How to best park your boat in a berth – Port du Gapeau Hyeres

For coastal permit, you must be able to park your boat in different ways. You will either have to park your boat between two other boats in forward or reverse, or against a dock in the port side or starboard.

Parking in a boat berth - Port Gapeau Hyères Var

The main steps that you must respect are :

1. Approach the marina very slowly

The ideal is to run the engine at idle if you enter an already full marina. When you get to about 30m of your berth, you can put your engine in neutral and move slowly through the momentum you have left. Put the fenders and mooring lines in place.

2. Begin turning the steering wheel of the boat for your location

You can exaggerate the movement as your boat is idling and that takes more time to react. The front of your boat must now move progressively towards a position parallel to boats that are on either side of your location or at the dock.

3. You can either quietly wait for your boat reaches its final position, or catch the bollards and pull gently toward its parking

Get ready to maneuver the boat either manually or by giving a final engine blow back (for parking between two boats) to avoid colliding with the wall.

4. Use the accelerator and steering wheel to correct your trajectory if necessary

Very slight adjustment movements suffice to make adjustments.

5. Dock your boat 

You're done !

See our berth rates in Hyeres - Port Gapeau 83

Bonus: here is a video which raises awareness of the use of alcohol and navigation:

How to best park your boat in a berth - Buzz