How to do a Mediterranean Mooring

The Med Mooring now becomes simple and un-intimidating because of your new awesome backing skills you have learned in the NauticEd Maneuvering Under Power course.

Here’s an html5 animation on how to do a Mediterranean mooring. Click the start button and read along. To continue, click the instructions inside the green box. Doing a Med mooring requires some very good maneuvering skills and so we highly advise that you practice this before you head to the Med.

The key lies in doing it all in one swoop and not stopping short then trying to restart your aftward motion – your propwalk and the wind is going to really mess you around. You’ll have no water over the rudder and no steerage. If you try to straighten her up and try to back in again – it just will not work. You’ll be better off completely starting again from distance. If you’re practiced at backing now, this will be easy.

One other piece of advice, when you get ready to stop the boat using forward thrust, don’t leave forward thrust on too long otherwise your boat will start moving forward again. You can see how this will quickly turn into a mess. You’ll have some crew on the dock, the docklines will be too short to reach, your aft crew will be throwing lines into the water while you have the prop churning away. Dock lines will get wrapped around the prop, you’ll be half out of the slip getting pushed against the next boat by the wind. The engine will be stalled. Everyone will be yelling at you in goodness knows what language. It will be mayham – just because you left the forward thrust on a little too long. Become a master at stopping the boat dead.

Once the boat gets close to the dock wall, have some crew ready to step off (no jumping) and receive the stern lines cast to them from crew at the aft. Then a crew member with rubber gloves or a plastic bag around their hand, should take the slime line forward. The slime line may be the forward mooring line or it may just be a small line to be able to pull up the mooring line. Either way pull the forward mooring line up out of the slimy bottom and wrap it around the windlass and crank it up.

Doing all this requires some very good maneuvering skills and so we highly advise that you take the NauticEd Maneuvering Under Power course. The last thing you want it o be trying to figure out how to do this in a 40 knot mistral cross wind. Using this method of the Mediterranean mooring shown here you should have no problems BUT … take the Maneuvering Under Power Course. It’ll teach you all about backing a sailboat and how to handle prop walk and high winds in a marina.

If you like this – please share us via your social networks. It really helps us grow – thanks!

Take the Maneuvering Under Power course now

NauticEd Maneuvering Under Power Course