Downwind/Down tide

[Davegriff]

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

As others have said, quite simply a mooring bouy is not designed for lassoing. I have had 2 soft bouys burst by (I'll not say what I think of people who wreck other's property) using this method and pretty sure one shackle was undone.

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.

No! If there is no pick-up bouy then it is probably not even in commission. How would the owner use such a mooring? Such bouys are usually just markers, never intended for mooring...

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?

But possibly it won't. It isn't your property to take the risk with.

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

But hopefully not anchoring, as I often see, within the confines of laid moorings. Damage can easily be done to both the moorings and your own gear, not to mention lack of swinging space.

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I hope that's answered all the questions and glad to get it off my chest - been annoying me for years.

I would add that if anyone wishes to use my mooring temporarily they're welcome, provided they're sensible about it. My boat weighs approx 2.5 tonnes and there's a notice on the bouy to that effect. As a secondary clue, and a hint to others elsewhere, she is moored, as is usual I think, in the proximity of vessels of about the same size (well mostly they're smaller craft actually, so their tackle is corresondingly lighter), so when I see idiots with boats of perhaps 4-5 tonnes or more attempting to use nearby totally unsuitable moorings, they're promptly informed of their stupidity and where to go!

I've even had my mooring block shifted by oversized vessels on big tides, so understand that thoughtless users are really making other peoples boating unneccessarily expensive!

The RYA are a useless bunch IMHO, and anyone who takes their word as gospel a gullible fool.

Rant over. Have a nice day.

 

[jimi]

No! If there is no pick-up bouy then it is probably not even in commission. How would the owner use such a mooring? Such bouys are usually just markers, never intended for mooring...

hmmm ..see earlier comment, many visitor buoys in the SW are exactly that .. a buouy with a ring on the top and sod all else. If you can pick that up shorthanded on a 38 ft boat without lassoing then you're a better man than me.

 

[flaming]

hmmm ..see earlier comment, many visitor buoys in the SW are exactly that .. a buouy with a ring on the top and sod all else. If you can pick that up shorthanded on a 38 ft boat without lassoing then you're a better man than me.

Agree.

Lasooing is a technique. It's not the only technique, but it's in the locker to be used as appropriate. I've come across buoys without even an upstanding ring, but just a flat top with a shackle that's lying flush, and sometimes in a little divot to boot. If you can get a line through that from deck height on a 40 footer (or even smaller) then I'd love to know how. Even once we had lassooed it (and it was an actual, official, visitors buoy with "Visitors" written on it) I still needed someone to hold my ankles whilst I dangled over the bow to thread the damn thing. It had even defeated the patented buoy threading device my Dad has.

 

[Jonas]

Why pick up at the bow? Surely easier to pick up at shrouds or stern without all the acrobatics. Slow reverse into wind or tide to hold you steady, bring buoy to most convenient place and thread. Am I missing something?

 

[prv]

Why pick up at the bow? Surely easier to pick up at shrouds or stern without all the acrobatics. Slow reverse into wind or tide to hold you steady, bring buoy to most convenient place and thread. Am I missing something?

No - I was going to suggest the same, except I thought I'd better not since I've never actually tried it. Always had a boat from which I can reach most buoys at the bow. But in a modern boat with a swim platform, reversing up to the buoy to get a line on seems like a good idea.

Pete

 

[Leighb]

No way would I try to reverse up to a buoy in our long keeler!
Have never found it necessary to lasso but have seen it done. Looks neat but I can well see the potential for damage.

 

[flaming]

No - I was going to suggest the same, except I thought I'd better not since I've never actually tried it. Always had a boat from which I can reach most buoys at the bow. But in a modern boat with a swim platform, reversing up to the buoy to get a line on seems like a good idea.

Pete

I've done it, and it can work, but it also comes with its own problems. For example in very crowded visitors areas if you've reversed into the wind/tide you then have to flick the boat round to allow it to lie the same way as all the other boats. Fine if you keep control of the boat, but if you allow the wind or tide to get hold of it it's quite possible for the boat to swing through a very wide arc. And if you mess it up, and have the wind / tide on the other side of the boat when you start falling off to what you were intending, unless your crew is a demon on the lines it's pretty easy to wind up with your line under the boat. I've seen that done... And then you're swinging through a large arc, held by the keel, and you daren't touch the throttle.

 

[lw395]

Agree.

..... I still needed someone to hold my ankles whilst I dangled over the bow to thread the damn thing. It had even defeated the patented buoy threading device my Dad has.

Put the buoy alongside the cockpit where there's less freeboard and you can see it from the helm to hold station.

If you lasso a mooring and your line gets tangled in a mixture of razor wire and dockyard tar, that's probably my mooring.
I've suffered from having a mooring which was convenient for sailing schools to practise on.

 

[flaming]

Put the buoy alongside the cockpit where there's less freeboard and you can see it from the helm to hold station.

In modern boats there isn't a lot less, and with cockpits taken right to the extreme it can be harder to find somewhere to lie flat to reach down. I do sympathise, and I certainly don't lasso private moorings, but with some visitor's moorings I'd certainly keep it as an option. Especially the very solid large flat ones with tiny hoop (or worse shackle) in the middle.

 

[jimi]

Jings, I'm terrified now! these whopping great visitors buoys with the wee rings on top, I never realised they were so delicate that a temporary lasso whilst mooring up will damage their fragile chains. That being the case I certainly will think twice about attaching my mooring warp to the ring on top before sleeping peacefully.

I am so grateful for the informed views on here that have the vision and perspicacity to spot these things and made me realise a single size fits all approach fits absolutely everything.

Thanks guys.

 

[zzyyxx]

Real men would take a line between their teeth and swim out to the buoy towing the yacht behind them.

 

[Daydream believer]

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

No it is not the easiest way
Even in crowded anchorages the following method works
Attach a metal hook to a line. Attach line to bow cleat such that the hook can be held in the hand whilst sitting at the helm
Sail up to the mooring & just alongside. Lean over & hook the buoy.
Sort the sails out etc whilst boat drops back. If in a tight space nip forward & pull the line in
Do not get the line under the keel
Better still if line is long enough pass it through a block on the bow back to the winch
Once hooked on winch like hell until buoy is next to bow.
Once sorted go forward & swop hook line for proper line
Obviously you come against tide when picking up
If wind is up the chuff & you are under sail then sail up with jib only & release as soon as you hook the buoy

I look after 84 moorings & we loose several each year due to Roy Rogers tactics.
The mooring costs the owner circa £350-00 & we rarely recover by dragging
Local residents have actually watched " sailing school.com" practicing on my mooring
So far in 14 years i have lost 3 due , i suspect, to this 2 definite
It splits the buoy just near the bottom & i managed to recover one just before it sank so had the evidence
Unfortunately the owner skipped it before i had a photo taken

 

[Daydream believer]

hmmm ..see earlier comment, many visitor buoys in the SW are exactly that .. a buouy with a ring on the top and sod all else. If you can pick that up shorthanded on a 38 ft boat without lassoing then you're a better man than me.

Thanks - it seems i am better than you
Perhaps you need to improve your skills
Never had a pick up buoy. It gets in the way

 

[jimi]

Thanks - it seems i am better than you
Perhaps you need to improve your skills
Never had a pick up buoy. It gets in the way

You obviously are, I stand in awe at your skills.Just one wee question, have you picked up a visitor mooring shorthanded in Fowey or the Helford in a 38+ft boat in recent years?

I've done that singlehanded without bashing anything or getting a rope round my prop or rudder, so I'm quite content with my basic skills.

Also whilst your mooring skills may be sublime, your reading skills are obviously lacking. Why don't you practice a bit by going back in the thread and looking at some earlier posts before leaping off the top of the ladder of inference.

 

[Daydream believer]

. Why don't you practice a bit by going back in the thread and looking at some earlier posts before leaping off the top of the ladder of inference.

what you mean the bit "
. If you can pick that up shorthanded on a 38 ft boat without lassoing then you're a better man than me."

Plus having been to falmouth this year i see nothing anymore difficult than the river crouch when there were lots of buoys 45 years ago

It just needs practice & confidence in boat handling skills
When i had my first Stella i used to race a lot. I could never match the others for speed so concentrated on everything to do with boat handling so that i could always hoist & lower or gybe spinnakers faster than the opposition.
One day i watched an elderly gent sail into a tight group of moored stellas ( & i mean tight) he luffed up strolled to the bow with a pipe in his mouth, leaned over with a boat hook & hooked the buoy
I thought that looked so cool that i often sailed up the river to a vacant buoy & spent weeks practicing what he had done
Once you get it you keep it & even with my much larger boat i can still do it
But in the end of the day it is part of the art of sailing & that is what makes it such a good pastime

No i am probably not as good as you, ( but you wound me up by inferring that it was necessary to lasso a buoy as though it was a god given right to ruin someones buoy) but the suggestion that it cannot be done is totally wrong. & it is easier with a bigger boat

 

[jimi]

what you mean the bit "
. If you can pick that up shorthanded on a 38 ft boat without lassoing then you're a better man than me."

Plus having been to falmouth this year i see nothing anymore difficult than the river crouch when there were lots of buoys 45 years ago

It just needs practice & confidence in boat handling skills
When i had my first Stella i used to race a lot. I could never match the others for speed so concentrated on everything to do with boat handling so that i could always hoist & lower or gybe spinnakers faster than the opposition.
One day i watched an elderly gent sail into a tight group of moored stellas ( & i mean tight) he luffed up strolled to the bow with a pipe in his mouth, leaned over with a boat hook & hooked the buoy
I thought that looked so cool that i often sailed up the river to a vacant buoy & spent weeks practicing what he had done
Once you get it you keep it & even with my much larger boat i can still do it
But in the end of the day it is part of the art of sailing & that is what makes it such a good pastime

No i am probably not as good as you, ( but you wound me up by inferring that it was necessary to lasso a buoy as though it was a god given right to ruin someones buoy) but the suggestion that it cannot be done is totally wrong. & it is easier with a bigger boat

I SUGGEST YOU READ MY & FLAMINGS EARLIER POSTS.

You are talking complete bollox, its absolutely nothing to do with boat handling it to do with the ability to reach the small shackle (often flat against the buoy to which one attaches ones warp from a boat with high topsides) on an extremely robust visitor buoy.

I also suggest you have gone in at the deep end without reading posts.

Both flaming and I have said we don't pick up private bouys by lassoing but there are occasions where it is required. THis was in response to the idiots who stated that it is never necessary.

If you've got wound up, its your own fault cos you have'nt taken the trouble to read and follow the argument.

 

[Daydream believer]

but there are occasions where it is required. THis was in response to the idiots who stated that it is never necessary.

t.

So it is necessary to risk ****ing someones buoy up because you cannot handle a boat
You made a statement- well twice actually
I commented on it

 

[jimi]

So it is necessary to risk ****ing someones buoy up because you cannot handle a boat
You made a statement- well twice actually
I commented on it

and your comment is inaccurate, no-ones buoy is being risked, The visitors buoys in question have massive chains attached to robust buoys. Again you make it clear you have no knowledge of the buoys I and Flaming were referring to, as well as not taking the trouble to follow the argument.

Have a nice day .. I'm off sailing.

 

[Hypocacculus]

You don't have to reverse up to the mooring to bring it to the stern. Our mate who has a swinging mooring and regularly moors on his own simply approaches the mooring forwards, drops the engine into neutral when he reaches the bouy then allows it to come down one side as the boat continues to travel forwards under it's own momentum. Then he leans over, grabs the pickup with his hand, and walks up the side deck with the line as the boat starts to fall back. Then he neatly plops the line over his bow roller.

From downtide/wind of course.

We don't need to lasso a mooring as a 28" freeboard makes life easy for the guy at the front, assuming the driver knows what he's doing. When we went out with a YM examiner, he suggested we lasso the type of mooring with a ring on the top (which can be a fiddle), but not for the other private moorings with the pickup. There was no question of remaining like that for the night though...

 

[SeaUrchin9]

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.

Just been on a Day Skipper course taught that if there is tide (and tide is usually king, except in exceptional wind circumstances), then the direction of the boats shows the tide - so approach the same way as them (into tide). Very helpful. This was under power & with minimal or no sail. We were taught lassooing onto visitor moorings (which are of the stronger variety) as a matter of course - but just to get you there, then immediately remove and put the usual 2 lines on. have to say there was no mention of visitor moorings which could be weaker so refreshing to read the comments here, and shall employ different tactics for those in future...