How to singlehand off/onto a fore-and-aft mooring?

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One usefull technique is to loop the trot line over the lifelines to hold the boat in position, cast off fore & aft, set wheel hard a port & then grab trot line firmly, unhook it & walk smartly aft.

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Searush, re looping the trot line over the lifelines, is this because you don't use an amidships cleat, or is it to ensure the trot line is higher to reduce risk of fouling the prop, or just because its quick to flick off when the time comes?

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Blowing on is not a problem provided you have cleared the boats ahead & astern as the trot line will stop your sideways movement. Then tie off strops bow & stern & stop engine.

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I've always avoided blowing on because if I misjudge my approach I've got less room to get the boat out for a second attempt - but my real concern is that the trot line could foul the prop before I get the engine into neutral...?
 
Re getting back on, point 6;

Would it be worth, once you have the pick up line attached to the midships cleat, and boat stable-ish, then attaching a just long enough line led outside everything from the stemhead to the main mooring chain, loop, or strop and running it from the stemhead inboard to windlass or snatch block and back to a winch.

Then if you get a strong gust whilst moving fwd with the pick up buoy and it's line, and you are forced to let go, or you stumble,etc, the worst that can happen is you hang off the safety line until you can sort yourself out and winch up to the main buoy/recover the pick up again.

We had a very exposed mooring in a narrow rythe with our old boat, which had narrow sidedecks; If we missed the pickup or had to let go because of a gust, we could go very quickly aground on the lee side of the rythe.
We usually picked up by cockpit, tied off the pickup buoy line to a cleat, fixed a line already lead from the stemhead quickly to the mooring chain loop strop. Inboard, we led it back from stemhead to a winch and made it off to a cleat, , then untied and pulled/walked the pickup buoy strop forward to the stemhead and kingpost in a fairly relaxed manner.

It meant that if trouble happened, and we had to release the pickup, we hung off the safety line and could let the main mooring chain strop slide up the line to the stemhead, hang off and winch in and secure as usual.

I don't know how much room you've got around your mooring in case of problems, but this method worked for us once we got all the chain/strop/line lengths right and saved a few domestics. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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Just one observation from your plan. sometimes the boat will be more manouverable going astern into the tide rather than stemming. With the propeller at the uptide end the rest of the boat will feather downtide .

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Useful idea for a modern fin-keeler, but in our case - as we have a long-keeled configuration like Twister-Ken's - going astern adds a massive uncertainty to the situation, and we could go either way notwithstanding our intentions! So its usually better to stem the tide going forward, and turn the bows slightly to weather as we slow down (heavy so takes a while for way to come off) to pre-empt the blowing away bit.
 
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Re getting back on, point 6;

Would it be worth, once you have the pick up line attached to the midships cleat, and boat stable-ish, then attaching a just long enough line led outside everything from the stemhead to the main mooring chain, loop, or strop and running it from the stemhead inboard to windlass or snatch block and back to a winch....... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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A very useful suggestion!

This seems to be the answer to the question of what would happen if the bows blow off in a strong sidewind and/or the tide catches under the long keel. Just need to ensure that a long-enough line (about 1.5 times the boat's length) is pre-cleated to the bows. If it is needed, simply pass it around the pickup line at the closest point to the boat, ie near where the pickup line is secured amidships, and take it forward again to 'sweat' the line up to the bows. With a basic 2:1 purchase (minus friction) that should be sufficient - else could always pass it through a turning block at the bows, bend the end to another line and winch it in from the cockpit, as per your suggestion.

Thanks
 
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One usefull technique is to loop the trot line over the lifelines to hold the boat in position, cast off fore & aft, set wheel hard a port & then grab trot line firmly, unhook it & walk smartly aft.

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Searush, re looping the trot line over the lifelines, is this because you don't use an amidships cleat, or is it to ensure the trot line is higher to reduce risk of fouling the prop, or just because its quick to flick off when the time comes?

(cut)

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All of the above! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif My moorings are laid & maintained by the Harbour Trust who insist on a floating line between the buoys to keep the trots tidy in a narrow creek with very variable mooring occupancy. I have not yet got an amidships cleat (it has been on my jobs list for 20 years) so looping over the stanchions is quick, easy & effective. It also saves me bending down to cast it off. Prop catching on strops is probably the biggest risk as the joining line is usually pulled reasonably tight by the other boats on the trots.
 
"but until now my piles have frightened me."

What an image you paint Ken!
I'm sure that your piles would frightened me as well /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

but this may help

hemoclin.jpg
/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif [Rolls in pain]
 
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