mooring Etiquette

cat5cable

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14 Feb 2008
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suffolk
www.cat5cable.co.uk
well most annoyed came back to our swinging mooring today only to find another boat sitting on it, we politly asked them to move and they refused saying they would be leaving in the morning so we had to take someone elses, still it was a french boat.

tim
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Thats taking the piss that is. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
I think I would have tied alongside and insisted on transfering the mooring over,its then his choice to stay or not,
 
I had that happen to me once, just berthed rather heavily alongside with some old car tyres as fenders. Had a fishing boat at the time so the steel work on the stern must have frighten him as he soon departed whilst being nagged strenously by his other half.
 
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well most annoyed came back to our swinging mooring today only to find another boat sitting on it, we politly asked them to move and they refused saying they would be leaving in the morning so we had to take someone elses, still it was a french boat.

tim
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Swinging mooring is easy - as already said, moor alongside - swap the bouy over......and then have a screaming row /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I am sure many of us have done this when away from home - so I don't take it personally.......but I expect the visitor to leave (as I would) and in exchange I would suggest another mooring where the owner was probably not coming back.

Not locally - but I have seen swinging moorings with TWO pickup bouys.......one for visitors......
 
Around here due to the moorings being government licensed there is a prescribed fine for using an unauthorised mooring and a transfer fee if you want to register another boat to your mooring.

This didn't stop one guy from picnicing on my mooring while I was away on a race. Even with my dinghy still attached to the mooring. I came in fairly agressively pretending I did not realise he was on my mooring, He had a shinier boat than mine and soon got the message.
Yes if it were me in the above I would be in the water with a knife. Cut the mooring rope and set him adrift then replace the rope. It would be a bit like having squaters come into your home when you are away at work. Swing Moorings here are licensed but actually owned by an individual. (and jolly good real estate investment these days.) olewill
 
Touring Scotland I find that many of the boats are named F*** off (or similar) as indicated by the marks on the empty buoys.
I understand that if the owner returns and I am tied on it, he expects me to move but should at least ask politely, after all he is quite possibly going to do a few trips away himself and where is he going to berth, on my mooring buoy?

As a rule I prefer to anchor as I have no idea what, if anything, is on the other end of the mooring buoy.
 
I have a swinging mooring at Burnham, where this happens frequently.
I overcome this problem by picking up a nearby mooring and letting the yard move the boat later. If there is anyone aboard the visitor I tell them they are on my mooring but welcome to stay.
The disadvantage of this system is that you miss out on all the aggro if you like that.
When I visit other yachting centres it would be nice if other yachties made me feel welcome and not some invader to be repelled.
Dan
 
I often pick up a mooring when away but, of course, would be away promptly if an owner returned. It is easy to spot the moorings which are unused (either no pick up buoy or a filthy mess when you take it aboard) and any with a dinghy attached are obviously in use.
When away last year I put a message of welcome on my mooring also saying when I expected to be back. Perhaps we should have a National system of green balls (whoo) to indicate "free" moorings. I see this as a good way to put the skids under the marina industry, for it we can not anchor because of all the fixed moorings and can not pick up a mooring what options are there?
A useful thing for the RYA to promote I should say
 
Agree, my friend had a mooring in Newton Ferrers and quite often when we went away for a weekend some one would be on the mooring when we returned. Simple courtesy and help for them to find an empty mooring works wonders. Sometimes a bottle ot two would often be forthcoming. Equally when we visited places most of the time this courtesy was reciprocated. Simple manners is what distinguishes us from the animals and a smile does cost nothing
 
pyfleet last summer, moto boat, having lunch, on a swinging mooring he did not own.
bloody great big barge comes down the creek under sail only, skipper shouting "GET OFF MY F'ING MOORING" - he did with time for the barge to pick it up under sail :-)
i guess it helps to have the bigger/shinier boat, shouting helps too
 
3 years ago I went into the river at Crosshaven and headed up to one of the charted anchorages. Every single place out of the fairway was filled with moorings, so when I got to Drakes Pool I picked up an empty one, because there was nowhere else to go. An old fella rowed across and said the owner was out of the water for a while but would be launching in a couple of days, and I was welcome to stay overnight.

Last summer I arrived at Drakes Pool again, picked up the same mooring, and an old fella rowed across and said........yes, you've guessed it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

(He was great though - he rowed back with the bus times for Cork, and did the shopping for a German couple in a visiting folkboat /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )
 
Last time i borrowed a mooring overnight, simply because there was no dedicated visitor ones, the owner came back at 2am, and politly asked me to move, and i did. It's like an unwritten rule, or so i thought. Perhaps it need to be written somewhere.
 
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spoken to my boat yard today and they said dont worry we put all boats back on the correct moorings for our customers, how nice is that

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Very nice of the boatyard, however I still think the visitor should have moved off when asked. Personally I don't like the yard moving my boat for me because I want to be sure myself that it is properly moored and anyway what if there was NO other free mooring, are you expected to anchor whilst a visitor sits on your buoy?

Circumstances differ of course and if there was a free buoy maybe I would use it rather than wake someone up if I was intending staying on board anyway, but not if I was going home and especially if 'home' wasn't local. Then again if the yard had taken a fee from the visitor I would be miffed if I was the visitor and asked to move!
 
Just tell the unco-operative visitor that he can stay for the night if he signs a paper to say he agrees to pay a sub-let fee of £100 - or better still - pays in advance.
 
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