Mooring rope length

Robert Wilson said:
Does that not make it fearfully uncomfortable, even putting craft in danger of being inundated, in a good sized chop/seas?
I have always felt that a long warp lets the seas roll under the boat without increasing strain on bow/deck fittings when "holding-up" the riser?

View attachment 70877View attachment 70878 This was an August "blow" from the north; the only direction my mooring is exposed to. (All the way from Iceland!)
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Yikes...that must have made fairly uncomfortable viewing!

Without wishing to teach granny to suck eggs and all that, can I ask why you didn't wrap your headsail sheets around the sail a few times? Is there a reason for that? Just genuinely interested as I can no longer reach the clew on my new boat and my "sail tie" backup plan no longer works...
 
Iain C said:
Yikes...that must have made fairly uncomfortable viewing!

Without wishing to teach granny to suck eggs and all that, can I ask why you didn't wrap your headsail sheets around the sail a few times? Is there a reason for that? Just genuinely interested as I can no longer reach the clew on my new boat and my "sail tie" backup plan no longer works...
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It did, but I got away with it and don't relish it happening again!

Mea culpa as far as the sheets/sail are concerned. I spotted the damning evidence just after I posted the pics!
Having had an old working jib shredded, even tightly furled, I must have had a brain-fade. I normally make sure the sail is completely rolled away and tie a strop through the clue etc.
I read earlier this year on the fora that some folk are considering/or do have a "sheath" to hoist up over the sail. Food for thought. :encouragement:
 
JumbleDuck said:
My home mooring has a heavy chain riser to a large buoy. The strop is attached under the buoy and is, I guess, about 3m long. The boat lies to it with the buoy about 1m ahead.
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Does "under buoy" increase the risk of the warp wrapping around the riser?
My current soft buoy has a swivel attachment to the riser and an eye on top - to which the warp is shackled. AFAIK I have had no problems with it, but the hard buoy in Loch Ewe certainly suffers from wrapping and from memory the warps are shackled to the riser.
 
Robert Wilson said:
Does "under buoy" increase the risk of the warp wrapping around the riser?
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Dunno. I haven't actually seen the whole thing out of the water. As far as I know, there is a railway wheel lying on the bottom, then a heavy chain riser to the buoy, and a 24mm (I think) braided strop attached just under the buoy with a loop on the end to which is attached a ~2m pickup line and buoy. I presume that there is a swivel in there somewhere, but I don't know where. It's all maintained for me by a contractor.
 
Some of the advice on here has suggested lifting the buoy partially out of the water. If Robert's mooring is suitable for its location, which it sounds like it is, this is almost certainly not practical.

My own thoughts on strop length are that longer is better unless it is so long that it allows the boat to fall broadside to the wind and build up a bit of speed. I've seen boats 'sailing'back and forth on their mooring putting a lot of strain on everything each time they are brought short, and it looks horrible.

But as I said before it really depends on local conditions. In a sheltered harbour full of other moorings, it is probably unnecessary and selfish to use a very long strop.
 
Kelpie said:
Some of the advice on here has suggested lifting the buoy partially out of the water.
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On the Urr (Kippford) established practice seems to be that you lift the buoy completely into the boat. I haven't seen that anywhere else - perhaps it's a drying mooring thing?
 
JumbleDuck said:
On the Urr (Kippford) established practice seems to be that you lift the buoy completely into the boat. I haven't seen that anywhere else - perhaps it's a drying mooring thing?
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And not practical when your buoy is a big fish farm can, that needs a crane to lift it.
 
Robert Wilson said:
Does "under buoy" increase the risk of the warp wrapping around the riser?
My current soft buoy has a swivel attachment to the riser and an eye on top - to which the warp is shackled. AFAIK I have had no problems with it, but the hard buoy in Loch Ewe certainly suffers from wrapping and from memory the warps are shackled to the riser.
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Maybe it depends where your swivel is and how effective. This is how mine is arranged, had to fit a temporary new riser last week until I can get some heavier octoplait -

P1010067a.jpg
 
Robert Wilson said:
Gotcha. thanks. I think that arrangement would suit my Loch Ewe mooring and obviate the need for my "hard buoy".
Are you moored in much of a tide-flow? Just out of interest.
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We're in the Ria Formosa off Faro so it's sheltered waters. Surrounded by drying mud banks and spring tidal flow is only around 4 kts through moorings. Can get pretty windy there, we've seen 50+ kts a few times and area is also subject to tornadoes in winter but those have missed moorings (so far) by about 0.5 miles.
 
Robert Wilson said:
At least we don't get tornadoes here! Well, not yet, anyway!!
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Don't be so sure. A couple of years back I saw a proper tornado touch down over the hills behind Skelmorlie, from Port Bannatyne. I told Liz in the marina office, who came up to me later to say she'd told a relative who had said I must have been wrong, because it was impossible for a Tornado to touch down there. After a couple of minutes of talking at cross purposes, we worked out that she had thought I was talking about an RAF aircraft ...

I once saw a proper waterspout - sea to cloud - from my boat as I approached the Mull of Kintyre from Gigha. It was probably two or three miles away, but still quite impressive from the deck of a 21-footer. Particularly if one remembers the fate of the Viper in Peter Duck.
 
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