Can yacht masts collide on their moorings?

[MINESAPINT2]

Just a thought.

A sailboat with a 15m air draught and 3.2m beam only has to roll +/- 6 degrees for the mast to travel +/- the same as the beam width. Therefore 2 such yachts rolling more than 6 degrees in severe weather alongside each other on a mooring could find their masts colliding.

Has this ever happened?

Mike

 

[Refueler]

Yes .....

There was exactly that alongside pontoon rafted I saw. One of the yachts suffered spreader deformation from it.

Moving on ... its why if two boats raft up - its best to have them raft with bow to stern - to offset mast position. I was alongside friends Centaur with my similar SR25 ... he had anchored in Osborne Bay .. I came alongside and while having a beer together our masts banged - his spreader end boot was pulled off .. stays twanged like demented guitars ...

 

[onesea]

Yes another favourite is when berthing everyone stands on one side to get ropes ashore or on to the boat they are going to berth along side and as they approach...

Always check your air gap, if you can't or don't want to tie bow to stern. Stagger the boats so the masts are not in line.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Just a thought.

A sailboat with a 15m air draught and 3.2m beam only has to roll +/- 6 degrees for the mast to travel +/- the same as the beam width. Therefore 2 such yachts rolling more than 6 degrees in severe weather alongside each other on a mooring could find their masts colliding.

Has this ever happened?

Mike

Good point. Thanks for the heads up.
I often raft up but don't remember sometimes to check mast positions.

 

[jbweston]

Yes. Years ago the mast of my Sadler 34 crashed against the mast of the neighbouring Westerly. We weren't rafted up, but actually were separated by a pontoon. This was in Premier's Gosport Marina. It could get rolly at times, specially if there was heavy wash rolling in. I don't know if it's still the same there or if they have better wavebreaks now. Of course a crash like that can only happens if the two boats roll in opposite directions at exactly the right moment, but it will happen sooner or later.

So best practice is to raft up with the masts out of line with each other, that is one boat slightly ahead of the other. In fact I'd try to avoid rafting up anywhere where there could be waves or wash, as even if masts don't clash, it can be a nightmare when the two boats roll and one gunwhale goes up and the other down, pushing out the fenders or clashing lifelines.

 

[johnalison]

It must be pretty unusual when tied to a pontoon, though clearly not impossible, but it should be routine for boats to check their alignment when double-rafting on a mooring such in Salcombe. It is one reason why such moorings are actually more comfortable if the boats are very different.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The other way to avoid this is of course to sail a multihull.

Joking aside, I have not experienced a mast collision when rafted, but have had my XOD mast hit badly on our mooring, by a passing Folkboat under sail. Their sail number wasn’t decipherable on the club CCTV, they just sailed on.

 

[awol]

It must be pretty unusual when tied to a pontoon, though clearly not impossible, but it should be routine for boats to check their alignment when double-rafting on a mooring such in Salcombe. It is one reason why such moorings are actually more comfortable if the boats are very different.

Depends on the wave protection of the marina. Once had a hellova job untangling the mast of a Mustang 30 that had managed to lodge itself between the mast and backstay of the neighbouring boat during a blow that had me crawling along the walkways. Mast collisions in that marina were common and most took care to avoid alignment - though difficult with 10m boats on 7m pontoons!
I have been on a swinging mooring for the last 18 years!

 

[Bilgediver]

I have seen the masts of two sail boats collide when there was a motorboat at a pontoon between them.

It gets windy in Edinburgh.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Depends on the wave protection of the marina. …

Not just waves, but very strong gusts.
My marina is sheltered and no waves of significance. I watched two yachts roll in the gusts, both rolled in the same direction but at different speeds. The modern flat bottomed, higher sided boat rolled much faster, compared to the older boat, sitting in the water which rolled further. If masts were not out of alignment, possible collision risk.

This was in last winters storms, 60kts, winds.

I have never witnessed a mast clash, but it is possible. It’s also one of the reasons for rafting bow to stern.

 

[srm]

Used to raft up most of the time as our berth was in a harbour along with a lot of other yachts and we got wash from passing vessels. Having seen a near miss as two boats rolled together I was always tried to keep masts out of line.

I did have an unusual mast collision in Norway though. We were going alongside a pier in a small village. The pier had the traditional red wooden warehouse where the upper floor overhangs the pier and a small gable projecting right at the top. We came to a juddering halt with the boat about one metre clear of the pier and bits of rotten wood on the deck. Looking up it became obvious that the little gable right at the top had housed a crane pulley wheel for loading to/from boats. Once we got alongside it was a trip up the mast to check the rig before heading out across the Norwegian sea.