Mooring Buoy Pick-up Devices

earlybird said:
Alternatively, in that article, there were 2 plastic hooks for threading line which got good reviews, one slightly better than the other IIRC. Can anyone remember the names of these?
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The best auto-hook device is the ridiculously-named Handy Duck, which is incredibly robust and works simply and effectively. I wouldn't be without mine. The website has a demonstration video and a copy of the YM test which rated it a Premium Product.
 
A range of views, isn't it horses for courses though?
My interest was for the fairly heavy, metal-ringed buoys often found in Scottish waters.
A boat-hook is fine for grabbing them, but any follow-up procedure when single handed isn't so easy.
I do have a carabiner-like clip on the end of a pole. That works very well most times, but detaching it, and threading a looped line would be easier for an orangutan rather than a (fairly!) normally proportioned human. even with my boat's relatively low free-board.
I'm minded to give one of these threading gadgets a go, but keep an eye on the "For Sale" section in a few months time!
 
Elessar said:
The only possible use for it IMHO is those dangerous French style marina cleats that are only loops. Even then we can never be bothered to get it out.
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French style :confused:

You have not visited a number of East Coast marinas which have these, Titchmarsh and Suffolk Yacht Harbour to name a couple. I hate them, it is so much more difficult to get a line on quickly when you have to thread it. They seem to go with the expanded metal "cheese grater" decking on the pontoons rather than timber. All for cheapness no doubt.
 
I spent a week cruising down West with a different vistor's buoy every night. No two were the same and none were straightforward. The simplest is one with a weed-covered rope strop that can be picked up with a boathook but others caused real grief. The worst were the ones with a heavy chain dangling down into the water. You had to grope around with the boathook to get the end then hold the weight of the chain while threading a line through it with the other hand. Those with a bare ring on top of the buoy were also a problem. Fine if you have low freeboard and the crew is agile enough to lie on the deck and thread a warp through the eye while the helm holds position. At the end of the trip I went out and invested in a threader and our cruising is transformed.

I tie a warp to the bow cleat, lead it back to the cockpit outside everything then put a rolling hitch on it with the threader line which is a length of 5mm kevlar. I bring the buoy alongside, step onto the deck and stab the ring with my threader. I then pull in on the light line while walking forward until I have the buoy secured with a bight of mooring warp. I then use the threader to put a second warp through the eye which becomes the other leg of the bridle.

The olden rule for use of the threaders is never to let a heavy load come onto the gadget. That means having a long enough line to get the end back on board before the strain comes on to it. My thin kevlar line is ideal as I can whip it round a cleat and it will hold the weight of the boat despite being thin enough to thread easily.

If you see a green braided line with a fairly hairy sheath and a yellow core at a boat jumble - grab a hank, it's very useful stuff.
 
I have a Moorfast (I think that's what it's called - the one with a yellow handle). The only problem I've experienced is when the knot used to attach the thin line of the Moorfast to the actual mooring warp jams against the ring on the buoy. A double sheet bend is recommended in the instructions and that's what I've been using.
 
JimC said:
I have a Moorfast (I think that's what it's called - the one with a yellow handle). The only problem I've experienced is when the knot used to attach the thin line of the Moorfast to the actual mooring warp jams against the ring on the buoy. A double sheet bend is recommended in the instructions and that's what I've been using.
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Snowleopards method above gets around that, take off the original and put on a longer stronger line with enough length to secure back to a cleat.
 
VicMallows said:
The Banks Arms buoys at Studland have the biggest, highest mooring rings I have ever seen. Single-handers invariably just thread a warp through first time. Couples generally get it right with either a basic boathook or fancy device. Fully crewed yachts nearly always miss, frequently several times. Sailing school boats insist on lassoing the buoy ...and then hanging like that for their stay.

Vic
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IIRC the Bankes Arms buoys in Studland have a sticker on them indicating that the ring is not designed to hold the boat (it's just there to grab when you arrive) and the correct way of securing to the buoy is to lasso0 it. That's what I do when I'm there. Odd design though. To my mind it's easier to lassoo a buoy than thread a line through it, even temporarily, so why fit the ring?
Martin
 
So, in breif, the usefulness of these devices is either great or little but only for use on a bouy that has a ring on top.

Is that right?

PS I generaly moore singlehanded with a boathoook and a long mooring line to either thread through the strop or lasoo the bouy, then have abreather while I get the 'overnight' lines sorted. I intend to keep mooring lines made up and permenantly hung on the pulpit this season.

When swmbo is with me, she's great at getting us to the bouy and keeping us there.
 
martinbazen said:
IIRC the Bankes Arms buoys in Studland have a sticker on them indicating that the ring is not designed to hold the boat (it's just there to grab when you arrive) and the correct way of securing to the buoy is to lasso0 it.
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How long ago was that? Never seen any such stickers and the top ring is clearly a through-bolted rod. I certainly wouldn't trust a lassoo overnight of if leaving unattended. Last year the mooring maintenance barge was moving boats while it checked the moorings - it certainly left them secured to the top ring in normal fashion.

Vic
 
martinbazen said:
IIRC the Bankes Arms buoys in Studland have a sticker on them indicating that the ring is not designed to hold the boat (it's just there to grab when you arrive) and the correct way of securing to the buoy is to lasso0 it.
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Can I display my ignorance? Oh heck, I will display my ignorance.

What's this lassooing lark? Is it dropping a rope round the buoy so it works a bit like a button? If so, it sounds very unsatisfactory - quite apart from chafe in the rope (how do you know what it's pulling against?) I have been in situations where a gentle wind from in front and a gentle tide from behind combine to nuzzle the boat forward until the bow bumps and even over runs the buoy. Might not a lassoo just fall off in such circumstances?

Or am I getting it all wrong? Enlightenment welcome.
 
A lasso is as you describe - very useful, but should be strictly a method to secure the boat very temporarily while you get a permanent line on.

A Moorfast works well for us, but if there is no ring on the buoy, a lasso is handy.
 
I was single handing a small boat at a festival, where the moorings envolved strong tides and winds. One chose the target, but had to drop the helm and lurch forward to grab the bouy, not easy. So I made up a big snap hook that lives in a slide on the boat hook with the 'closer' held back by a a wire clip. ( I have to admit some 'influence' by a product)
Magic- I aim to get the bouy slightly off the weather bow, then reach out and snag it with the 'hook'. It has a tail that is secured to the forward cleat. Once grabbed, I can look to dropping the sails and other stuff. Later, I run a mooring line that can be let off from the helm position.
A

Only negative: once on, you have to get up to the bouy to release it. The threading ones avoid this.
 
Ubergeekian said:
What's this lassooing lark? Is it dropping a rope round the buoy so it works a bit like a button? If so, it sounds very unsatisfactory - quite apart from chafe in the rope (how do you know what it's pulling against?)
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But the idea is that it is just to hold you temporarily until you secure a line to the buoy ring in the normal way. No way would I leave the boat permamently secured with a lasso.

Lassooing is very effective and we use it a lot. The thing is to lead both parts of the rope through one fairlead (so that they keep together when the tension comes on), wet the rope to make it heavy (useful when throwing against the wind) and have several coils in each hand. Cast both sets of coils at the same time so that they fall each side of the buoy. Then let the boat settle back until the lines tighten, then pull the buoy towards the boat and attach the permanent line. Finally, free one end of the lassoo rope and haul in the other to recover it.

It is such an easy, stress-free technique that I don't know why it is not used more widely.

My long-keeler kicks her stern to port when the engine is put in astern so I come up to the buoy slightly to port of it (so I can see it all the time), engage astern when it is level with the bow and then the bow moves towards the buoy so that most often the Old Guvnor only has to drop the lasso over the buoy. Then I stroll forward and finish the job while she goes aft to put the kettle on.
 
Parsifal, exactly, precisely.

Not teaching an old fox to suck eggs but for the benefit of others, the same technique is very useful when coming alongside to drop on bollards with the wind off the berth singlehanded. The ropes can then be made neat and springs and breasts set if required.:D
 
Hi all

I can't say I disagree with the comments on the wisdom of lassooing to a buoy. In my experience not only is there a significant risk of chafe but the line can be difficult to pull free when you leave the buoy as it can get wedged in. Probably OK for a stop for a cup of tea but..

From memory though, the stickers on the Bankes Arms buoys (the red diamond shaped ones) show a picture of a boat tied to the ring on the top with a X by it, and a picture of a boat with a line lassooed round the base of the buoy with a tick by it. That's over the last couple of seasons. I'll have another look next time I'm there and report back.

Boat's going back in on Monday! Yippee!

M
 
Leighb said:
French style :confused:

You have not visited a number of East Coast marinas which have these, Titchmarsh and Suffolk Yacht Harbour to name a couple. I hate them, it is so much more difficult to get a line on quickly when you have to thread it. They seem to go with the expanded metal "cheese grater" decking on the pontoons rather than timber. All for cheapness no doubt.
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Quite agree with you re these marinas!! And SYH is one of the most expensive on the East Coast But I hear they are renewing some pontoons with better surfaces AND CLEATS !!
 
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