Yachting Monthly - November 2015

PRACTICAL SEAMANSHIP

NOVEMBER 2015 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 23

How to cope with short, wobbly finger pontoons

Scan this QR code to watch Duncan

Wells demonstrating both techniques

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Entering any unfamiliar port

it is necessary either to call

up and ask what cleats and

berths they have, or to putter

down the line of fi ngers and

investigate. It’s important to

make sure you can execute a

180° turn in your own length,

unless you know your boat will

motor astern predictably.

If you don’t speak French

or your school French is rusty,

bone up on some useful

vocabulary in advance. Most

French people will help you out

Why it helps to ‘Parlez français!’

of the pontoon cleat when the
boat is in position, then there’s
no problem to solve and you can
berth as above.
For larger boats,
there’s a further
complication: you’ll
often fi nd French
fi ngers with no
T-cleats at all,
just a hoop at
the end, which
means there’s
nothing onto
which you can
drop a bowline, so
you can’t drive against
anything to hold the boat steady
alongside. I spent some time
working on this problem and
decided the solution is to set a
stern bridle from the midships
cleat, outside the stanchions as
far aft as the cockpit then up
under the lifelines to a winch you
can reach from the helm. As you
approach, stop the boat, step
onto the sidedeck and lasso the
entire end of the fi nger, then click
her into forward again. I called up
Chantereyne Marina in Cherbourg,
gave my French an airing and
explained what I wanted. I was
passed fairly swiftly on to the
very helpful and English-speaking
Caroline who told me that they

had the full range of fi nger berths.

So off we went.

Hooking a hoop

We spent three days in Cherbourg

lassoing everything in sight, and

we had the short, thin and wobbly

French fi nger berths cracked – as

long as there was no boat berthed

on the other side of the fi nger. If

there is, then it is impossible to

lasso the entire fi nger.

I decided that, if I could get

something down inside the hoop

with a line that ran to the midship

cleat, I could drive against this.

We scoured the harbour for short

metal or stout plastic pipes that

we could drop down between

the bar and then which would

lock against it when we pulled on

it. Nothing we found was quite

right – the risk of the pipe or bar

slipping out was too great.

Then we went to the

chandler and my eyes

fell upon a toy

grapnel anchor.

That might do

it. It cost €9

and worked

beautifully. Stop

the boat at the

fi nger, step onto

the sidedeck, lower

the grapnel into the

hoop, haul in the line and

click the engine into ahead. I

needed to hold the collar out of

the way. If that drops down, then

the grapnel will not fold up to go

through the hoop, which could

be disappointing. Once through,

though, it splays out and holds

you fi rmly.

Why not use a

mooring aid?

I prefer to use a line and lasso

something ashore rather than

use mooring devices. I do have

a Moorfast and, although I have

never tried it, I am sure it would

thread a line through a standard

cleat or onto a hoop as quick as

can be, as long as you did not

hold the Moorfast too vertically

above the cleat. The Hook and

Moor looks like a handy piece

of kit, too, although the rather

narrow jaws and fairly chunky

head mean it is limited in the

gauge of hoop or cleat it will fi t

round; on occasion it is too large

to fi t through or around some of

the rings attached to mooring

buoys. And then there are hooks

with carabiner-style gates, which

fi t on the end of a boathook. I

have seen these used for mooring

and they seem very effective. W

if you try to speak French. A

hoop on the end of a pontoon

fi nger is a taquet d’amarrage

cercle, T-cleats are taquets

d’amarrage en forme de T.

It’s also a good idea to

learn the weather terms to

understand French forecasts.

Frank Singleton has translated

French weather terms. Search

online for ‘Franks weather

French terms’

■ weather.mailasail.com/

Franks-Weather/French-

Marine-Weather-Terms

Tie a small grapnel

anchor onto your bow spring,

make sure to tape its collar up

Drop the grapnel

into the hoop, the fl ukes deploy,

then haul the bow spring in tight

The grapnel secures the bow spring so you

can motor against that. Problem solved!

If there’s a boat moored on the
other side of the pontoon,
lassoing is a non-starter

If you have a different approach

to berthing on short, wobbly fi nger

pontoons, please send a description

(and ideally a diagram) to

[email protected]

We’ll try out a range of^

techniques and publish

the best ones.

HOW DO

YOU DO IT?

You can use a bow fender and
motor against the pontoon, but
you need to get the height
absolutely right

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