As the Croatian fuel dock attendant flung the dockline back at our boat, I let out a memorable string of salty language. The bow thruster they kept wanting me to use was in a box, uninstalled on our Dufour sailboat that still had that new yacht smell. It was chaos trying to refuel on the last day of charter with everyone else, worse than any racing start line. And yet, here we were, going around again for another high visibility try.
In the U.S., we’re generally blissfully ignorant about Mediterranean mooring. As the name implies, this is primarily a European phenomenon, but it becomes our problem when we charter in the Med and sometimes in the Caribbean. The basics are straightforward. You line up two to three boatlengths ahead of your targeted landing spot on a quay or wall, drop anchor, and back up. Then simply step off the stern and tie up with two docklines and snug up with the anchor chain.
That’s the theory. In practice, it’s rarely elegant enough to pull off and not spill your Aperol. Periodically, I’ve executed beautiful Med moors worthy of dockside audiences. The rest have started with enough planning for a lunar landing and incorporated Russian gymnast acrobatics, the lassoing skills of a cowboy, and sometimes, profuse apologies. Europeans don’t take things so seriously, and I’ve learned from these masters. Following are 15 tips, some of which are truly useful (others maybe just tart observations over the years):
1. There’s no such thing as not enough space on the dock for your beam. If there’s daylight between two boats, it’s a fair target and if you don’t take it, the next guy will.
2. Fenders, shmenders. If you rip off a couple of your neighbors’ while backing in or blasting out, they probably won’t miss them.
3. Back down as fast as possible. It confuses those already in place and doesn’t give them time to put up resistance.
4. If two boats are snuggled up on the wall and you’re in Greece, consider that an invitation to tie your stern to their bows and then walk across their decks all night. It’s a conversation starter.
5. If you lay your anchor chain across all the ones already down, you can leave first.
6. If you forget to tell your bowman when to drop the anchor as you’re backing, roll with it and hope you’re wedged in hard enough to not move.
7. Strategic use of the bow thruster could push your neighbor far enough to create more space for yourself. Try to moor next to smaller boats. It’s a game of tonnage.
8. Hand gestures vary by country but most are fairly easily understood, especially if they’re from your potential neighbors. Stay firm! Don’t be easily put off.
9. Smile no matter how the Med moor is going. Looking confident and friendly is half the battle. Don’t make eye contact.
10. When backing into a pre-set Med moor with a fixed bow line, make sure to come in at a weird angle and keep the prop engaged as much as possible to maximize your chance of wrapping the underwater line. It’ll hold you good and tight. (Kidding here. Really.)
11. Find a ridiculously long dock line to use as a stern tie. Helpful hands on the dock receiving 50 feet of jumbled rope will appreciate it.
12. At least five non-line-handling observers at the stern always make things go smoother.
13. Ending up horizontally across multiple bows is considered bad form by nearly all nations except Slovenians who invented this form of “side tie.”
14. When you’re already moored, be sure to stand on the bow, elbows out in the “bitch wing” formation to dissuade anyone else from coming next to you (this is also useful for anchoring situations in tight harbors).
15. If in doubt, come in as cocky as Captain Ron. Half the time you’ll get lucky, and the yacht club will talk about you the rest of the summer. The other half of the time, you won’t hear them talk or you won’t understand them anyway.
Take wind, current, and holding ground, then toss in a sketchy bow thruster and multiple nationalities, and Med mooring has the potential to really entertain. And remember, once you’re tucked in, you too can watch others’ efforts with a cocktail and superior attitude. It’s the mooring circle of life.
April 2024