Mooring Buoys

[samuel]

I have a swinging mooring on the Blackwater at St lawrence bay We have a problem because each year about 4 boats( Out of the 80 moorings there ) go adrift each year. Some boats just end up on the mud but a few are badly damaged.
There are lots of reasons such as frayed mooring lines, lack of maintenance etc etc but there is one reason that crops up regularly & that is failed mooring buoys.
We are currently using a mooring buoy that has a rod through the middle with a washer & a 3 inch ring on the top. The other end of the rod is threaded & passes through a washer that has a ring welded to it. Behind the washer is a pair of nuts the second of which has a split pin through it. The ring is shacled to the main chain.
After a season the nut threads seem to corrode & the nuts come loose. The split pin fails & the buoy falls apart & the boat goes walkabout. The chain ends up on the sea bed.
I am told that the manufacturer has recommended that the mooring line is lead to the shackle below the buoy so that the buoy has no load on it when the boat is moored. This means the line is below water for part of its length so is subject to wear faster than normal. It is also difficult to catch when mooring.
To make matters worse the buoy then swings round & rubs on the boats bow..
Suggestions such as lift the buoy on board are not really on as this is heavy & brings loads of seaweed etc on the boat deck.
We did try buoys with holes right through so that we could moor directly to the main chain & the buoy would just slip down to the water when the boat was moored. Trouble here was that the middle of the buoy just wore away suprisingly quickly. Pump up ones deflated & solid ones just fell apart. Some owners have welded the nuts on to the center bar but the galvanising goes so the whole lot corrodes quickly.
Are there any decent quality buoys on the market that overcome these problems. Ours are bought in several at a time & still cost £ 60 each so are not cheep.
Some insurers are concerned about the mooring problem & a couple of owners have had the policy refused.
Any one have experience of this in their area & how did they fix it?

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[jeanne]

You have already given the solution, but then said in effect, that it's too much bother. I think that there are priorities to this problem: the first is that yours is not one of the 5% that go walkabout every year, all other problems are secondary, and after some experience can probably be solved. So take a chain or rope riser around the buoy. It can be slack in normal service, but must be independant of the buoy. If the load of the boat is removed,the buoy will probably last longer.

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[longjohnsilver]

Would recommend you have a chain witha pick up buoy connected to a shackle under the main buoy, yes you will need to change the shackle probably once a year, but in my opinion this is the safest way to moor. Nothing to corrode which is completely out of sight. There have been threads fairly recently that went into this subject in some depth (sorry!).

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[Gunfleet]

You could ask people to service the moorings a bit more frequently.

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[pete]

Hi Sam
Could you not shackle a small length of chain between the top ring and the bottom chain just below the buoy so if the threads go this chain takes the load or are you using this buoy as a swivel ? I have a separate large swivel just below my buoy and from below the buoy I have two 4 inch strops (they are strong, light, and kind to the boat) with a small pick up buoy attached
Pete

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[ParaHandy]

Chichester?

They use this technique and they have several hundred. The HM is a helpful sod, they have a site at www.conservancy.co.uk from where you will get tel no and might get advice from the horse's mouth, so to speak ...


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[Mirelle]

I don't have any problem with taking the line from under the buoy; it is, if anything, easier to sweep a boathook through the water to catch the pickup buoy of a floating line than to grapple for a line from the top of the buoy. Yes the buoy rubs round the bow a bit, but not so as to cause serious abrasion (I do notice, however, that the riser chain keeps the weed off the forefoot!)

My ADVICE, however, would be to consult EYE Ltd. (I have no connection with the firm other than as a customer.)

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[andyball]

Re: Chichester?

Chichester's harbour guide ("moorings:care & maintainance) says:

" Don't use Galvanised chain-a common fault is the use of galvanised chain & shackles for underwater use. The zinc coating on galvanised chain accelerates the corrosion of the chain through electrolytic action as the galvanising breaks down. This is particularly the case if galvanised shackles are used with non galvanised chain...."

Nothing in their website about it though:<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.conservancy.co.uk/index.htm>http://www.conservancy.co.uk/index.htm</A>


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[vyv_cox]

Re: Chichester?

This has come up before. Nobody could think of any reason why it should be the case, as galvanising is universally recognised as a means of delaying corrosion of steel. The whole point is that the electrolytic action causes the zinc to corrode preferentially, protecting the chain. Someone was going to ask the harbourmaster of Chichester to explain this unusual instruction but I never saw any more about it.

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[Mirelle]

Galvanised shackles?

My guess, and it is no more than a guess, based on a little experience and observation, is that some "commercial grade" galvanised shackles are of very inferior quality - British Standard shackles are very much better, but they are available only in black iron (perfectly satisfactory for underwater use in moorings) in the larger sizes. You would certainly be better off with a black BSS shackle rather than a cheapo galvanised one. You can get BSS galvanised shackles in smaller sizes but not, in my experience, from chandlers, even those who should know better.

(East Coasters who have followed the well trodden path to the Gun Shed at Levington will already know one place to get BSS shackles....)

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[andyball]

Re: Chichester?

I know what you mean: it does seem unconventional.

Only support for it I could find quickly was:

"The type of chain used is again dependent upon preference. The Tideland standard is normally U2 grade, open link chain, bitumen coated. It is worth mentioning that some clients specify galvanised chain. Aesthetically this looks good prior to installation but the coating soon wears off at the critical, contact point. There is no advantage of using galvanised chain and the capital cost is increased by 30%."

from a company selling mooring equipment.

Have raised it on the chich. harbour messageboard.





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[samuel]

Re: Chichester?

We do not use galvanised chain & i did not mention it earlier but we do not take the chain to the buoy. We use about 6 or 7Metres of multiplatt from the chain to the underside of the buoy. The chain does not corrode very fast, presumably because it is down deep out of the light. The rope also allows a bit of twisting without problems so we can omit the swivels that others use. this eliminates one problem.
If we take a chain from below the buoy to the top to reinforce the buoy, as suggested, the chain rubs on the boat when it is wind rode . This situation happens a lot in our patch. If we take the mooring line from the underside of the buoy & attach it to a keeper buoy it causes a nuisance to the windsurfers if it is too long & that's a bit unfair on them. They are entitled( inspite of what some cruisers may think) to use the water. In addition the buoy swings about more when the mooring chain comes off the bottom & rubs on the boat you have to lift the bottom bit clear of the water to get the mooring rope out of the water. It took the paint off the bow of my Stella in a couple of weeks.
What we really want is a good quality buoy with perhaps a stainless steel centre.
we are going to remove the existing centre from a buoy & prefabricate a stainless steel bit a an experiment. It all seems a lot of hassle when we should be able to buy a buoy that works in the first place!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Justisla

 

[John_Clarke]

Hippo bouys

Hippo bouys are expensive but are tough and well designed. See Mooring and support bouys on <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.fendercare.com/products/buoys/buoys_menu.html>http://www.fendercare.com/products/buoys/buoys_menu.html</A>.
Hippo bouys have a length of 19mm long link chain up a central tube.
My father has a Hippo which has been in use for 15 years. He has had to line the central tube with a plastic sleeve to reduce the wear. My Hippo is 5 years old and developed a split where it banged against the chain which goes up to the boat. I had incorrectly attached this chain below the bouy; Hippo recommend attaching it to the top of the bouy with a swivel at that point. The skin of the bouy is made of polyurethane and the split was easily repaired (after cleaning and abrading it) with Sikaflex polyurethane sealant.

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[John_Clarke]

Stainless steel under water

Even marine grade 316 stainless steel needs to be protected with an anode when it is permanently under water. Stainless steel suffers from pitting corrosion which Nigel Warren explains in detail in his useful book “Metal Corrosion in Boats” (available in paperback from Adlard Coles).

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[Mirelle]

Re: Chichester?

That's pretty much what I do (mooring in Deben - much more sheltered) but the strop is 24mm nylon 3 strand with hosepipe over it. It has been suggested to me (by Vyv Cox, here) that if you use a chain strop and a pickup buoy on a strong line which is just longer than the chain the pickup buoy stays close to the main buoy but does not tangle it so no interference with windsurfers.

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[graham]

Attatch a strong piece of nylon rope from the top of the chain underwater to the ring on the top of the buoy.

Atytatch your pick up line to the same ring then if the buoy should fail the nylon rope will keep you attatched to the main chain.

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