Advice on using a tidal mooring

[sail sail]

We've got a new mooring on a tidal section of river. Is it best to tie on using one line over the bow or two lines, one over each side of the bow? Should it be quite tight to the bow or should we leave a few metres gap? How is it best to avoid snagging or banging when the tide swings round or if the wind and tide are against each other?

 

[sarabande]

Two lines, one to P and one S each to a separate shackle on the buoy ring, for redundancy. But you do need beefy fairleads.

If you are using a single mooring pennant through the stem fitting, it's very much worth checking the 'softness' of the fairlead cheeks to avoid all abrasion as the boat surges around the buoy in varying wind and tide.

Keep the pennants length a bit longer than the static height from the buoy to the bow. Any longer and they can lassoo the buoy and you will have an awkward job untwisting the pennants from round the riser.

 

[Rappey]

All the boats in portsmouth harbour have a single line over the bow roller unless they have a bobstay or similar in the way. Some mooring operators use rope and others use chain as the pennant.
There is usually a good one to two metres slack between the buoy and bow, too tight will create extra snatch loading in storms.
You can't avoid the boat riding over the mooring buoy with wind over tide.
Many moorings don't have swivels fitted , I guess they use the theory that the boat will rotate evenly in both directions ?
The chains that do wrap up are usually extremely coroded ,stopping the links sliding/moving.

Interesting how sarabande,s region takes a different view. Wouldn't say either are wrong or right as all have been in use for a very long time.

 

[Stemar]

I just made up twin pennants from polysteel line and am very pleased with them so far. They have the big advantage that they float, which makes them much easier to pick up with the boathook than a buoy on the end of chain. Also easy to splice. Get some retired fire hose to protect the line from chafe where it goes through the fairleads. My plan was to have them the same length, so they share the load, but it turned out that one is a little bit longer than the other, which actually may not be a bad thing as my P&S fairleads are right in the bow so, in effect, I have a single pennant plus a backup.

 

[Praxinoscope]

#4 Stemar, not sure other boats appreciate you using floating lines, they are a curse wherever they are used, open invitations for prop fouling.