Mad or stupid

rich

rich

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 Jun 2001
Messages
3,083
Location
JERSEY
www.portofjersey.je
I have just watched a motor boat (£200,000 +) comes into our mooring area, picks up a small plastic pick up bouy,covered in weed, puts a line through the handle,and that’s that back to cockpit ,I have not seen that mooring used for years, they have no idea what’s down there,but they are happy
 
Looks like we all wondered if we might be interested in what was hidden behind the heading, "Mad or Stupid" and, whilst some may have found it interesting, no one has had anything to add.. until now :)
 
Having been on this forum for a while now I have come to the conclusion that many people worry far too much.
 
well I will go for it if there is enough draft at low, and there is not much wind ,or tidal flow
you don't need much hold ,I would rather trust that than my anchor
 
Given that nothing further of note happened, neither. Though the OP in seeming overly keen to receive some justification for his posting might attract an alternative sobriquet.
 
Last edited:
seastoke said:
well I will go for it if there is enough draft at low, and there is not much wind ,or tidal flow
you don't need much hold ,I would rather trust that than my anchor
Click to expand...

Interesting point of view. Why ? Honest question. I assume your anchor is too small for the boat ?

I was in Ibiza. There was a random small bouy in the bay. I was snorkelling so I looked at what was connected to it. A length of chain that was it. There was quite a bit of chain maybe 30m in about 7 m of water but that was it.

The following day a boat arrived. As I recall it was helped on by the local bar rib. I told the owner of the boat that he was connected to basically nothing. I left a few hours later. I don’t know how long he stayed for but choosing your own anchor is a bit of a no brainier to be honest.

Nice day for lunch on boars. Sure. Overnight unless it is an obviously correctly laid bouy. Not for me.
 
In an area full of moorings, dropping your anchor risks getting it fouled on mooring tackle. In addition, your swing at anchor will be much more than a fixed mooring, so the risk of swinging into moored boats is high.
 
seastoke said:
well I will go for it if there is enough draft at low, and there is not much wind ,or tidal flow
you don't need much hold ,I would rather trust that than my anchor
Click to expand...

You'd rather trust the rubber handle on a manky old one of these?

mooring-buoys-5617504-3_800X600.jpg


Even if you think the actual mooring is ok, there's nothing at all good about hanging your boat off a bit of old UV-softened rubber that was never designed to carry any load, and may itself be attached with just a bit of string only strong enough to lift the actual riser.

Using an unknown mooring isn't the main point here - the real WTF is that they aren't actually using the mooring at all, just hanging the boat off the handle of the pickup buoy. There's no excuse for that beyond sheer incompetence. Presumably they don't understand how moorings work.

Pete
 
I forgot to mention the moorings in this area are for & aft, 4 lines to the boat, there is what we call a light lazy line connecting main warps, It’s only a pickup bouy!
The moorings are laid by the owner, and its a pain to come back to find you can’t use your own mooring .
 
I did not see the boat leave last night, but I walked out to my mooring today,to make sure all was well, and ready to put my boat on, and the weed covered bouy was gone. I hope they did not drift to far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top