Fore and aft mooring

[kieronriley]

Hi and good evening all, at our club we have three fore and aft moorings ( four Bridle chains serving three boat moorings) we have a protocol that tells us to moor the boat by pulling the fore and aft stops until the boat is in the middle of the mooring buoys, i think i may know the reason for this but I'm not certain so would love to have some advice as to why we don't tie tight to one buoy and away from the other, a newish member has just argued with me as to the safety of our method saying it makes no difference, so long as its fastened to both ends close or not, so long as its tight. when all the moorings are in use the boats all sit at approximately equal distance appart and when one leaves the other two alter there lines to an equidistance from the buoys, ( these moorings are usually only used for emergency moorings,thanks for reading my post. Kieron

 

[Wing Mark]

Normally I'd want my boat not to touch one of the buoys when the tide changed, so putting it in the middle makes sense..
In a strong cross wind, putting it in the middle is a good guess for aligning it with the current and minimising loads.

Putting the boat one end or the other might have merit if swell can come in, in which case do whatever seems to give the beat/least motion on the boats.

Obviously, if two boats are hauled close to one buoy, it will end in tears.

Many people use such moorings without finding any need to mess about when one boat in the trot leaves or arrives.

 

[penberth3]

Hi and good evening all, at our club we have three fore and aft moorings ( four Bridle chains serving three boat moorings) we have a protocol that tells us to moor the boat by pulling the fore and aft stops until the boat is in the middle of the mooring buoys, i think i may know the reason for this but I'm not certain so would love to have some advice as to why we don't tie tight to one buoy and away from the other, a newish member has just argued with me as to the safety of our method saying it makes no difference, so long as its fastened to both ends close or not, so long as its tight. when all the moorings are in use the boats all sit at approximately equal distance appart and when one leaves the other two alter there lines to an equidistance from the buoys, ( these moorings are usually only used for emergency moorings,thanks for reading my post. Kieron

My first thought. Equal length ropes, equal stretch just feels like the right thing to do. Tie close up at one end you've got a "hard point" with no elasticity in the short length of rope.

 

[kieronriley]

thanks for the help . my thought was that of penberth3 ,but all makes sense so thank to you both

 

[vyv_cox]

Years ago before Pwllheli marina was built many of the racing fleet berthed on the fore and aft piles in the channel, three boats to each. It was a fairly common occurrence for toe rails to be damaged or even torn off due to contact with the adjacent boat in bad weather. Offset seems to be the ideal way to avoid this, although presumably the potential damage might then move to less easily fendered parts of the boats.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

The OP appears to be located in the Merseyside area, which has relatively large tides, could there be a tidal component in the reasoning for this mooring tactic?

 

[STOL71]

Hi and good evening all, at our club we have three fore and aft moorings ( four Bridle chains serving three boat moorings) we have a protocol that tells us to moor the boat by pulling the fore and aft stops until the boat is in the middle of the mooring buoys, i think i may know the reason for this but I'm not certain so would love to have some advice as to why we don't tie tight to one buoy and away from the other, a newish member has just argued with me as to the safety of our method saying it makes no difference, so long as its fastened to both ends close or not, so long as its tight. when all the moorings are in use the boats all sit at approximately equal distance appart and when one leaves the other two alter there lines to an equidistance from the buoys, ( these moorings are usually only used for emergency moorings,thanks for reading my post. Kieron

pulling on the strops so that the boat ends up in the middle ensures that the bridle is slack. Otherwise in strong winds a taut bridle might saw your boat in half.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

pulling on the strops so that the boat ends up in the middle ensures that the bridle is slack. Otherwise in strong winds a taut bridle might saw your boat in half.

I could well believe that. A number of years ago a cargo ship sank in the approaches to Dublin Port. The salvors cut it into three sections using steel wire, and reassembled it on the quayside.