Downwind/Down tide

[NormanS]

And I'm one of those who have lost mooring bouys to this damned awful lasooing practise. I would go so far as to suggest there are more than a few within the RYA ranks who know little about boating. From what I see of the activities of the RYA management, they're way more interested in monetary profit and self-glorification than any sort of useful assistance towards sailors.

Please get in touch with the RYA, as I have done, to ask them to drop this "lasooing" from their syllabus. Lasooing is for cowboys.

 

[Laundryman]

And I'm one of those who have lost mooring bouys to this damned awful practice.

Oops! Please explain why. When singlehanded this is the quickest and easiest method and I'm sure Im not the only one to use it. Thanks. Alan

 

[NormanS]

Oops! Please explain why. When singlehanded this is the quickest and easiest method and I'm sure Im not the only one to use it. Thanks. Alan

In the particular case of a mooring system where the riser chain is supported by an inflatable buoy, the result of lasooing can be catastrophic. The neck of the buoy is not designed to withstand the loading imposed by a boat, and may well fail.

The result, for the owner of the mooring, means initially that the mooring is not available to him, meaning having to make other arrangements, and then obtaining the services of a dive team, in the hope that they can find and retrieve the chain from the seabed.

Even in the case of a "hard" buoy, your lasoo, may interfere with the mousing of the shackles under the buoy, causing them to come undone.
If you are using a mooring, particularly one that doesn't belong to you, use it properly, carefully, and in the way for which it is designed.

 

[jimi]

If there is a pick up buouy then there is no meed to lassoo! If there is not then in some conditions lasooing is the only viable alternative.

 

[RichardS]

Isn't the lassoing just a temporary measure to allow single-handers to get a line on before making secure. Surely the mooring would stand it for the time it takes to make good?

Richard

 

[NormanS]

Isn't the lassoing just a temporary measure to allow single-handers to get a line on before making secure. Surely the mooring would stand it for the time it takes to make good?

Richard

Tying up to your guardrails would also be a temporary measure, when coming alongside. Would that be alright with you?

 

[NormanS]

If there is a pick up buouy then there is no meed to lassoo! If there is not then in some conditions lasooing is the only viable alternative.

Anchoring, or going to a mooring with a pick-up buoy, are two of the other options.

 

[Chalker]

In situations where there is no tide, a with the wind approach can be useful. Into the wind the bow is trying to blow off, with the wind and in reverse gear the bow is stable downwind and gives the bowman/woman a much easier task.

Doesn't work when sailing on, but how many regularly do so?

Different systems for different conditions, there is rarely only one best way and I used to shout when young Engineers told me that "the only way yo do it is....."

 

[davidej]

A bit of Fred Drift, but I have always wondered why, for instance, a SW wind comes from the SW while a SW current flows to the SW>

Any explanations?

 

[jimi]

Anchoring, or going to a mooring with a pick-up buoy, are two of the other options.

Not in the middle of Fowey it ain't.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

Isn't the lassoing just a temporary measure to allow single-handers to get a line on before making secure. Surely the mooring would stand it for the time it takes to make good?

Richard

That's the Theory, Richard.
In practice, many Solent and other places 'weekend warriors' are" it's only for tonight" and don't bother to use the ring or pickup. Then wind/sea picks up and 'Ooops' and off they go to ruin someone else's season. I speak as one whose SWMBO once did 19 runs on a trickily sited flat ringed pickup-less bouy rather than lasso it!

 

[prv]

Not in the middle of Fowey it ain't.

Last time I was in Fowey (admittedly a few years ago) the visitors' buoys had nice big hoops on poles to tie up to. Surely easier to pass a line through the ring, or hook it with one of the various clever devices, than start getting the spurs and chaps out.

That said, if you must lassoo buoys, doing it to a visitor's mooring provided for public use and for which you expect to pay, is a lot less antisocial than doing it to a private mooring borrowed without permission.

Pete

 

[jimi]

Last time I was in Fowey (admittedly a few years ago) the visitors' buoys had nice big hoops on poles to tie up to. Surely easier to pass a line through the ring, or hook it with one of the various clever devices, than start getting the spurs and chaps out.


Pete

Depends on the size of your boat, on the last 2 boats I've had I can't reach the ring without someone holding my heels ... so mooring that way becomes a a bit tricky 2 up. Them fancy things are great in theory but my experience is that they are only useful once the buouy is lassoed, otherwise it just gets wrecked. I've wrecked one robust one I inherited doing precisely that when the blinking thing jammed on the ring.

So lets be sensible here, no one size fits all .. its often appropriate to lassoo and its sometimes not. Personally, I would'nt lassoo a private mooring unless there were absolutely no other option, but its ridiculous to categorically state its always the wrong thing to do.

 

[zzyyxx]

If you're worried about your buoy then surely you should just attach a short floating strop with a loop to it so people don't feel the urge to go lassoing?

I'm missing something really obvious aren't I?

 

[onesea]

If you're worried about your buoy then surely you should just attach a short floating strop with a loop to it so people don't feel the urge to go lassoing?

I'm missing something really obvious aren't I?

There are some out there that will lasso regardless... The problem also is if you put a boy with a handle people will tie up to the handle ripping your buoy. If you put a buoy without a handle people will lasso because they do not know to hook the rope underneath....

Plus if its practiced in the Syllabus it must be correct right??? It could always be mentioned as a technique but not practiced....

 

[prv]

Plus if its practiced in the Syllabus it must be correct right??? It could always be mentioned as a technique but not practiced....

I don't think it should be mentioned at all. I'd never heard of it until I sailed with someone who had learned everything he knew on RYA courses - he regarded lassooing as pretty much the standard technique for making contact with a buoy. In my experience until then I had managed perfectly well without knowing about lassooing, and I haven't used it since either.

Pete

 

[alan_d]

A bit of Fred Drift, but I have always wondered why, for instance, a SW wind comes from the SW while a SW current flows to the SW>

Any explanations?

An explanation I have heard (I have no idea how true it is) is that winds were named early on in the history of civilisation by a predominantly agricultural society, when what was important was where they came from and what they brought with them (heat, cold, rain etc.). The identification of tidal streams came later, and what is important about them is where they take you.

 

[theoldsalt]

On the issue of lassoing or not.

If a buoy does not have a top ring or a pickup buoy on a line I would question whether or not it was intended for mooring as there appears no visible means of attaching your boat. So the buoy may not be there for mooring purposes and the riser and ground tackle may not hold your boat. So for that reason I would not lassoo (or attempt to use the buoy for mooring).
If the buoy has a top ring or pickup buoy then lassoing should not be necessary.

There are many places where navigation buoys appear to be mooring buoys without visible means of attachment and where mooring to them is not permitted.

 

[NormanS]

An explanation I have heard (I have no idea how true it is) is that winds were named early on in the history of civilisation by a predominantly agricultural society, when what was important was where they came from and what they brought with them (heat, cold, rain etc.). The identification of tidal streams came later, and what is important about them is where they take you.

That is brilliant, and entirely logical.

 

[Mandarin331]

I was taught to see which way the other boats were lying and approach from the same direction. This helps decide which is king, wind or tide. In the unlikely absence of other boats or indicators assume tide is king.irstbtime round.

+1 having considered if they have similar underwater profile / windage.