My wife and I have been sailing the Eastern US in our 30' C&C for 3 years now. We decided to charter a 36' mono-hull this past April. We ended up here on Friday the 18th "Good Friday" The mooring field was, as some have mentioned almost full. There was other charter boats racing each other to the few available balls left. The other couple with us had the job of shorting the dinghy line at all stops. “Well” We missed the ball twice and were blown off by the wind. 25kts and had to circle around. On my 3rd attempt he still missed the ball with the hook. I had a lot of on lookers by this point and became one of the people you guys are talking about. The Noobie! Sorry. It gets worse. I backed up on the last miss in hopes of giving my first mate a second chance. Well the long dinghy line was sucked into the prop and cut the line. I shut the engine down and we began the emergency procedure to stop us from colliding into other yachts. We got the finders out and deployed. I jumped into the dinghy and wedged it between the two boats. The yacht we eased up against were home and deployed there finders as well. After we were tied securely to their yacht, I jumped into dive mode to free the furled line from the prop and shaft. I had done this over and over at home to make sure I had the skills I needed on the charter. I learned a great deal and came back home alive. I did not mean any harm and thought I had the skill set needed to moor the yacht. It’s different in heavy wind and sea. Your crew has to know what to do in a crisis. Try to remember when you were learning the ropes. You made mistakes too I’m sure. All ended we’ll no damage to either yacht or people. My Pride will be forever damaged.