Repairing WHITEFIN

During winter 2023, the 90′ LOA cold-molded sloop WHITEFIN, designed by Bruce King and launched in Maine in 1984, was well secured in the port of L’Estaques in the bay of Marseilles, France. She lay closest to the quay, port-side to, in a long line of yachts, all of which were moored stern-to along a floating dock without pilings or finger-piers. All of the yachts had bow lines out to heavy mooring chains on the seabed directly ahead to keep them perpendicular to the float. This is a common mooring method in Mediterranean ports, and it works well in the sheltered harbor.

In mid-December that year, however, a storm came in from the southwest. The harbor’s rock breakwater provided reasonable protection from the steep and short Mediterranean swells, but the gale-force winds were strong enough to press the stack of yachts moored to windward of WHITEFIN down against her starboard side. Fenders were popping, rigs were touching, and in the driving wind WHITEFIN was pressed against the concrete quay—hard enough to even damage the concrete.

Had she been exposed to the swell, the damage to WHITEFIN could have been far more severe. But as it happened, she suffered only damage and chafe to her topsides as her hull ground against the quay. It was a testament to her inherent strength that the harm was not more extensive.

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