Mooring buoy or anchor?

In most cases I would agree and say that anchoring is better as you know your own tackle.
I have the problem in that when I sleep I really sleep and would probably only wake up if water was lapping around me in bed (even then I may struggle)
Anchoring knowing that with the wind blowing you off the shore is fine as if you do drag you just wake up with more of a sea view.
What about when you are so knackered you need to rest but it is a lee shore. You have the option of a buoy of unknown origin, anchoring and hope you don't drag or going out to sea and heaving too.

Drop the main anchor some distance off, pay out until you can tie to the mooring buoy. What could possibly...
 
So given the choice would you anchor or go for the big orange buoy?

No contest.

I know my ground tackle is more than adequately sized for my boat and I know it's in good condition. Why would I risk using a mooring I know nothing about?

If it (the mooring) failed I could lose my boat, give myself a lot of hassle, and end up having to compensate the owner of the mooring.
 
Sailing in a dinghy on Ullswater for the first time. There was a white 500mm. buoy
situated about 30 meters from shore: sailing club mark?

As I hardened up to round the buoy, I read the word previously obscured.....
DANGER.
I subsequently discovered that it was a mark to denote a rock outcrop!

All that glisters etc. etc.
 
The damage to my boat occurred in The Bahamas. I was anchored off Little Farmer's Cay in the only sheltered anchorage for many miles bearing in mind the current forecast. The holding is not very good, being mainly thin sand over rock.

In the middle of a very black night the wind shifted 180 degrees and picked up to 35 kts from what was forecast; putting us on a dead lee shore and we started to drag. We shifted to the mooring which had been snorkeled on earlier. Escape from the harbour was impossible. It's utterly unlit and surrounded by unmarked reefs, we did not feel that the GPS crumb trail would update fast enough to guide us through.

The mooring rope parted at about 04:00 and we hit the beach. Rapid dinghy deployment and somehow the Fortress kedge held us from being driven further ashore. Later we were pulled off via our spinnaker halyard by a local power cat with 2 x 170 hp outboards. We were then guided across the harbour by the cat's crew peering into the water with the aid of torches.
 
If it (the mooring) failed I could lose my boat, give myself a lot of hassle, and end up having to compensate the owner of the mooring.

Not under UK law you wouldn't.

In the UK we often just picked up buoys, depending on its condition & weather. Only once can I recall being advised to
move as some snotty jock fisherman owned the mooring.
 
I would always use my own ground tackle if at all possible.

If you do use a mooring unless it is definitely a public one the accepted convention is that you leave someone on board who is capable of moving the boat at short notice.
Also be mindful that using a mooring designed for a smaller boat may move or damage it.
 
Not under UK law you wouldn't.

In the UK we often just picked up buoys, depending on its condition & weather. Only once can I recall being advised to
move as some snotty jock fisherman owned the mooring.

Certainly it's the custom in most parts of the UK (except Scotland, judging by the shrieks of indignation we've seen from Scottish forumites when the topic has been discussed in the past) to borrow vacant moorings as long as you're prepared to instantly move if the owner comes back. But to the best of my knowledge this is not enshrined in law anywhere, and certainly I can't see any reason why you would not be liable for breaking someone else's property if your boat pulled someone's private mooring apart.

Pete
 
I recall that the buoy Nostro refers to is there for a purpose (not a visitor mooring!) but I can't remember what. Perhaps it marks a rare jellyfish copulating area.

IME buoys in the Med are not as prolific as as UK; they are income generating.

Every time I picked one up I was visited by a speeding RiB complete with Spaniard and outstretched hand.
 
I recall that the buoy Nostro refers to is there for a purpose (not a visitor mooring!) but I can't remember what. Perhaps it marks a rare jellyfish copulating area.

IME buoys in the Med are not as prolific as as UK; they are income generating.

Every time I picked one up I was visited by a speeding RiB complete with Spaniard and outstretched hand.

Mr Sweed in his 40 ft heavy boat is still swinging merrily. No idea why the bouy is there as it is the only one in sight.
 
[video]http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3 DxZt7ATKIfYM%26feature%3Dg-upl&h=QAQG5niAf[/video]

About sums the Mar Menor up
 
Back in 2002 a German Jeanneau Sun Legende went through the canal at night. He did not see the bridge and did not stop. You can guess the rest.

He saw it alight... just been brought up with the "Blitz Grieg" mentality. When he went into the marina and was asked how long he was staying he apparently said "It is just a visit, not an occupation"
 
Not under UK law you wouldn't.

That's a very definite statement. Maybe you are a lawyer and know about these things but I'd be interested to know what authority you have for saying that.

My (admittedly ancient) edition of volume 4 of Marsden - British Shipping Law begins:

"Damage caused by negligence

Where damage is done to persons or to property of any kind on land or on water, owing to the negligent navigation or management of a vessel, a cause of action arises against those who, by their own negligence or by the negligence of their servants or agents, caused such damage."


If you negligently damage someone's property, he can sue you for damages. Why is the situation different when the property is someone's mooring tackle? If you break his mooring, or move it out of position, he may have to pay a mooring contractor a lot of money to put it right.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about a hired mooring and I don't think the OP is either.
 
That's a very definite statement. Maybe you are a lawyer and know about these things but I'd be interested to know what authority you have for saying that.

My (admittedly ancient) edition of volume 4 of Marsden - British Shipping Law begins:

"Damage caused by negligence

Where damage is done to persons or to property of any kind on land or on water, owing to the negligent navigation or management of a vessel, a cause of action arises against those who, by their own negligence or by the negligence of their servants or agents, caused such damage."


If you negligently damage someone's property, he can sue you for damages. Why is the situation different when the property is someone's mooring tackle? If you break his mooring, or move it out of position, he may have to pay a mooring contractor a lot of money to put it right.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about a hired mooring and I don't think the OP is either.

Parsfal, No one seems to know who this buoy belongs to. Just out of interest, would you know if the owner of a buoy is liable should the buoy break free through negligence?

The other point is similar.. we may not pick up a buoy because we are unsure of its condition but go into a marina and Med Moor with lazy lines and we are all quiet happy to pick them up and use them to hold our boats without knowing their condition.

There were a few that broke in Gib over the winter.
 
Parsfal, No one seems to know who this buoy belongs to.

He's not talking about your big orange buoy, he's just responding to Sandyman's frankly bizarre assertion that a mariner would not be liable if he picked up a private mooring, uninvited, and broke it.

Pete
 
He's not talking about your big orange buoy, he's just responding to Sandyman's frankly bizarre assertion that a mariner would not be liable if he picked up a private mooring, uninvited, and broke it.

Pete

I must admit if someone hung on a mooring I had paid for and broke it I would be like a pubic hair on a toilet seat .... well Pi**ed off
 
No contest.

I know my ground tackle is more than adequately sized for my boat and I know it's in good condition. Why would I risk using a mooring I know nothing about?

If it (the mooring) failed I could lose my boat, give myself a lot of hassle, and end up having to compensate the owner of the mooring.

According to Tom Cunliffe, writing in Yachting Monthly in October 2012, if using the mooring you should motor hard astern to test it!
Might be a good idea to find out how to say: "Oops, sorry. I seem to have broken your mooring" in Swedish, first...
The fred on it is at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...ppy-with-YM-October-advice&highlight=cunliffe for those who wish to drift.
 
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