Preview: Sailing Off and On a Mooring

21 Responses So Far to “Sailing Off and On a Mooring”

• 

  Neil Henderson says:

  We used to sail Dragons and IODs (30′) up to their moorings in Granton harbour (a packed harbour full of expensive boats) off Edinburgh after racing them out on the Firth of Forth. We learnt early how to sail accurately to a mooring as damage to any of these boats was not cheap! Great video and extremely well presented especially the diagrams. There are a lot of people who could benefit from watching this. well done.

• 

  Steve Campbell says:

  What a wonderful video, showing what needs to happen in order to sail. I have a grandfather who was a Master Shipright (if that’s what you call them; he had his own boat building business and people working for him) up in Nova Scotia, from back in the 1860s or so, but I didn’t inherit any of his knowledge or skills. He built Barques, Brigantines and Schooners, for commercial and recreational purposes I suppose. You guys might as well be talking Greek, with some of the things that you were saying. I have a long way to go before I become even remotely familiar with the vernacular that used by sailors.

• 

  Charles Wright says:

  Having had no engine in my Tan Cook Whaler, it was a necessity to learn. Now I always practise sailing on & off, as the wind is more certain than an engine, I find. Its part of the beauty & satisfaction of sailing, especially in a crowded & shoals mooring. Good tips, beautiful boat & place. Love your work.

• 

  David Tew says:

  Many sailors in our crowded harbor would benefit from watching your video. Almost all the skippers of the local racing fleet simply run over their mooring buoys at about a quarter speed and end up rotating and jibing around them with a crew member hanging onto the pendant for dear life! :O

• 

  Frederick Schoenberger says:

  Is there a preferred side of the boat (port or stbd) to retrieve the mooring? Should the skipper instruct the mooring catcher to stand by on a specific side?

  • 

    Ben Mendlowitz says:

    Starlight’s anchor occupies the starboard side up at the bow, so we always bring the mooring up to port. Most boats will have a preferred side that the skipper should remind the person on the bow about before final approach, that way you will both be expecting the mooring to arrive on the same side.

• 

  Eric Winter says:

  Maynard’s drawing made the essential physics clear, in a way I had never thought of it before: start the turn abeam of the mooring and the momentum will be just right to carry you up to the mooring. Need to tweak for wind and tide and the habits of the boat, but the basic idea is just like dropping a ball and watching it (conserve momentum and) bounce back to (about) the same height and slow to a stop.

  Thank you. This is great. I was especially pleased that they never said that it was easy.

• 

  Brad Wilkinson says:

  One evening a couple of years ago I was sitting happily in the cockpit of my Friendship watching the sunset at Frenchboro on Outer Long Island. It was breezy and the harbor mid-summer crowded. A roughly forty foot sloop sailed into the harbor under main alone. She was moving right along, too fast, I thought, to attempt a mooring. When she headed into the wind on final approach, someone in the cockpit stood up and walked the boom forward until it was near perpendicular to the boat. She stopped on a dime…..

  • 

    Ben Mendlowitz says:

    Thanks Brad, one summer we blew a piston early on, so we had several months of sailing with no engine as the rebuild took place slowly in a local machine shop. Those days we learned a lot about handling the yawl under sail, and now prefer to do as much as possible without using the engine. There are all kinds of tricks you figure out when you have no other choice, pushing the boom forward in a light wind to slow down on approach is a good one.

• 

  William Mangum says:

  I remember a few years back, my brother-in-law , and friends were sailing his spritsail skiff, Comradeship at Wrightsville Beach, NC. We came in to land at the end of a dock when we noticed the tide was screaming out. Boat speed and tide were the same. We were perfectly parallel to the end of the dock and he just nudged the tiller to leeward and moved to windward
  ( we were on a beam reach) and tied up under full sail. Slickest thing I’ve ever seen.

  • 

    Peter Owen says:

    It’s called ferry gliding over here and most likely to be used under power where there’s current or tide to work with 😊

• 

  Jack Camillo says:

  Bravo!

• 

  George Kruzynski says:

  Rudder action is brilliant. However if there’s any significant wind, the boat will accelerate as you make your turn for the mooring and rotate through a broad reach… but maybe you had the mainsheet completely free.
  On our Rozinante, we have our lazyjacks closer together and this makes dropping the main less messy.

  • 

    Ben Mendlowitz says:

    Yes, if it is breezy, you want to make sure the main sheet is completely free so she doesn’t take of on a reach. Starlight could use another set of lazyjacks aft to contain the main more completely, but we get by with what we have just fine, even dropping the sail with the boom of the centerline the sail never gets in the water.

• 

  William Mangum says:

  Thanks for the rudder braking tip!

• 

  Michael Dysart says:

  Favorite sport here on the Lower Salmon Falls River with its six knot tide! The off side is easy, it’s the on side that’s the rub.

  • 

    Steve Stone says:

    I recall sailing my little H23 onto the mooring with a 3 knot full moon tide in RI, with no engine, and the breeze moving opposite the tide. Taught me a lot, as I circled and circled and circled, and finally got the mooring.

• 

  ramon rodriguez says:

  What about the Tender? How do you make sure in a situation of heavier wind that your tender going to leave a dent on your craft?

• 

  gary soward says:

  Nice!

• 

  Howard Sharp says:

  Simple idea – if you have access to a Harry Bryan Handy Billy I’d be thrilled to go along for a ride – especially in a bit of a chop, to see how she goes

  • 

    Steve Stone says:

    Thanks Howard. This one’s on our list and some of it is already shot, including the footage you mention of Bill Mayher zipping along in his Handy Billy into a big chop unscathed.