bajo
Well-Known Member
Please could advise be given on the best moorring buoy to use ie the white solid or red inflatable
mooring buoys
- Thread starter bajo
- Start date
Graham376
Well-Known Member
Having used both, each for many years, I prefer the round inflatable ones as I find them less damaging on the hull with wind over tide.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Until Roy Rogers comes along and lasoos it
doug748
Well-Known Member
The Hippo things are great, can't sink and the chain comes through the middle so the mooring is as strong as the chain. They seem to last at least 20yrs and are hard to damage. However the last one I bought was 500 quid and any chain attaching in the centre means the boat is more likely to nudge the buoy.
The inflatable variety are more variable in quality, if you attach them to a link, the buoy shies away when the boat is pressed forward - so there is less nudging. They are cheaper, easier to damage and the whole chain can end up on the bottom. I would avoid those where there is a steel bar taking the strain through the buoy
RupertW
Well-Known Member
Whatever you do, don’t be one of the numpties seeking eternal victimhood by buying one flimsy bouy after another which can’t take a lassoo.
You can recognise these people by watching them endlessly replacing their porcelain golf clubs and chocolate teapots with identical models.
You can recognise these people by watching them endlessly replacing their porcelain golf clubs and chocolate teapots with identical models.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
We had problems with the design with chains through the middle. Mooring holders took the chain up to the boat which left the buoy down the chain a bit. As the boats bobbed in the waves the buoy slid up & down the chain & the chain wore through the middle of the buoy fairly quickly , thus exposing the foam filling.
Buoys with a double rod through the centre have been found to be better provided the rod is not over long so that the buoy slides up & down the rod. To stop this owners bolt a clamp below the buoy on the rod. It happens because some like to pull the buoy up tight to stop it rubbing back along the bow as the tide turns when the painter is long.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
I still have my old inflated buoy with a rod through it from UK days ... I kept it when the moorings were altered by the club.
System I used with it ... the rod having a ring both ends meant buoy could not slip of the rod - once inflated it closed the 'tube hole where rod passed through. But anyway - I had a smaller pickup buoy on the end of the actual mooring strop.
Large buoy was set at Harbour Masters required length of chain ... then other end of rod had the strop with pickup buoy.
I'm sure not much different to many others ?
awol
Well-Known Member
Someone else's?
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
These look quite good. I've no real preference for Hard or Inflatable.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Expensive & the swivel is below the water so one cannot see if it is corroding. We tend to make sure that the swivel is on top. You can, of course turn the ones without the extending rod up the other way. the other point is that the centre is just a single rod.
Looking at the design I think ( may be wrong) the whole weight sits against the nut & thread. We find that the swivels corrode very quickly & to put all the weight against the nut would not be so good. With it the other way up & a plate taking the weight & the swivel & nut on top of that one has a stronger fitting
Seems odd having a 19mm chain then a 12mm single rod at the end betwixt penant & chain but we have similar but a double rod.
It is only an observation & I know others will disagree- But so be it.
Looking at the design I think ( may be wrong) the whole weight sits against the nut & thread. We find that the swivels corrode very quickly & to put all the weight against the nut would not be so good. With it the other way up & a plate taking the weight & the swivel & nut on top of that one has a stronger fitting
Seems odd having a 19mm chain then a 12mm single rod at the end betwixt penant & chain but we have similar but a double rod.
It is only an observation & I know others will disagree- But so be it.
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coveman
Well-Known Member
I guess it rather depends on the size of boat. Our club tend to use the white inflatable type - white not red as they seem to get nicked by fisherman. We also used to use hippos but are going away from them as they were so cumbersome to handle by our moorings boat and some damage was occurring to boats as they are hard. Attached to this would be a small inflatable pick up buoy.
My boat is only 22 ft and weighs around 1 tonne so I have a 15m of 10mm riser chain to the main support buoy and a further 5m of 10mm chain reeved through the first chain onto the boat. In this way there is continuous chain from the sinker to the boat with no shackles. Our club has over 60 moorings and we never use swivels.
I have always used the inflatable type and see no reason to change - kind to use and kind to the boat but I guess it all comes down to personal preference.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
You say that you reeve one chain through the other. Presumably you mean you pass one through a loop of the other.
If so how do you manage to pass one 10mm chain through another 10mm chain?
Are you moored in lake in fresh water? In our water 10mm chain would last less than a year & with no swivel , in tidal water, would twist so bad that the chain would be unuseable in a short time.
bajo
Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone for your input, in Barbados we only have the red inflatable and the hard white with the blue band ,I have always used the inflatable but I feel the Caribbean sun gets to them in the end and my present one is now at the bottom of the blue,somehow I still have a lean towards the inflatable.
coveman
Well-Known Member
The tested chains we use have a larger link at one end with a similar but slightly smaller link ( but larger than the chain) at the other end, so it can be reeved, as described. The 5m chain just has a larger link at one end so can be reeved in a similar fashion. The chain then (without any larger link on the boat end) goes directly to the boat.
We are in Portland Harbour, so yes salt water. 10mm chain will last at least 2yrs here, usually 3. All riser chains are checked annually and ground chain every 5 years. No swivels and we rarely have problems with twisting.
I guess wear depends to a large extent on the geology of the seabed. The moorings are always "winterised" over the winter period - a long length of 6mm chain attached to the end of the rising chain with a small marker buoy. The riser chain then is on the seabed over winter, reducing wear.
We are in Portland Harbour, so yes salt water. 10mm chain will last at least 2yrs here, usually 3. All riser chains are checked annually and ground chain every 5 years. No swivels and we rarely have problems with twisting.
I guess wear depends to a large extent on the geology of the seabed. The moorings are always "winterised" over the winter period - a long length of 6mm chain attached to the end of the rising chain with a small marker buoy. The riser chain then is on the seabed over winter, reducing wear.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
We have to change 19mm c30 chain every 3-4 years much longer & we find boats are hanging off a necklace. We would never allow a mooring to be placed with only 10mm chain below the water.
ghostlymoron
Well-Known Member
I've always used inflatable buoys for my moorings 17' to 28' drying. Initially had one with a rod through it but later just a round inflatable with moulded loop underneath. I attach the chain under the buoy and use swivels top and bottom. My moorings in a tidal lagoon so the boat swings through 360° each tide. I change the riser about every 3 years but the ground chain lasts more or less indefinitely.
sarabande
Well-Known Member
The soft single-point mooring buoys by Anchor Marine (a Somerset company 
) have a clever recess so that the attachment shackle cannot touch the boat.
Soft mooring buoys - solution to most mooring requirements
) have a clever recess so that the attachment shackle cannot touch the boat.Soft mooring buoys - solution to most mooring requirements
Refueler
Well-Known Member
Just to add to that - I agree DB ,,, I used to have in back of Land Rover - then it got left by my gate and went missing (think wife put it in the bin !) so I could show people ... a BOW shackle of larger size than needed for my Mooring at Farlington marshes.
Guy who had set the mooring before me ... shortly after it was given to me ... had fitted that bow shackle between ground chain and mooring block, Normally it never lifted as chain was as should be greater than Spring high etc.
But during a storm - that bow shackle snapped .. it just snapped and bent open ... boat ended up luckily in the marshes with no damage. I had been meaning to change it to a standard U shackle - but like many things it got left.
The storm had made the mooring taut .. as the boat veered around - the bow shackle slipped round so the bow carried weight instead of the pin + top. BANG - it gave way and that was it.
People could not believe it till I showed that shackle ... opened out like a paper clip ...
The forces out there sometimes can be far more than imagined.
Graham376
Well-Known Member
Most of the risers where we are, are rope. Ours is 36mm polysteel with 8 ton swivel between that and 19mm ground chain to block. Rope outlasts the thimbles so they have to be checked.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
We were going to change to polysteel but a 40 ft Jeneau had to go on a temporary one we laid & within a week it had swung round in the wind ( partly aided one expects, due to not having the weight of chain) & the back of the keel cut the 38mm polysteel like a knife. the only boat we have on it now is a drascombe. I would advise against polysteel in tidal waters.
