For and aft moorings. Doing them properly

[Rigger Mortice]

I've only used a fore and aft mooring three times.

Once at Mevagissy on the visitors buoys
Once again at Mevagissy, bow off anchor, stern on buoy and dried out on the sand
Once at Christchurch.

It's always been a disaster (embarrassingly so ) and I'm sure that there's more than one way to do it, but I've not worked it out yet.

Any tips?

 

[snowleopard]

The ones at Meva are trickier than most as there is very little room around them. Fortunately I'm too big for them so if the wall berth is taken I head on to Fowey.

Prerequisites are a competent crew (or two is even better) and a good boathook. One way is to pick up the bow buoy as if you were picking up a swinging mooring, slip a rope through it and drop astern using wind/ tide and perhaps a little help from the motor. Once the stern buoy is in reach you pick it up then adjust the lines to centralise yourself.

A buoy threader makes life easier but the critical thing to do first is to assess carefully what the wind and tide will do to you after you are tethered at one end. If you tie to the leeward/downtide buoy first you are going to provide plenty of entertainment for the locals.

With a crosswind it's probably easiest to accept that you'll have to use the dinghy to get the second line on.

 

[marklucas]

Well this is how I would do it

I don't know Meva but the basic principles should hold.

Unless there is a fairly strong cross-wind, then tide / current will be the dominant factor (depending on your freeboard / windage).

So approach into the tide aiming to pick up the stern buoy (or if on piles, loop through the stern pile ring). It is however critical that no tension comes on this line until the bowline is secured otherwise you are a dead duck in the water. The wind will never have aligned completely so you should have approached from the leeward side at an angle that as you continue forward that will now allow your bow to be slowly blown downwind onto the bow buoy / pile as you gently kill foward way.

This means that the procedure can be carried by just two people - once the crew have the stern line in place they can go to the bow whilst the helm looks after the stern line (or indeed one ambitious helm). If going onto piles, rig a fender or two horizontally onto the pulpit, on the side that will be blown onto the pile - you can then let the bow come down and rest on the pile until you have the bowline in place and then you can adjust your lines.

As always, practice on a calm day makes perfect.

Good luck - or PM me if you want to discuss further.

 

[gcostell]

Any tips if you are solo? Should your fore and aft have a connected sunken line so that when you tie one mooring off you pick up the line and pull yourself towards the other?

 

[Seajet]

I was taught on my YM to pick up the stern buoy first - the trick is to have a long, prepared line ready, it should be threaded through then LEFT SLACK AT ALL COSTS, then one slowly goes to the forward buoy and puts a line on that.

Doubled back lines to begin with, if staying longer than a day or in bad weather, later at one's leisure add singled lines tied with fishermans' bends taking the load & chafe.

If conditions are really dodgy, I'd concentrate on getting the forward line on, then worry about the stern line when the dinghy is inflated.

 

[fisherman]

Any tips if you are solo? Should your fore and aft have a connected sunken line so that when you tie one mooring off you pick up the line and pull yourself towards the other?

All the moorings in Porthleven are rigged so, with one pickup buoy in the middle.

 

[Searush]

The ones with a connecting line & central pick-up are easy. Go alongside as usual, pick up the connecting line & hook it over your guardrail for at least 3-4 stanchions. That will hold you in position unless the wind/ current is really bad - in which case go somewhere else!

Once temporarily secured pick up the upstream or windward strops & make fast then do the other end & slip the connecting line back in the water. I do it solo all the time. Getting off can be harder than getting on if the wind is pinning you on as the prop can easily tangle the lines.

 

[gcostell]

Thanks for the replies, and tips!

 

[reginaldon]

All the moorings in Porthleven are rigged so, with one pickup buoy in the middle.

Folkestone likewise.

 

[Evadne]

Evadne's single handed method (on piles, but should work on buoys as well):
Go alongside the boat upwind of your chosen mooring and tie up fore and aft.
Blow up the dinghy.
Run your lines down one at a time.
Cast off from the your host and drop down to your berth, by pulling in on one line and taking up the slack on the other.
seempels

 

[chinita]

A line between buoys is an answer for some. I, however, always seem to drift across the damned thing when casting off - not funny singlehanded on a long keeler. What I do have is a large strop on the bow buoy. This consists of about three feet of warp secured to the ring and covered in plastic tubing to protect the stem and anchor roller. At the business end of the warp is a large bowline to ease capture with the boathook.

The main thing is to approach against the current - whatever the wind is doing. I usually plan to have enough momentum to drift on to the bow buoy just upwind of it so I am blown on to the buoy. I pick up the strop with a boathook and drop it on to the samson post.

Sometimes I am blown off the stern buoy by some considerable distance but have always managed to get within boathook distance by judicious use of the engine.

When doublehanded I approach the stern buoy first and SWMBO clips a (very) large S/S Caribiner on to the ring. She then keeps the long line slack whilst I go forward to do the bow buoy. I should add that the boat is directionally good enough to leave the tiller alone for this process.

I hesitate to use the stern first method when singlehanded as (as Seajet says) the line should be slack. I fear I would not be able to prevent a slack line from getting up to mischief with my prop.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Thanks guys!
At least it looks as if using a dinghy isn't the failure which I felt it was!
The moorings I'm talking about never have lines between them. Just two buoys, a seemingly impossible distance apart.

 

[Lady Campanula]

A line between buoys is an answer for some. I, however, always seem to drift across the damned thing when casting off - not funny singlehanded on a long keeler.

It sounds as if we have similar concerns.

I leave a light line joining the two pairs of 'bow and stern' boat strops. That line has a large s/s snaplink at each end, passed through the boat strops' loops, and a spare fender near the middle. It's easy to pick up.

However, the problem of getting away singlehanded in a swirling tidestream and a gusting crosswind is eased by using a long slip line from the cockpit, forward through the 2 bow strops' loops, then back to a cleat by the cockpit. I can then lift the bow strops clear of the bow fairlead, cast off the stern strops, put the 'joining line' over the side, and fall back under control of the slip line and tidestream. Once I am beyond the stern buoy, its strops, and anything else hanging from there, I can slip the 'slip line', cast the bows tp one side with the tiller, and motor or sail away clear.

It usually works....

 

[Searush]

Yeah, getting off is worse than getting back on. Mine's in a river, bow upstream, so I cast off aft then fore with the spacer line looped over the guard rails. I then try to use the rudder to get the bows out a bit, lift the joining line near the bows & walk briskly to the stern holding the line. This moves the boat forward & I can then swing the rudder across to ferry glide far enough away from all the dangly bits to drop the engine in gear.

As a worst case scenario I have used fenders & moved alongside the boat ahead or astern using boat hook & hands to move my boat. Then I can cast off & motor away with no fear of loose mooring strops.