Mooring set up help please ?

[Al Dickson]

Heres the bow of my Nordstar 31

As you can see its got a stemhead roller for the anchor but she's going to be on a swinging mooring quite a bit over the summer & I dont want to have to unshackle and remove/stow the anchor each time.

A bridle onto the two bollards will chaff - what do you reckon -another stem head roller and a proper big cleat ?

 

[Nick_H]

You can buy stick on, or screw on, stainless pads to prevent the bridle from chaffing the GRP

edit: or you could use fairleads, although they'll be a bit close to the cleats

 

[Blackfeather]

Having been in the same situation on a swinging mooring some time ago I would definitely say have a dedicated roller.

It will be the most reliable method and will pay you back in the convenience of not having to swap and stow anchor etc each time.

 

[Blackfeather]

[ QUOTE ]
prevent the bridle from chaffing the GRP

[/ QUOTE ]

But in my experience the rope will still chafe on the stainless pad.

 

[jhr]

My boat (22 footer, so smaller than yours) has no bow roller and I use a bridle arrangement for mooring, with a warp from each forward cleat going down to a swivel attached to the buoy, so that the bridle doesn't tangle as the tide turns. To avoid chafe, I put the warps through a length of plastic hose at the point where they would chafe, both on the hull and on the loop of the bowline attaching the warp to the swivel. I inspect the lines and the swivel regularly, replacing where necessary, and this arrangement has worked well for the last 6 seasons.

As mentioned, my boat's smaller than yours but the same principle should apply. You could have a slack secondary line of some kind, as a back-up.

 

[sailorman]

if moored "Off centre" she will sheer about in the tide / wind.
how often do you anchor ???

 

[Nick_H]

[ QUOTE ]
But in my experience the rope will still chafe on the stainless pad.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, but could put some plastic hose, or leather sheaths, over that part of the rope.

 

[Al Dickson]

The "turndown" from the bollard type cleats over the edge of the gunwhales is quite a big angle and I think anything going over there, whether in a plastic hose or not will chafe badly.

Could I just bolt another stem head roller beside the anchor one on the bowsprit plus perhaps a big cleat directly aft near the windlass ?

 

[jonboy1]

When I had a 28 foot boat on a swinging mooring, I used the towing eye, nearer the water level ( therefore, a better load path ) to attach to, then the main load is removed from the upper `pretty` superstructure.
Obviously this needed to be attached using a dinghy for access.

 

[Nick_H]

Well that depends how long you make the bridle, I was envisaging about 3m long, which would of course reduce the angle.

I can't see that a roller is ideal anyway, you may find the rope chafes on the side supports of the roller as the boat yaws in the wind, and you don't particularly need a roller, as you're not pulling long lengths of rope over it, as you would when anchoring. A fairlead on the end, and a cleat further back, may be more suitable?

Are those lights in the bow?

 

[Blackfeather]

[ QUOTE ]
Could I just bolt another stem head roller beside the anchor one on the bowsprit plus perhaps a big cleat directly aft near the windlass ?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is exactly what I would (did) do, but rather than a cleat, put a sansom post straight behind the new roller.

 

[MapisM]

[ QUOTE ]
The "turndown" from the bollard type cleats over the edge of the gunwhales is quite a big angle and I think anything going over there, whether in a plastic hose or not will chafe badly.

[/ QUOTE ]I'd fit a curved s/s profile above that angle, job done.
Could even be nice to look at, if properly installed.
Something like this one, maybe rounding the edges a bit.

 

[Al Dickson]

Thanks folks some good suggestions I will bear them all in mind on my next "site visit".

The permanenty fixed anchor will be handy but used a lot less than the mooring - however there's only enough room in the locker for the chain so unless I fit an extra roller then I would need to unshackle it and stow it which may not be the end of the world.

The only problem I may encounter fitting another stem head is the mooring line fouling in the anchor flukes when she swings about. Perhaps I can sit the anchor in its roller t'other way up !

And yes those are bow lights - previous owner swears by them apparently !

Thanks again all

Alan

 

[mjf]

I agree with you - and that's exactly what i have done when 'swinging' Use the cleats when arriving at the mooring and transfer to the hull tow eye when leaving the boat.

Not sure how strong the bowsprit is or how attached for serious loads.

 

[Al Dickson]

Not sure how easy it would be to retro fit a hull towing eye ?

 

[jonboy1]

Towing eye is just a stainless steel eye bolt with a stainless steel backing plate. (Plate fabricated to suit, and fixed to hull stiffeners inside ). If you have easy access to inside bow. I suggest you have a look to see if practical.

 

[mjf]

Yep - thats how it is on my rib.

 

[Bandit]

I had a 34 ft Halmatic on a swinging mooring in St Peter Port which is fairly exposed from the east .

I has two 22mm mooring tails shackled independently each so if one fails the other is left attached with plastic hose over where it passed over the rubber belting and deck moulding. I used the same lines for 10 years and changed the shackles as required. The shackles were drilled and pinned.

The mooring lines went one each to a cleat about a metre back from the bow roller on each side, thus "shortening" the overall length of the boat compared with feeding it through the bow roller. If the moorings are tight and when there is no wind but a swell it reduces the liklihood of damage to the boat.

This way there were two independent lines to seperate cleats incase one failed.

Surprisingly even in a rough easterly the loadings on the cleat were low and there was no snatch.