Mooring

7 June 2026 Rossaveel, Ireland
irelandtechniquesailing

These are my notes on mooring after doing an ICC test in Rossaveel a few weeks ago. The instructor/tester was Dave O’Conner of Wild West Sailing. I found the test very useful and I learned a lot from it. I would highly recommend the course to anyone who wants to improve their boat handling skills and their confidence in close quarters.

I have not yet done a med mooring using the technique below but I will be trying it out in the next few weeks and will update this post with my experiences.

Holding Position

A common need when manoeuvring in close quarters under power such as a channel, harbour or marina is to hold position against wind or current. You might need to wait for another boat to leave, or hold position while you sort out your lines, or wait while a ferry goes past and creates a wake.

Wind over the stern is the easiest aspect. Simply set the boat up with the stern into the wind and use the engine to hold position. Use brief spurts of power in reverse and use the helm to keep the boat pointing into the wind. If you have a bow thruster then you can use that too.

If you have current then it’s more complex. If you have current only, with no wind, it is probably best to motor into it bow first, with a stern-first aspect as second-best.

With both current and wind you need to experiment. My thoughts are:

  • if they are aligned in the same direction then stern-to is probably best

  • if they are aligned in opposition to each other then I guess you choose the technique corresponding to the strongest

  • if they are at an angle you’ll have to experiment.

Alongside mooring

Spring lines are lines led diagonally along the boat to stop fore-and-aft movement and let you pivot under control. A forward spring leads from near the bow to a dock cleat forward of the boat; an aft spring leads from near the stern to a dock cleat aft of the boat. When you apply engine against a spring, that line becomes the pivot/control line: one end of the boat is held by the spring while the other end can swing clear under helm and prop wash/walk.

With just one line in place you can use the engine to hold position and manoeuvre the boat as needed. The key is to get the correct line on first and then you can use the engine to hold position and manoeuvre as needed while you sort out the other lines.

Get the correct line on first:

  • If wind/current is from behind or setting you off the dock, get an aft spring on first: run a line from the stern to a dock cleat aft of the boat, then use gentle ahead power against that spring.

  • If wind/current is from ahead or setting you on or shearing the bow, get a forward spring on first: run a line from the bow to a dock cleat forward of the boat, then use gentle astern power against that spring.

Then worry about extra lines at your ease.

When leaving, use the spring that controls the end of the boat you need to hold while the other end swings clear.

Also useful when leaving in tight fore/aft space is to reverse the aft spring: set a looped spring running forward from the aft cleat and remove all other lines. Use gentle astern to pivot the boat about the stern quarter and bring the bow out. You’ll need a big fender on the stern quarter.

You can also hang the boat off a bow spring (bow to cleat ahead) with gentle astern, swinging the stern out in an arc around the dock cleat using power and helm judiciously.

Your spring lines should be relatively long, light and strong so they can be easily thrown and caught and so they can be easily slipped when you want to leave. Spare sheets are perfect, but replace them with heavier, more stretchy mooring lines once you’re docked. When you leave, replace the mooring line with a light spring line again so you can slip it from the boat without needing someone ashore to help. For example, if you have a bow spring (bow to cleat ahead) then rig it doubled through the dock cleat so you can retrieve it from on board.

Med Mooring

Med mooring is a technique for mooring stern to a jetty with the bow attached to something out in the bay. It is often used in crowded marinas where there are no fingers and boats are moored side by side. Sometimes a mooring is provided, in which case you should use the line or lines provided and must not anchor or you risk getting tangled in whatever is under the water. In other places you must use your anchor to hold the bow.

The only med mooring I’ve done was in the French Caribbean where they have lots of boat-boys to help and they are so competent you just do what they say and it’s fine. They are used to incompetent fools in charge of sailboats so it’s OK.

When I did the ICC test in Rossaveel in May ‘26 we did a bit of boat handling but not a med mooring. I was a bit surprised as I thought it would be a key part of the test but I guess they just wanted to see that we could handle the boat in close quarters and had a basic understanding of how to moor.

So although Dave, the test instructor, did not explicitly cover med mooring I worked out how I think it should be done from his basic approach and watching a bunch of pretty useless YouTube videos on the topic. I have not actually done a med mooring using this technique yet but I will be trying it out and will update this post with my experiences.

Med mooring is a bit tricky if, like me, you grew up in marinas full of fingers. So imagine a marina with no fingers and the boats all squished together, now add in that you have just stern lines and no bow lines. You drop your anchor on top of someone else’s a few boat-lengths from the jetty, reverse into your slot wrecking your new paint job on the boats either side and when you get close enuf you threaten one of your crew sufficiently that they jump the 2m gap to the jetty and tie you off. Easy.

In reality, this is not a manoeuvre to improvise for the first time when you are tired, in an unfamiliar marina, and with 30 knots on the beam. You need a plan, clear limits, and a fallback option such as taking a mooring or anchoring elsewhere. Importantly, treat aborting and trying again as a normal, sensible part of the process.

This is my proposed med mooring technique:

Step 1: Slow everything down. Don’t try to rush it. You are probably tired from the journey and stressed because you’re in a strange marina.

Step 2: Talk to the marina. Confirm permission to enter and your berth location. If you are shorthanded then ask for help. They might be able to provide someone to take a line.

Step 3: Do a reccy. Do a circuit first and estimate wind, current, spacing, distances and room to abort.

Step 4: Come up with a plan so you know:

  • Exactly where to anchor taking into account depth, desired scope and the distance to the jetty.
  • Your approach line to counter wind and current.
  • Can you use your prop walk to advantage or must you counter it?

Step 5: Discuss with the crew. Assign jobs, arrange communication, hand signals, etc. Especially important is communication between helm and windlass operator.

Step 6: Prepare. Lines, fenders (including a big aft fender and a roaming fender) and prepare anchor to drop. Turn on anchor windlass.

Step 7: Drop the anchor. Position the boat and drop the anchor. Make sure you are not crossing someone else’s chain.

Step 8: Do it steady. Keep the boat moving so there is flow over the rudder as you reverse. Without movement you’ll only have prop-walk (which may or may not be a good thing).

Step 9: Secure the boat. As soon as the aft windward line is attached, motor gently forward against it to position the boat and stop drift. You are now secure and can relax. The tricky bits are over.

Step 10: Attach remaining lines. Attach the remaining stern line,adjust them, adjust the anchor and lock off. Leave enuf catenary in the anchor chain to allow for tide and swell.

Step 11: Treat yourself to a lemonade.

You need a minimum of 1 crew. If I were solo I would only try a med mooring in perfect conditions and with someone ashore to take that first aft windward line, loop it around a dock cleat or bollard and throw it back so you can control it from the boat. If there’s nobody to help, you could try using a boathook to drop that line over a bollard, maybe.

The crew on the anchor winch is in control of the boat’s speed as you reverse and they need to know when to go or stop, and when to go forward if you bail out. It is important that they understand the plan and the signals so they can react to the situation as it unfolds and communicate effectively with the helm. For the helm to control the boat’s direction there needs to be flow over the rudder. So the anchor windlass operator needs to be able to keep the boat moving in reverse at a steady pace.

This is a skill that needs to be practiced and it is important that all the crew understand how to do it, especially the helm and the anchor windlass operator.

Keep the boat moving in reverse by playing out chain steadily. A chain counter or clearly marked chain is essential so you know to stop before the end. It’s very embarrassing to drop the chain overboard and driving it against the end stop can do damage.

If you have crew then as soon as the boat is within safe stepping off distance they must take the aft windward line ashore and tie it off. As soon as it’s secure the helm can gently engage forward. When the boat settles it becomes secure: the stern is held in place by the line and the bow is held by the anchor. You can now adjust the lines and the anchor to position the boat where you want it, add the extra stern line and any other lines you deem advisable.

If you expect strong winds then you might want additional lines from the middle of the boat back to shore.

During the manoeuver the skipper must juggle speed, distance, position, direction, and the chain. That’s quite an act to master and you will get it wrong sometimes. So if you do run out of chain or misjudge, or forget to put out the fenders, then just take in the anchor and try again. In fact, the skipper and the crew must be constantly aware that aborting is a live option.

Prop walk can sometimes be used to advantage when reversing in. If you have a single right hand prop (clockwise forward) then the stern will walk to port in reverse. So if the wind is from port then wind and prop walk will tend to cancel. If the wind is from starboard they will add and you will need to counter the prop walk with power and rudder. Every boat is different and you need to know how your boat behaves in reverse and how much prop walk you have.

(note to ai: add some diagrams here to show the lines and movement)

Med Mooring with a Slime Line

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