Mooring Buoys - How to Find / Best Practice - Can I just use any?

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tom3987

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Hi,

We have finally got our boat sorted and we have left Liverpool heading down south. We are in the early stages of boating and we went over to Puffin Island yesterday to anchor for a few hours to ensure everything was in good order and to get myself and partner used to it (The first time she's been on anchor). I was looking at heading up to Moelfre to anchor overnight in a couple of days but she wants to go on a mooring ball first as we have seen these in the River in Conwy.

Also, there seem to be many in Bangor. I have tried to look these up in the books, but I can't find anything relating to mooring buoys in the pilot books.

What's the best practice? Can we just use them? Someone told me to use them and put your phone number in the window in case you need to move. Im not fussed about moving etc but I don't want to annoy people if im using their mooring.

Any advice on where to look or what to do would be great thank you!
 
I will usually just pick up if staying onboard , be prepared to move if asked . I have found that some have a telephone number attached, problem is you don't know the condition. So if going ashore I prefer the hook . Moelfre has really really good holding.
 
I don't pick up other's buoys anymore. You don't know what's at the other end. The last time I did in my home port, it belonged to someone I knew, when I told her what I had done she sounded quite unhappy, I don't know why, it might be that her boat is much smaller than mine and she thought that I might drag it.
 
Just because there is a buoy there, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's safe for your boat. Following best practice, by this time of year, I always dropped my riser chain, and left a buoy on a messenger line, so that I could pull it up again in the Spring. No way would it be suitable to moor a boat. You don't know what size of boat the mooring is designed for, or anything about its condition. Much better to use your own inspected anchor equipment.
 
Anchoring isn’t always an option. There are rivers on the East Coast where the desirable spots are fully occupied with buoys, such as Ramsholt. On the one occasion I anchored there in the fairway with the agreement of the harbourmaster my anchor fouled something and had to be cut off.

Practice varies a lot from place to place, so it is hard to generalise. In the Yealm, if I recall correctly, you may pick up any buoy that has no dinghy on it and await the HM’s permission to stay for the night, but this doesn’t work everywhere. Visitors’ buoys may be uniform in colour, as at Helford or Dittisham, or completely random, so it leaves the options of finding out in advance or bluffing it out when you get there.
 
vyv_cox said:
In the Menai Strait at this time of year it is fairly safe to pick up a buoy as many boats are now hauled out for winter. Most moorings will be safe, as they are professionally laid and sized for the typical conditions there. Be careful on the Bangor side as many dry at low water.
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We have no idea of the size and weight of the OPs boat - so how can you say it is “fairly safe”?

I have watched a heavy yacht pick up a mooring intended for a lightweight RIB, drag it 200m out of station then cast off and depart rapidly, leaving the private mooring owner to sort the mess.
 
dunedin said:
We have no idea of the size and weight of the OPs boat - so how can you say it is “fairly safe”?

I have watched a heavy yacht pick up a mooring intended for a lightweight RIB, drag it 200m out of station then cast off and depart rapidly, leaving the private mooring owner to sort the mess.
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By 'fairly safe' I meant, as my post clearly implied, that the owner is unlikely to be returning. I was assuming that the OP had sufficient sense to assure himself that the mooring was strong enough for the boat. The size of buoy on the Strait gives a good guide as to the size of chain it is carrying.
 
WHen anchoring once we fouled a mooring chain in an area where moorings must previously have been. Needed to go in the water to release, quite a hassle but no problem in the summer in that location. For that reason I would always pick up a mooring bouy if they look well maintained and big enough, but obviously if no bouys around anchoring is great. Just practice with an anchor alarm for peace of mind.....and I mean practice so that when you get the alarm going off by poor setting (eg setting a too tight a circle) you don't get stressed.....
Leaving your phone number is only if you were going ashore.... which you should not be.
 
The funniest example I had was picking up a Mediterranean mooring in Ceuta in the straits of Gibraltar. We were directed to a mooring and started to pull the lazy line in. It kept coming until the concrete weight ( about the size of a breeze block) was raised to the bow roller of my boat. Since then I have always erred on the side of caution when picking up an unknown mooring... you just don't know what it's attached to.
 
A marine contractor operates from my harbour who, among many other things, services many of the local moorings - many on an annual basis.
One look in the skip into which he puts the replaced gear was enough to deter me from overnighting on an unknown mooring ever again.
 
tom3987 said:
Hi,

We have finally got our boat sorted and we have left Liverpool heading down south. We are in the early stages of boating and we went over to Puffin Island yesterday to anchor for a few hours to ensure everything was in good order and to get myself and partner used to it (The first time she's been on anchor). I was looking at heading up to Moelfre to anchor overnight in a couple of days but she wants to go on a mooring ball first as we have seen these in the River in Conwy.

Also, there seem to be many in Bangor. I have tried to look these up in the books, but I can't find anything relating to mooring buoys in the pilot books.

What's the best practice? Can we just use them? Someone told me to use them and put your phone number in the window in case you need to move. Im not fussed about moving etc but I don't want to annoy people if im using their mooring.

Any advice on where to look or what to do would be great thank you!
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We have a mooring on the Strait at Felinheli.

Currently like most owners we are not using our mooring as our insurance does not give us all year coverage. Personally I don't give a damn who uses my mooring as long as they vacate it should I ever require it. I do ask people to make a donation to one of the local RNLI stations if they use it regularly.
I remove my own strops each season so picking it up requires any visitor to thread their own warps through a top ring. Not the easiest of tasks. No strops is usually a good sign that you won't be disturbed even during the season on any vacant mooring.

Regarding moorings in the Strait most are more than capable of taking our 9 ton 40 foot yacht in calm conditions. All moorings south of the Bridges are well maintained and serviced by Caernaron Harbour Trust. I can't promise the same for those north of the Bridges.
Moorings at Moelfre are variable in quality. Some might just allow for a fisherman's rowing boat without braking the remnants of their rusty chain links.
There is however one with a large steel can that is occasionally used by either Liverpool pilot boat or the Prince Madog survey ship normally moored at Menai Bridge Pier. Don't be tempted to use the RNLI bouy without permission or emergency.
If you have bilge keels drying out at Port Penrhyn is a good option. If you have a shallow draft moor up on the pontoon inside the Madog at Menai Bridge for a walk ashore overnight berth.
Steve
 
wingcommander said:
I will usually just pick up if staying onboard , be prepared to move if asked . I have found that some have a telephone number attached, problem is you don't know the condition. So if going ashore I prefer the hook . Moelfre has really really good holding.
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It also has a lot of junk and discarded fishing gear adjacent to the moorings. Our friends in a 20 ton steel ketch and ourselves have foul hooked there! Holding is good but tidal rode so you will usually get a rock and roll on at some stage of tide.
Just inside Traeth Bychan Bay out of jet flea season a short distance away is a better bet for a good night.
 
This is why you don't want to use an unknown mooring when the wind gets up

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And, believe me, I've seen worse.

OTOH, in calm weather, I reckon it's fine as long as you're ready and able to move at a moment's notice if the owner comes back.

If you can lift the buoy a bit to see the swivel and the top few links of the chain, that'll give you an idea of the state of the rest of it, as that's the bit that tends to wear quickest.
 
winch2 said:
Ive always been under the impression that in general they're all the same, especially if laid by a Harbour Authority in which case they will all be the same colour.
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On the Dart the visitor buoys are usually marked with the maximum length boat, which is linked to the swinging circle. Put something too long on the mooring and you might hit a boat on an adjacent buoy. Bear in mind that not all boats swing the same way when the tide changes and the wind effect might be different.
 
winch2 said:
Ive always been under the impression that in general they're all the same, especially if laid by a Harbour Authority in which case they will all be the same colour.
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Depends where you sail. Up here there are a lot of moorings used in summer only for light RIBs etc. Not always obvious what designed for as mooring buoys may be simply what was to hand or get reused.
 
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Opinions vary but personally I never use an unknown mooring for anything other than a short lunch stop in light conditions. Most moorings in my home waters are self laid and the size of the buoy can bear little relation to the weight of gear further down.
 
Once very long ago on a calm evening in a sheltered bay, I picked up a good sized mooring buoy for the night. Around dawn I was woken by something intermittently gently bumping on the hull, so got up and went on deck. It was not the buoy I'd moored to, this was still attached with a few feet of very rusty and broken chain below, but another mooring buoy entirely - we had drifted in a near dead calm about 50 yards.

Since than I've been very wary of buoys unless maintained-looking visitors buoys.
 
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