Anti-lassooing device

jwilson said:
I strongly dislike lassoing, having lost a buoy - probably to this. This was a hard-type buoy with a ring on top. These seem to be vulnerable to this. Apart from about £120 for a new mooring buoy and strops, plus a night in the marina as the mooring chain had sunk it was a serious nuisance.

As long as no serious strain comes on the lasso line there should be no problem, but if a boat is pitching and jerking around, or if the boat is left in astern, you can put loads onto the buoy that it is just not made to take.
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The visitors buoys that are scattered throughout the islands up here used to have an upright ring on top of the buoy, but now generally just have a 5/8" shackle, which inevitably is lying flat on top of the buoy making it awkward to lift hold and thread a line through when it is a bit lumpy, I have been known to drop a line over if my crew thought she could not hold it. However many operators have now started attaching a small buoy with about a metre of light polypropylene to the shackle, this is a real godsend as it gives you something to catch with the boat hook and allows the shackle to be held up to allow your line to be threaded through with considerably less difficulty. I did see quite a large yacht on Canna swinging to the pickup line this summer so you can not eliminate stupidity easily. A few places like Tob. now provide a proper strop but then they have harbour staff who can check if it is being abused when they collect the £15. One of the indicators of a private mooring used to be the presence of a strop and pick up buoy.
Baffled by the OPs problem, who in their right mind lassoes a buoy when there is a strop and pick up, surely Darwin showed that that type of stupidity does not persist for long?
 
I've had a couple of mooring buoys trashed by sailing schools lassoing them.
The buoy manufacturers say it invalidates the warranty.

So if you do it, be prepared for a steel workboat with no fenders to come and collect the £500 fee.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I am thinking of of making an anti-lassooing device for my mooring, lest some antisocial and incompetent person attempt to grab it that way. Some sort of arrangement of blades in a collar just below the buoy, I thought, to cut the lassooing rope before the mooring is damaged. However, no point in spending time re-inventing a wheel, so has anybody done this already?
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People talk such *******s about this.

Lassooing is the most seamanlike way of temporarily holding a buoy as it is the safest. Despite the repeated rantings of madmen on the subject, I am completely unconvinced it does any damage. I therefore do it, teach it and will continue to do so.

However your buoy is your buoy. I respect that. A little sticker saying "no lassoing" is all you need. Same as I respect "40 ft max".
 
lw395 said:
I've had a couple of mooring buoys trashed by sailing schools lassoing them.
The buoy manufacturers say it invalidates the warranty.

So if you do it, be prepared for a steel workboat with no fenders to come and collect the £500 fee.
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Invalidates the warrantee have to say thats a new rantyman rant. Go on, show us. I just don't believe it.
 
Elessar said:
Lassooing is the most seamanlike way of temporarily holding a buoy as it is the safest. Despite the repeated rantings of madmen on the subject, I am completely unconvinced it does any damage.
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In view of the fact that several people have given examples of moorings damaged or sunk by this practice, perhaps you could explain the definition of "safest" which you are using?
 
parsifal said:
If any mooring of mine was damaged by someone in a reasonable sized boat lassoing it, I'd think they had done me a favour by showing it wasn't strong enough to withstand the next gale.
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I think the idea of a rope cutter or suchlike is a splendid idea as we clearly see that those who like to lasso are totally undeterred by the possibility of damaging the mooring and think it's the owner's problem.

If you really just use the lasso to bring the buoy within boathook range that would be one thing but it seems to be a common practice to use the lasso to bring the boat up to the buoy and to hang on to it until they get round to rigging a proper line (if at all). I read of the owners of some moorings near Calshot who lost a good percentage of their buoys every season as sailing schools like to use them for practice.

There are loads of devices for picking up moorings on the market. Why not spend a few quid and save your victims £100+ worth of damage?
 
I cannot swear that lassoing removed my old ring-top mooring buoy, strops and pickup line/buoy, but it is probable. Others have said they have seen it happen on other moorings. My present buoy is a round PVC job with a glued/welded-on base ring to hold the riser chain up - and I'm sure that the joint is not designed for serious stress.
 
Some buoys laid in the med do not have a little pick up buoy next to them, nor any loop at all on the top. You tied up to the strop which is connected to the riser at the bottom of the buoy. Best is two separate warps - one to a cleat each side on the foredeck (but most people I have seen have just passed a single warp through the eye - which is going to chafe in no time at all).

It is almost impossible to pick up such a buoy unless you lassoo it - it is round and slippery!

Some other buoys used down here have a very fragile loop in the top - if you tie to that you would just rip it off. In few cases is the loop actually designed to take any load. Again, in windy conditions you may well have to lassoo it before fishing out the eye to tie up to from underneath it.
 
Elessar said:
Invalidates the warrantee have to say thats a new rantyman rant. Go on, show us. I just don't believe it.
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Feel free to ask any maker of buoys, such as Norfloat, or Polyform's importer whether is constitutes fair use, why take my word for it?
Sailing schools are the worst, because the pupils are not going to be exactly very good at it from their first go.

Plenty of sticky tar on the swivel seems to be a more effective deterrent than the 'private mooring no lassoing' text.
Once the instructor has demonstrated how to trash a mooring warp, they tend to take the pupils elsewhere.

But leaving the workboat on the mooring is best.

It's a shame because I really do not mind people borrowing my mooring and using it the way it is intended, so long as it doesn't stop me using it.
And I'm very grateful for the people who've given me a few minutes' grace to leave when I've borrowed their mooring.
Wouldn't it be nice if the only text needed on the mooring was 'if you want to borrow this mooring please phone xyz'?
 
With modern high sided yachts, mooring buoys ought to have traffic cones on top so that the pick up ropes are at an easy height. This would negate the need for lassooing (which incidentaly I have never found the need to do, so don't really appreciate the benefits).
 
snowleopard said:
If you really just use the lasso to bring the buoy within boathook range that would be one thing ...
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I bring it to where I can reach down and attach a line through the ring. If I'm having a good day it doesn't need 'bringing' anywhere - it's gently nuzzling the starboard bow.

So far I haven't damaged anything (if I did I'd pay for it). Neither has anyone damaged anything of mine without paying for it. Most people are pretty good about that sort of thing. Wouldn't be much pleasure in sailing if they weren't.
 
Pye_End said:
With modern high sided yachts, mooring buoys ought to have traffic cones on top so that the pick up ropes are at an easy height. This would negate the need for lassooing (which incidentaly I have never found the need to do, so don't really appreciate the benefits).
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A couple of the mooring near mine have something like this: a stalk 3' high or so with the loop at the top of that. It seems very sensible to me.
 
sailorman said:
Do you sail s/handed
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I do. In calm conditions I generally pick up with a boathook over the bow; if it's a bit hairier I rig a line outside all from bow o stern so I can pick up from the cockpit, tie on and then drop the line and sort things out at the bow later. I carry a specially made nylon rope with an eye at one end and a ruddy great stainless snap hook for just this purpose.
 
sailorman said:
Do you sail s/handed
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I frequently pick up moorings singlehanded as swmbo isn't very mobile. If there isn't a pickup buoy and I need to thread a ring I use one of these

images


I don't lasso.
 
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