mooring aid

gshaw said:
The Mooringmate is quoted at SWL of 900Kg but I cant see how it's released.
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You release it by hand. It's a means of getting a line onto a bouy or cleat or mooring ring safely and efficiently without requiring amazing dexterity. The hook is strong (900kg) so can act as the primary mooring connection if you wish.

It isn't a line threader and it has no quick release mechanism. All these devices have just been tested by MBM (August). The Mooringmate gets 4 ticks out of five - whatever that means!
 
Another vote for the Moorfast. It can get a bit fraught when SWMBO doesn't get the line back on board and cleated quickly and the weight of the boat is then hanging on the plastic gadget.

To get round it I use a thin Kevlar line, and attach it to the mooring rope with a rolling hitch. I attach the other end of the rope to the bow cleat then bring the rest of the kit to the cockpit. Bringing the buoy alongside where I can see it I thread the line through the buoy with the moorfast, pull the line through until I reach the rope then walk forward taking in as I go finishing up with a loop through the buoy cleated off at the stemhead.

My Moorfast is then free for me to thread another line through the buoy to complete the bridle.

And if I need a conventional boathook I have it to hand because the moorfast is tied to the other end of the handle!
 
I have a Bosco(works OK in calm weather) and a threader(works when there are no waves).My two best bits of kit are 1.The Exe Buoy Hook www.exebuoyhook.co.uk
This will lift a buoy out of the water so you can thread a rope through by hand.
2.A 2m length of chain with a length of rope spliced onto each end.I have this over the pulpit with each end of the rope cleated each side.Approach buoy drop chain over buoy.Drift slowly back and you then have time to fix proper warps.Do not leave chain on for long as it can saw through riser.Works well when it is windy.
 
I've got a moorfast rip-off head (£10.00 at Soton boat show some years ago) attached to a 1" dowel pole. Magic in Alderney when there's no riser on the buoy. I've also used it in St Peter Port and Yarmouth IOW but it's Alderney where it's been most helpful.
 
On our cruise the last few weeks, we picked up a few visitors mooring buoys, the new ones at Coll proved a bit of a problem in the strong wind and it was lucky we had two boat hooks because it proved impossible to ease the tension enough to get the hook out of the shackle once it was in. Thereafter we decide it was usually easier to anchor, but at Portree there were moorings everywhere so we resorted to dropping a loop of rope over the buoy, dragging it alongside the bow and then feeding our strop through the shackle, easy peasy!!! but I am sure it must be very bad practice for some reason or everyone would be doing it?
 
Burnham Bob said:
I have a moorfast - dead easy to use and works fine for me - although i know some forumites have difficulty with them

quite cheap so have a look online
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The moorfast ( originally swiftie matic) is also what I have used for getting on 20 years now. Works well provided the ring is standing up and reasonably firmly.
 
A grapnell works to get the boat stopped. Friends tell me they simply lasso the bouy, to get the boat stopped. Later on, you can loop a line thru the buoy, and take the lasso off in calmer conditions. A nylon lasso works better, because it sinks below the buoy.
 
Have only seen the plastic moor-fast/swiftiematic thing on here and the mags, but offshore the ROV guys use swiftiematic Happy hookers (won't google that to provide link for obvious reasons) for grabbing the vehicles on recovery; which are steel but large. Maybe too large, but possibly workable. I think they may be actually made for the tree-surgeons of the world- I am sure I saw arborealist (?) on the packet.
 
mrjemm said:
Have only seen the plastic moor-fast/swiftiematic thing on here and the mags, but offshore the ROV guys use swiftiematic Happy hookers (won't google that to provide link for obvious reasons) for grabbing the vehicles on recovery; which are steel but large. Maybe too large, but possibly workable. I think they may be actually made for the tree-surgeons of the world- I am sure I saw arborealist (?) on the packet.
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This one ?

http://www.aspli.com/products/1582/happy-hooker-mooring-buoy-retriever-and-rope-installer
 
Yep £250 is OTT :-)

Does anyone have access to the documents mentioned in this from USCG?

FL-2605-5 and FL-2604-4


-------------
So, what do you do if your “Happy Hooker” is broken or “misplaced?” As far as alternatives,
during a recent BDS class, we fashioned and used a "Hard Eye." This was a fairly common way
of reeving a line through a bail before the advent or wide-spread usage of the “Happy Hooker.”
It is basically a 12-14" eye in some three-strand, 21 or 24 thread stuff of which should be a sufficient
size. A piece of metal coat hanger is threaded through the middle of the strands to provide
stiffness to the eye. Just up from the throat of the eye is another, smaller (approximately
2") eye in line with the large eye to receive the tip of a boat pole. It might not be a bad idea to
fashion one of these for the time when you are underway and your “Happy Hooker” becomes
unavailable. Additionally, there are a couple Fleet Drawings to fabricate a line reeving device at
the unit (FL-2605-5 and FL-2604-4). These drawings can be found in NE-TIMS and for the enterprising
Damage Controlman onboard, could pose a unique challenge.

orig doc at http://www.uscg.mil/tcyorktown/ops/naton/Bulletin/Winter 2011 Small.pdf
 
May I refer the Hon Gent to the answer I gave 9 months age lol.
I dont understand why folk feel the need to buy all these gizzmos when a simple long boat hook & a bit of practice is all you need. The same boat hooks that have been in use for hundreds of years with no problem.
 
Sandyman said:
May I refer the Hon Gent to the answer I gave 9 months age lol.
I dont understand why folk feel the need to buy all these gizzmos when a simple long boat hook & a bit of practice is all you need. The same boat hooks that have been in use for hundreds of years with no problem.
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Yep I agree, it is fine to do without gizmo's and I usually do but a device that is useful and adds to one's enjoyment of doing anything is of value to the person that finds it useful is it not?

Plus without gizmo's it an't boating is it :-)
 
Sandyman said:
May I refer the Hon Gent to the answer I gave 9 months age lol.
I dont understand why folk feel the need to buy all these gizzmos when a simple long boat hook & a bit of practice is all you need. The same boat hooks that have been in use for hundreds of years with no problem.
Click to expand...

Sorry. don't agree. How is a boat hook going to thread a line through an eye on buoy that is a) too large or heavy to be hauled up on deck, or b) already attached to one or more boats in a raft and about 2-3m off your bow??
 
Gizzmos

We have two 3m boat hooks, a length of chain spliced at both ends onto rope, a moor-fast/swiftiematic bolted to an old broom handle and a Bosco boat hook on a telescopic pole. We use them all, depending on the situation.
The boat hook is fine for standard pickup buoys and probably gets the most use.
The moor-fast/swiftiematic, is great if the mooring buoy has shackle standing up, so you can feed a line thro’, but useless if the shackle is lying flat on the mooring buoy (like the ones at Coll). By the way we had endless fun watching people try to moor to these buoys, one boat had 6 attempts using a boat hook, the wind was too strong to hold the boat on the boat hook for long enough to lean over the side and get a rope thro’.
The Bosco hook is more difficult to use, but will copes with “difficult” shackles, like the ones at Coll, but I find it very easy to trip the release by accident. It also proves a metal to metal bearing surface, so we often leave the load on the Bosco, but back it up with a rope through the shackle.
The chain and rope is used when it’s very windy and all else fails, but I find that the chain often gets jammed under the riser buoy and needs a dinghy to release it.
The boat has too much freeboard, and I’m getting to old for acrobatics over the bow (or even mid ships) to thread a rope through a shackle, even in calm weather never mind when it’s blowing half a gale.
So for me, the Gizzmos make life much simpler and safer and I’m all for that.
 
+1 Ian. The only time I nearly went overboard was trying to get a rope through the eye of a buoy. The more gizmos the better!!

The Moorfast system reckons you can pick a flat shackle, but it needs a decent angle of attack to do it I'd say. Haven't tried it myself, but first mate(ss) is the pick-up expert...I just lay the boat alongside...she does the business.
 
When we come across one of those moorings with no pick up buoy (basically just a large floating ball) we use this (pictured) to lassoo it with. The yellow line helps to retrieve the lassoo at a later time. The D Link helps to sink it.



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Latest Motorboats Monthly (August edition) has a review of auto hooks and threaders of various types. Might be worth a quick read in WH Smiths.
 
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