Mooring Your Boat Safely

To state the obvious boats do not have any brakes or guaranteed immediate way of stopping (anchors can be used in emergencies but even these must find suitable grounding). As a result when planning to moor your boat, there are two very simple but absolute paramount rules.

Kill Your Speed

Firstly, and as a boat insurance company you'd guess we'd say this is to ensure you are travelling at a sensible speed. When mooring once you have set the appropriate course to the mooring platform this is rarely anything other than dead slow. The key advantage of dead slow means that should be need to make some minor manoeuvring as you get close to landing you can give an appropriate engine spurt with full turn applied that will make the adjustment but without the danger of suddenly taking on lots of additional speed. Failing all else you can also drop the boat into reverse but this is more complex and can overly put stress on your gearing/ engine if done without due care. For those that are new starters as a boat insurance company we would also always recommend that new starters should avoid attempting to moor down stream, the inevitable additional speed makes mooring much more difficult so better leave that to the experienced sailors until you've done at least a few sound still/ up water moorings.

Preparation

The second and perhaps not so obvious piece of advice with regard to landing your boat safely is to ensure you are prepared. Get those that will jump to the landing stage in place (with sensible footwear!) and ropes positioned freely and sensibly. Position your vessel early on to the correct angle of approach (in consideration/ taking into account any current) and survey what is ahead to ensure no potential hazards (e.g. other boats, shallow waters). Finally also have any mooring pins, mallets ready to hand and move away anything that may get in the way/ be a hazard.

For those new to mooring up their boats it can be a rather stressful time (particularly if there are lots of onlookers!), making appropriate preparation can greatly ease that burden.

Reviewed: 22/01/2012

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