Extreme Marina Parking

I like to think of myself as “competent” when it comes to boat handling.  Throw me in any boat and I’ll do OK, with just the 28 years of taking them to sea, mostly single handed, you learn enough to get by.  When it came to trailers, berthing, tight squeezes I would usually be thrown the controls and told to sort it.  The current single screw shaft driven boat I’ve got, with no thrusters, all things being equal I can get to spin around quite handy.  But I’m struggling with the current berthing arrangements so I’d appreciate any input from anybody with more experience?

The current situation is the first image below (except I berth bow to, reverse out), pretty much to scale here or there.  My boat is number 1, on a finger of a pontoon.  Behind is a flat pontoon, no numbered berths, generally empty but occasionally used for visitors/fishing boats doing work.  However in the 7-8 years I’ve had that berth I’ve never had anything behind me that’s bothered me at all, certainly nothing as broad as the current huge yacht that has been left there a week (boat 2).   Even the big fishing cats that I’m sure aren’t quite as wide tuck in to the corner a bit where there’s always smaller boats on the fingers. Luckily I’ve got nobody next to me at the minute just like the image so I can use that extra space and spin around quite nicely to get out and “cut” and drift in when berthing.  Easy.  But I know that space won’t be empty for long and eventually I’m going to have to leave and berth at the 90 degree “straight” angle of the finger, so I took the chance to ask the harbour master how long that yacht was planned to be there.  No agro, just idle curiosity because when the other berth is used there’s defo going to be issues for both of us.  The long and short of what I was told was there’ll be no problems, it’s a marina, tough shit, there are loads of marinas much tighter than the space behind me (anybody know any with 90 degree fingers, boats 7.5-8m and allowed less than 8m clearance behind them, anywhere?*), in TT they’re going to put big cruisers there (fine, never had anything that wide before) live with it.  Fair enough.  I pay for a 7.5m boat.  I currently have 7.7m of space to maneuver, what can possibly go wrong?  Fucking good job I’m not one of these people that only turns up 2-3 times a year and hits everything within site, and that’s on a calm day.

The second image shows an approx reality of when I end up with another boat along side, hoping that they’re a little bit shorter than me, if they’re similar or longer it could get really interesting.  My boat is not the longest on those fingers by a long way so it could easily happen, especially if it’s visitors who have crossed the Irish sea to get here. Getting out will be easier than berthing but neither are going to be much fun.  Single handed, single screw (prop walk to starboard), no thrusters, river running bottom to top on channel to left with an eddy current in to the berths, tide running top to bottom when leaving, bottom to top when berthing, wind 363 days of the year, average 8-15mph, generally from the top left to bottom right of image.  Silt bank built up where second yacht is in lower left. What’s your plan, just a shit load of fenders? I’m always open to new ideas and learning from people who know better so throw your ideas out there?  Or am I just being a pussy and over thinking it?  To be fair it does look worse in real life and everybody who I’ve bumped in to, taken out this week has asked “how the hell are you supposed to get out of there”, it was the wife panicking that our day would be wrecked that prompted the question to the harbour master, so maybe I’m being influenced.  Just for clarity image 3 shows the clearance behind the fingers opposite i.e. the gap deemed suitable by the marina designers for safe vessel maneuvering, they must have been the biggest pussies ever!!

Cheers.

* Having traveled all around the Med, Caribbean I’ve not seen any.  From my own experience  (and primary school maths) where it’s tight (a couple of berths in Douglas) fingers are angled to let basic trig make life easier.  All the marinas I’ve seen in England nothing close to that setup in Peel, I’ve seen tight berths but never with only a boat length 90 degrees behind.  There must be 1 somewhere?