Daydream believer
Well-known member
& people wonder why we tend to dissuade visitors from using private moorings when the owner is not there & do not have visitors buoys in our mooring area
Moored to a hippo fibreglass buoy - any tips how to stop the buoy clunking against the hull??
- Thread starter West Coast
- Start date
Poignard
Well-known member
I
What means do you use to dissuade them?& people wonder why we tend to dissuade visitors from using private moorings when the owner is not there & do not have visitors buoys in our mooring area
Daydream believer
Well-known member
A couple of our squib owners used a canvas that was cut to fit over the bow & about 2ft 6 ins back just above the WL to deck. This was to protect the gel coat when the boat rode forward in the swell. It was easy to fit as the top was cut to turn over the deck a few inches so it hung there whilst 2 short lines were made fast to the mooring cleat. It would not be beyond a sailmaker's injenuity to make something similar with a padded infilling say 2 inches thick . Perhaps a kaypok as used in old buoyancy aids would do for the filling. It could be ribbed like the old ex WD life jackets.
In fact one could experiment with a couple of those as used in ferries etc. to see if it worked. If so get a proper bespoke one made up
In fact one could experiment with a couple of those as used in ferries etc. to see if it worked. If so get a proper bespoke one made up
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Tell them the mooring is private & the mooring is not suitable for their boat. They should move to the outer trots. Usually works. Some stop for a short while & move on. People who ring to see if a mooring is available, explain there are no visitor moorings.
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Poignard
Well-known member
In your long yachting career have you never moored on a buoy that either wasn't your own or a visitor buoy?
I am quite happy to follow the long-established yachtsmen's courtesy of allowing people to use my mooring or my marina berth in my absence: always providing they remain on board ready to vacate it if I return, and don't damage it.
Blueboatman
Well-known member
The ‘trick’ is hose stiff enough yet mooring rope tough enough to not ‘saw’ against the hose .
So overnight fine, but for a week I might want two !
( plan for the worst , expect the best ?)
johnalison
Well-known member
The trouble tends to be that the buoy ends up alongside near the bow, rather than the actual bow, so fending off is hard. After a restless night at St Mary’s in the Scillies I tried using a spinnaker pole as a bowsprit to take the line through, but it made just as much noise where it was fixed to the boat. The next day the HM said that we could have a second line to the buoy behind, but I doubt if this is still feasible. Off Tresco we were more successful by hoisting the buoy up as hard as we could, so that it was partly out of the water.
James_Calvert
Well-known member
So basically trying to keep the buoy at the bow fender is like a seal balancing a ball on its nose, except the seal is good at it.
Why not moor by the stern instead?
Why not moor by the stern instead?
NormanS
Well-known member
I find that when the boat snuggles up to the buoy, with wind over tide etc, the strop from the buoy can be quite straight. Quite how encasing it in a bit of plastic tube is supposed to help, escapes me.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Actually, in the last 20 years- No. I do not go on moorings due to sea sickness. I have only anchored in the last 20 years about 5 times & then in emergency. I do have 2 moorings for my squib & launch but do not dwell on them for long, if I can help it.
I have returned to my mooring & found people on them & one chap did refuse to move for about an hour , inspite of being asked to move by my friend very nicely. he reckoned there were other moorings we could use until he was ready to go so WE could wait for him to row back from the shore when he was ready. Another I had to walk up a road & find the owner & get him to return to move the boat so I could moor up & go home.
Total pain in the rear.
We did have a visitors mooring & it was marked on the charts as such for a long time. Unfortunately next to mine. One day a chap put his boat on it & cleared off for 2 months. When found he said " Well it is a visitor's mooring & I am visiting". Just a bloke who helped himself to a free mooring for 2 months.
As for damage, I have lost 3 moorings & had a couple damaged by the lassoo merchants, but the stupidity of that has been done to death on the forum already. So the less said the better. When not there, I now put a blanking plate on one of them to make mooring more difficult because it sits right by our start line
Edit
Actually on reflection I have used a commercial mooring. Once for a night in L'aberwrach, for which I paid, in 2004 & again in St Evett when i could not get into Audierne due to being LW. So yes, I have used 2 paid moorings where I was directed by the HM. St Evette was awful & i was glad to leave.
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Daydream believer
Well-known member
Neeves
Well-known member
The OP made no suggestion he was hiring the mooring. Nor did he mention if the mooring was sized for his yacht. Coutesy moorings are installed for a variety of reasons, waiting for a bridge to open, waiting for a tidal gate. To expect a courtesy mooring to be all things to all men (or women) and for free is too much (despite the historic precedent).
We were away and out mooring left unattended. A large MoBo came past and over our mooring and wrapped the mooring line round his prop - with inevitable damage. For courtesy moorings Councils cannot be responsible for such stupidity, nor can they be expected to know immediately that damage has occurred - and we had to attach a new mooring strop.
Private moorings here are supposedly only for the registered yacht but we too have a policy of not objecting to anyone borrowing a mooring, with the usual, sensible caveats. I'm not aware that the practice is abused.
In answer to the OP - as you have found in reading the replies there is no easy sensible answer and the damage that a courtesy mooring can make to gel coat is simply not worth the anguish. Either move to another courtesy mooring where the issues of tide and wind do not occur - or use your anchor (that is why you carry it). Expecting to use a courtesy mooring seems poor seaman ship - you should have a sensible fall back option. If you cannot anchor - you chose the wrong destination or ........
The real world can be harsh.
Jonathan
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Poignard
Well-known member
Well I am sorry to learn that you have had such bad experiences with other yachtsmen but I cannot believe that is typical.
I have had two different moorings in Portsmouth Harbour which were regularly used by sailing schools to train students. They also would often stop for lunch breaks but as soon as I let them know they were on my mooring they apologised (not that needed to, since I had no complaint) and left immediately.
Later on I had a marina berth and a couple of times found a boat in it with no crew on board. Once was due to a misunderstanding when the marina manager thought I was away for a while. The other time somebody left a rib and I had to move it. That was annoying.
But for the last 8 years I have kept my boat in Brittany and people their seem far less ready to take offence than so many British boatowners. Once I went into an empty marina berth late at night after someone assured me its owner wouldn't be back. He turned up shortly afterwards but far from being annoyed he said he would find another berth: which of course I wouldn't hear of.
The extreme possessiveness or dog-in-the-manger approach to life of many British people nowadays makes me reluctant to bring my boat back to the UK. Fortunately, the acquisition of a Carte de Sejour means I won't have to.
johnalison
Well-known member
Perhaps the high fees we pay for our moorings or berths makes us more possessive. I can't say that I have encountered many problems, maybe because I am not in the habit of mooring where I am not likely to be welcome, and when we had a swinging mooring we almost always left the tender on the buoy when off on the boat. On the Continent the red/green system usually sorts out where you can go, even if it occasionally breaks down. On mooring buoys, a slimy strop with barnacles is a good indication that the owner won't be coming back, though the chain may be held together with rust.
Poignard
Well-known member
[deleted]
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Neeves
Well-known member
It is not clear from the posts - but in Sydney (and maybe other parts of Oz) we own our own moorings. We lease the space from the State Government but all the ground tackle is ours, concrete block, chain, mooring line and buoy. We are now required to show a receipt demonstrating that the complete ground tackle has been seriviced at least annually (or our lease will not be re-newed). We can be assured, almost, that the ground tackle is adequate - for the vessel for which it is used, which might be quite small, 20', and this might not be adequate for a 50' MoBo. Borrowing a mooring is not entirely risk free.
None of this answers the OP's problem. Our buoys are simply market buoys, the mooring line is roughly water depth and floats. We don't have big buoys of the sort that the OP described (except for courtesy moorings or moorings for quite large yachts). Locally we don't have wind over tide issues - tides are minimal.
Jonathan
None of this answers the OP's problem. Our buoys are simply market buoys, the mooring line is roughly water depth and floats. We don't have big buoys of the sort that the OP described (except for courtesy moorings or moorings for quite large yachts). Locally we don't have wind over tide issues - tides are minimal.
Jonathan
TSB240
Well-known member
Moorings and wind over tide on our local patch are very common. I have seen various techniques to avoid collision with the local hippo type bouys.
Hoisting the Hippo hard up to the bow fitting. Not recommended for longevity of strop and may need some extra padding off the bow.
Using a padded PVC blanket that protects hull topsides from abrasion but this will only dull any knocking.
The most unusual one I have seen is a hose covered strop running through a series of small front tyres off a go kart. I would be still be worried by the potential for black marking and deep scratches from Barnacle growth if they were a permanent attachment to the mooring strop.
The majority of sensible owners prefer a night away at anchor in a more attractive spot than suffer the knocks and motion of a boat moored in wind against tide conditions.
Hoisting the Hippo hard up to the bow fitting. Not recommended for longevity of strop and may need some extra padding off the bow.
Using a padded PVC blanket that protects hull topsides from abrasion but this will only dull any knocking.
The most unusual one I have seen is a hose covered strop running through a series of small front tyres off a go kart. I would be still be worried by the potential for black marking and deep scratches from Barnacle growth if they were a permanent attachment to the mooring strop.
The majority of sensible owners prefer a night away at anchor in a more attractive spot than suffer the knocks and motion of a boat moored in wind against tide conditions.
DanTribe
Well-known member
"The extreme possessiveness or dog-in-the-manger approach to life of many British people nowadays makes me reluctant to bring my boat back to the UK. Fortunately, the acquisition of a Carte de Sejour means I won't have to."
All too often Poignard's comment has been my experience.
One occasion particularly sticks in my mind. We had had a 17 hr trip back from Netherlands in my Stella and arrived at Ramsholt at dusk, tired and content, sundowner deployed. There was another Stella and larger yachts on the same trot so unlkely to be straining the gear.
A guy launched his dinghy and rowed out to tell us that this was his mooring and we must leave immediately. I assumed he was waiting to use it, but no, his boat was laid up ashore. I went to pick up an adjacent mooring but he came back and said that one was also private, belonged to a friend.
I was a bit miffed by now so I put my glass down, dropped his buoy and my anchor straight away. That incensed him, "you can't anchor here!"
I advised him to call the Police, Coastguard and Daily Mail.
What a lovely welcome home.
All too often Poignard's comment has been my experience.
One occasion particularly sticks in my mind. We had had a 17 hr trip back from Netherlands in my Stella and arrived at Ramsholt at dusk, tired and content, sundowner deployed. There was another Stella and larger yachts on the same trot so unlkely to be straining the gear.
A guy launched his dinghy and rowed out to tell us that this was his mooring and we must leave immediately. I assumed he was waiting to use it, but no, his boat was laid up ashore. I went to pick up an adjacent mooring but he came back and said that one was also private, belonged to a friend.
I was a bit miffed by now so I put my glass down, dropped his buoy and my anchor straight away. That incensed him, "you can't anchor here!"
I advised him to call the Police, Coastguard and Daily Mail.
What a lovely welcome home.
Poignard
Well-known member
That is bloody awful. What sort of minds do people like that have? Their lives must be hell.
What has happened to the "Hail fellow, well met" attitude to life that used to characterise British yachtsmen?
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penfold
Well-known member
I can only conclude that for some the life of quiet desperation bears more heavily upon them than for others.