Mooring buoy or anchor?

Nostrodamus said:
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.
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Chalk and cheese Nostro. If you are in a Marina you are paying for the privilege of using their lazy line, they have directed you to use it and therefore are giving an assurance of fit for purpose, if it breaks its their fault, and any consequential damage. A paid mooring buoy would be in the same position, for example a charged visitors bouy somewhere. Probably they would get you to sign a disclaimer but it would not hold up in court (at least not in the UK or Gib). Just picking a bouy at random and using it without the owners permission is totally different and I know from experience of having swinging moorings the owner is not liable and you would be responsible for any damage caused.

It is like 1) using a car wash that goes berserk and trashes your car, car wash is liable or 2) deciding to park without the owners permission on their front drive and knocking a wall over when you leave. You would end up paying for the damage to the wall, not them paying you for the damage to the car!
 
Nostrodamus said:
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.
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I would tie up to the buoy but also drop the anchor vertically under the bow with the appropriate length of chained flaked out on the deck. If the mooring gives, you will hear the chain being pulled out, yet you are still moored.
 
Sybarite said:
I would tie up to the buoy but also drop the anchor vertically under the bow with the appropriate length of chained flaked out on the deck. If the mooring gives, you will hear the chain being pulled out, yet you are still moored.
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The objective being to do ten round turns and a couple of half hitches around the riser with your chain?
 
Nostrodamus said:
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?
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In 1941 the yacht "Quercus" was secured to a hired mooring in Torquay that was owned by the Council. The mooring was inspected annually by a diver. The mooring chain broke during a moderate gale and the yacht was wrecked. No other yachts broke free of their moorings. The yacht's owner sued .

In the subsequent court case the Council was held to be under a duty of care to maintain the mooring to a reasonable standard. It failed in that duty (an expert witness having satisfied the court that the annual inspection was not properly carried out) and was found negligent.

(Shearing v. Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Torquay (1943))

I have no idea if that case has since been overruled but I can't see why it should have been.

I would have thought that if you hire a mooring you are entitled to expect it will be maintained to a reasonable standard. But if you just help yourself to someone's private mooring without permission, surely you've only yourself to blame if it breaks and your boat is damaged? Also you have negligently damaged someone's property.

For example, suppose someone takes his own deckchair to the beach and goes off to buy an ice cream. Meanwhile you, without permission, sit in it and break it and hurt yourself. Why should its owner be liable for your injury? Why shouldn't you be liable for the damage to the deckchair?

But if you had hired the deckchair and it broke because it was not fit for the purpose intended, you would expect to be able to successfully sue the deckchair hire company.

I suppose it could get tricky if you said to someone: "Use my mooring when I'm away. It's regularly maintained and OK for your size of boat", and it broke and he lost his boat. :D
 
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We've two west coast moorings, one safe up a loch and the other near home but exposed. We drop the chain of the latter to the bottom for 7 or 8 months, and it's secured by two old ropes, one to a big orange buoy and the other to a small one. The Crown Commissioner's number is painted on, and our boat's name. Neighbours have seen commercial fishing boats moored to it for ages. I hope that they stay on board. Perhaps they sleep in the day and fish at night. Maybe they pull up the riser chain and use it. Once they even replaced the main rope with their own, thinner, one.

I certainly wouldn't take any blame if the rope parted with the strain of a boat far heavier than the mooring was designed for even with chain. But I don't mind them using it if it doesn't appreciably wear away the rope or its knots, and they move off if we or our neighbours come to it. I suppose it's always helpful to paint on the buoy or make a label with something like "private summer mooring, max 7 tons using chain, may be unsafe - last inspected 2008, owner could return any time, phone xxxxx" if that's true. Then the 20 ton boat may move on, but a lighter boat may chance using it, and I'd be fine about that, especially if they do it for safety reasons.
 
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Sybarite said:
I would tie up to the buoy but also drop the anchor vertically under the bow with the appropriate length of chained flaked out on the deck. If the mooring gives, you will hear the chain being pulled out, yet you are still moored.
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I personally would never choose to drop an anchor anywhere near a buoy for obvious reasons!
 
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