A few weeks ago we were heading back to the slipway ahead of a storm coming in fast. There was already a queue. One boat ahead of us, trailer backed in, owner ready to load.
Then they waved us through.
Their boom needed to come down before they could load the boat, and someone was still working on it. Rather than hold up everyone behind them for something that was going to take time, they stepped aside and let us go first.
It took them thirty seconds to make that call. It probably saved us fifteen minutes of standing in the rain watching a storm build behind us.
Nobody required them to do that. There is no rule in any license course about slipway queue etiquette. It was just the right thing to do, done without being asked, by someone who understood that being on the water is a shared experience and that other people's time and safety matter.
That moment stuck with me, because it is exactly what good boating etiquette looks like. Not a list of rules. A mindset.
Here are the unwritten ones worth knowing.
At the Marina
Walk, do not run, on pontoons. This sounds obvious until you watch someone jog past a row of moored boats and send them all rocking. On floating pontoons, movement travels. Your pace affects everyone tied up nearby.
Keep noise down from sundown. Voices carry across water in a way they do not on land. What feels like a quiet conversation in the cockpit at 11pm is audible three boats away. Music after dark should be at a level you can talk over comfortably. If you can hear it clearly from the pontoon, it is too loud.
If you need to cross another boat's deck to reach shore, ask first. On a crowded pontoon this is sometimes unavoidable, but walking across someone's boat without permission is the single most reliable way to annoy a fellow boater. Always knock, ask, and step across the narrowest part near the bow, never through the cockpit.
Secure your halyards. On a sailing boat, halyards that slap against the mast in the wind are one of the most irritating sounds in a marina, especially at night. Anyone spending the night on a nearby boat will notice, and they will not be thinking kindly of you. A piece of shock cord or a simple tie-off takes thirty seconds and makes you immediately a more popular neighbour.
Return dock lines, fenders, and equipment to exactly where you found them if you borrow anything. In a marina community, borrowed items and unreturned favours are remembered.
On the Water
Slow down near moored boats and busy anchorages. Your wake matters. A large wake through an anchorage can drag dishes off tables, tip drinks, and wake sleeping children. The rule of thumb: if you can see people on the boats you are passing, slow down enough that your wake is minimal by the time it reaches them.
Give working boats room. Ferries, water taxis, fishing boats, and commercial vessels have schedules and limited manoeuvrability. They do not have time to work around a recreational boat that has not checked its surroundings. Give them space and give them priority.
On a narrow channel or fairway, the boat with the wind or current against it generally has priority. This is partly convention and partly physics. If you have the advantage, yield.
If you see another boat in difficulty, stop. This is not etiquette, it is law under SOLAS regulations. But it is worth stating plainly because it is also just the right thing to do.
At the Slipway
Prepare everything before you back the trailer in. Unstrap the boat, disconnect the electrics, prepare the lines, sort out what you need. Do all of it in the car park, not at the water's edge. The slipway is a shared resource and every minute spent on it at low tide is a minute someone else is waiting.
If something goes wrong that will take time (like dismantling a boom), step aside and let others through. As someone once did for us.
And if someone steps aside for you, say thank you. Not just as courtesy. Because those are the people who make the whole thing work.
See you next Thursday.
— Ale
Most boating etiquette comes down to one principle: the water is a shared space, and what you do affects everyone around you.
Slow down near moored boats. Keep noise down after dark. Prepare at the car park, not the slipway. Secure your halyards. Ask before crossing someone else's deck.
And when someone steps aside for you in a queue because they have a problem you do not, wave them through first on the way back.
Not the most thrilling read, but worth bookmarking. The COLREGS govern right of way, sound signals, and lights at sea and are the legal framework behind most of what feels like informal boating etiquette on the water. A free summary version is available from the RYA and from most national maritime authorities. Understanding even the basics — which vessel has right of way in which situation — makes you a noticeably more confident and safer skipper.
rya.org.uk (search: COLREGS guide)
No. Rafting up, tying your boat alongside another boat that is already moored, always requires permission from the boat you are tying to. The exception is a genuine emergency, in which case you raft up first and apologise later. In normal circumstances, always hail the other boat, explain what you need, and wait for a yes. Most boaters will say yes if you ask politely and handle your lines carefully. Almost all of them will be annoyed if you simply appear alongside them without asking.
