only apply fenders after the boat has been tied up! There are also bonus points for using the smallest fenders available on the market.

To conclude, all those people contemplating RYA courses etc. take note. Your money will probably be better spent on something else. While I was trained the RYA way (Comp Crew & Day Skipper) and learned to get all my ropes ready before getting anywhere near the berth and placing adequate fenders both sides of the boat at adequate heights and having ‘crew’ standing at the shrouds ready to ‘make fast’ with military precision and coordination, all this does is make a ‘big deal’ out of mooring and after aquiring my new ‘speed lines’ down my bow, maybe its time for a change?

Simply, point the boat at the space (assuming the space looks about big enough) and as long as the bow gets more than a foot into the space it will all come good. On no account look as if you are nervous or care about damaging the boat or even making the berth. In fact, the expression you need to master is that of boredom.

Lastly, forget everything you know about wind and tide as both these can be simply overcome with speed!

Now … am I brave enough myself to try it – maybe you have to be French?