Lassoing a buoy

Cathy*

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What's the best rope for lassoing a buoy or a cleat? Mine either float or collapse as I throw them but I don't seem to have anything which makes a nice wide arc.
 
Tell me where your buoy is and I'll go and use it for practice. ;)
It is people who insist on damaging other people's property who we do not really need. In the area that I have managed for 10 years & with which i am still involved, we have lost a number of moorings due to this practice. do not say it does not happen. We have members living on the shore who have watched it through telescopes. We have even seen a sailing school ( who has vehemently denied it when challenged) practicing on a mooring in our stretch.
If you want to pay the £ 500 for the replacement and compensate for the inconvenience of the owner not having a mooring when he returns then let us know. But until then stay away. Or, alternatively, learn how to pick up a mooring properly.
 
I don't do it often but if I have to I use a heavy rope, not floating, and throw it over my head in a large loop but often not successfully... then I tie on properly. The last time was some years ago in a previous boat at Queensborough, very windy & wet, foredeck plunging up an down, managed to get a loop around the mooring, started to tidy up sails etc and saw a long piece of rubbing rail float by - it was mine...
 
Oh dear. Someone got out the wrong side of the bed today.
I don't think this is a very thought-through or courteous reply. Supposing that your request was genuine and you seek advice about attaching yourself to a mooring, then you should be aware that the practice of lasooing is controversial.

This is because the purpose of a mooring buoy is to support the weight of the chain attached to the bottom, which is perhaps 60kg at most. It is not in general strong enough to withstand the horizontal pull of a moored yacht which may be 10 or even 20 times that. This quite frequently results in a mooring buoy being damaged by lasooing. In addition, in many configurations the component immediately under the buoy is the swivel, which is not designed to withstand any significant lateral force, and besides, it has mousing on the shackles which can be rubbed off by a rope rubbing around this part.

Hence there are many, particularly those who own and maintain their own moorings, who dislike this practice. That some RYA instructors keep teaching it is perhaps unfortunate; at the very least I think they should make clear that it is controversial and thus should not be used except with the mooring owner's permission or in some unexpected emergency (when anything goes).

I have kept my boats on swinging moorings for >35 years now - so I'm an old fa&t I suppose, yet I have only once in my life actually lasooed a mooring (in what was rather trying circumstances). FWIY I used a 14mm dia polyester 3-strand line because I had it to hand. But is seems a refinement too far to plan for such an emergency and lay in appropriate rope!
 
If the only time you are likely to use a technique, is in an emergency, it seems eminently sensible to plan for the eventuality. Life rafts are a prime example.

Perhaps it would have been courteous to ask the OP why he/she was asking, before launching into a tirade?

IIRC, there are plenty of buoys which actually have a mooring ring on top, rather than hanging strops....

I could go on, but will refrain :)
 
IIRC, there are plenty of buoys which actually have a mooring ring on top, rather than hanging strops....
I have 2 moorings, 50 metres apart. One just has the ring , the other has the ring with a couple of strops & a pickup buoy fitted
Both are for 20 ft boats, one or the other is occasionally used for my 31 ft boat for short periods when I have to wait for sufficient water to get into the marina at night & I want a couple of hours kip.
I have little difficulty picking either up single handed.
I wish neither to be lassoed thank you
 
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It is people who insist on damaging other people's property who we do not really need. In the area that I have managed for 10 years & with which i am still involved, we have lost a number of moorings due to this practice. do not say it does not happen. We have members living on the shore who have watched it through telescopes. We have even seen a sailing school ( who has vehemently denied it when challenged) practicing on a mooring in our stretch.
If you want to pay the £ 500 for the replacement and compensate for the inconvenience of the owner not having a mooring when he returns then let us know. But until then stay away. Or, alternatively, learn how to pick up a mooring properly.
It’s sort of Darwinian - anybody silly enough to have bouys which can be damaged my lassoing need to have them replaced again and again until they buy ones for for purpose. I mean, what other technique can stop a 40 foot boat going at 4 knots. To be fair, the irritating thing is that you sometimes need to use up or three bouys to get one robust enough.
 
It’s sort of Darwinian - anybody silly enough to have bouys which can be damaged my lassoing need to have them replaced again and again until they buy ones for for purpose. I mean, what other technique can stop a 40 foot boat going at 4 knots. To be fair, the irritating thing is that you sometimes need to use up or three bouys to get one robust enough.
Ok, so if I come alongside your boat too fast when berthing & take a gouge out of your topsides it will be your fault for not having sufficient fenders out. That is handy to know. Same principle.
Why should I spend £200-00 more on a buoy just because you want to use my mooring in the first place. Let alone use it irresponsibly. I do not even WANT you to use my mooring. As far as i am concerned you do not have a given right to use it, unless given permission. & before you suggest that I use other people's mooring buoys when they are not on them-- I do not.
The first question to ask
Why is it that people just assume they can turn up & plonk themselves on someone's mooring when they feel like it?
I do not put my car in your drive when I want.( assuming you have one that is) if I did I expect that you might soon get the hump
 
What's the best rope for lassoing a buoy or a cleat? Mine either float or collapse as I throw them but I don't seem to have anything which makes a nice wide arc.

As nobody has had the courtesy to ask why you ask, perhaps I could..... ask why you ask?

I'm thinking you might have your own buoy that you may wish to be able to lasso as appropriate, or merely wish to be prepared for an emergency lassoing.
 
I used to like the idea of others borrowing my mooring when I was away.
Due to the cretins destroying my buoy, I now prevent that as much as I can.
 
It’s sort of Darwinian - anybody silly enough to have bouys which can be damaged my lassoing need to have them replaced again and again until they buy ones for for purpose. I mean, what other technique can stop a 40 foot boat going at 4 knots. To be fair, the irritating thing is that you sometimes need to use up or three bouys to get one robust enough.

Made me laugh ?
 
What's the best rope for lassoing a buoy or a cleat? Mine either float or collapse as I throw them but I don't seem to have anything which makes a nice wide arc.
Here we go. You’ve started an anchor thread.

The answer to your question is - nylon 8 plait or 3 strand will do just fine.

Loads of people will now claim that the best practice of temporarily lassoing a bouy to allow you to safely make fast properly will cause harm.

Thats nonsense.

They will come up with anecdotal evidence, mostly secondhand, of damage caused.

It can only be caused to inherently inadequate buoys but they will argue to the contrary.

So nylon. And get your popcorn.
 
Here we go. You’ve started an anchor thread.

The answer to your question is - nylon 8 plait or 3 strand will do just fine.

Loads of people will now claim that the best practice of temporarily lassoing a bouy to allow you to safely make fast properly will cause harm.

Thats nonsense.

They will come up with anecdotal evidence, mostly secondhand, of damage caused.

It can only be caused to inherently inadequate buoys but they will argue to the contrary.

So nylon. And get your popcorn.
oh buoy, here we go again. How long has this forum been around? Quite a few years, and this has been debated almost since the first post. and the first posts no longer exist, as that version of the forum lost everything when it moved to the (then) new forum software, and there have been a few since. It's amazing how many posts do still exist from so long ago.
 
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