Mooring to a buoy

[[70521]]

I spent 5 years on a swing mooring, one BIG inflatable buoy and attached to it one inflatable pickup buoy. Really very simple to use. I hate these solid "skateboard wheel" type mooring buoys that you bounce off every 15 seconds making the whole boat sound like a drum.

 

[chewi]

Au contraire. I've come to the conclusion that most UK sailors have never seen a proper manly mooring buoy like this.

Richard

That's an inadequate buoy without a pickup.

I do not assume all other motorists drive any other particular type of preferred vehicle. There are bicycles. lorries , motorbikes as well as cars of every description.
Each has to be dealt with as is.

So also there are various moorings, all chosen to do the job they were designed for.
A fiat 500 is not a pickup truck, nor is my mooring designed for abuse.
It works for me, it is not intended for you.

It is in 2 m of water with a 2 m tidal rise, so quite shallow & attached to a short shared ground chain in crowded waters.
If it is hauled up to deck with a lassoo it will draw our anchors together and diminish my clearance from the neighbours boat so I leave it on the surface as it is designed to be. Two boats live happily all summer in this arrangement.

It is nobody elses business to compromise that.

Horses for courses.

 

[awol]

Au contraire. I've come to the conclusion that most UK sailors have never seen a proper manly mooring buoy like this.

Richard

You have the advantage of 2 hulls - with 1 that abomination would clatter against the hull at every turn of the tide. Oh, wait, you don't have tide either.

 

[lw395]

I remember reading many decades ago of a d-i-y mooring arrangement which involved a plastic dustbin pierced from top to bottom by a 4" drainpipe. All was sealed and a bit of concrete was added as ballast to keep it upright. Afloat the drainpipe stood about 6' in the air. The chain was fed through the drain pipe and attached to a pick-up buoy at a height where it was easy to grab from the pulpit.

Eminently sensible imho.

If you don't mind the bow of your boat spending the working week nudging a dustbin with some concrete in it.
I considered something a little bit like this, even bought a 200 litre chemical drum.
One of the constraints for many of us is that mooring contractors like heavy chain, so you need a lot of buoy if the water's deep.
There were some French buoys shaped like two cones base-to-base which I liked the look of, at the time buying one in the UK wasn't easy.
The shape would sit nicely under the bow of the boat, needing just a soft fender around the rim. Which would no doubt just get trashed by the cowboys.

 

[lw395]

You have the advantage of 2 hulls - with 1 that abomination would clatter against the hull at every turn of the tide. Oh, wait, you don't have tide either.

Presumably they don't have wind either, judging by the string the buoy is on?

 

[Daydream believer]

All I want is to hear whether Awol and Daydream Believer also have inflatable buoys ..... but I suspect that trail has long since gone cold.

Richard

I used to sell quite a lot of inflatable buoys to the mooring holders in our section of the river (along with the tackle to go with it inc sinkers etc) the standard inflatable buoy cost approx £ 90 and was perfectly adequate for its purpose. A few had to be replaced over the years (we had nearly 84 moorings) but that was fair wear and tear.
however, with the gear underneath costing upwards of £300 a pop plus the cost of the tug to lay ,loosing a mooring becomes expensive.
we have gradually told people that these are owners moorings, they are private and not available to visitors.this is because a fair few have had large yachts hooking up and bursting the buoys or simply dragging them down the river.(a 50 ft boat parked on a 28 ft boats mooring as an example)
My own buoy is in a position that on old charts ( may even be on new ones i do not know) is incorrectly labelled as a visitors mooring. As a result whenever my squib was not on it every tom dick and harry who fancied himself as a budding Roy Rogers would park on it. Some, not all , using the lasso technique.
As an aside----one bloke parked on it and refused to move when i finished a race with the squib as he said it was clearly a visitors mooring and he was a visitor!!!
i sell standard solid buoys at about £165 each and this means owners have had to start forking out more money
i have now to put a larger solid one on my mooring at a cost of £220 along with a large sinker to stop it being dragged on to the club start line

as for people suggesting my inflatable buoy was not good enough. My reply is that it marks my mooring properly within the mooring area for all to see and it supports the tackle below. It provides a means for me to attach my squib properly
therefore it has sweet fa to do with others what i use and they have no right to miss use it.
in spite of what people suggest the buoy is no indication of what sort of boat the mooring is normally used for and we all know the definition of assumption. Some owners do put boat sizes on the buoy but many numpties seem incapable of reading the info so it is wasted on them
our mooring rules are that the max size of boat is 30 feet with 5 exceptions so small inflatable buoys (subject to them marking the spot properly) are more than adequate

 

[Daydream believer]

The anti-lassoo mob feel like a set of people designing cars with no footbrake because a proper driver changes down the gears, then wonders why their cars get damaged all the time. Surely it will eventually sink in that sailing schools teach lassooing as the most versatile and most seamanlike way of attaching temporarily to a buoy whilst getting the main lines on.

Until then the rest of us have a duty to take these badly designed bouys out of the system until.

Couple of points here
first
can you pleast tell me what gives you the right to use someones mooring
secondly
as far as i can see ( poor internet connection here in Breskens) no one has mentioned the RYA's recommendations to sailing schools
that is that they should NOT teach the practice of lassoing to inflatable buoys

so can you tell me how you think you have the DUTY to damage somebodies property

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I'm sure I'm going to regret asking this but why do you want to "push a piece of rope"? And how would you?
I seldom use visitor's moorings, but for the odd occasions that I do, I have a length of good line with an eye splice at each end, and a metre of chain in the middle, made up for the purpose. It works very well.

I am old enough to remember JDS of blessed memory, describing one of his boaty "characters", as Percy, a pusher up of ropes.

There will be nothing to regret, when all is said and done.

Why push a rope? It works best with old and thus stiff nylon. Many of the Scottish public mooring buoys only have the shackle on top, no ring, no pick up buoy with mooring line. In addition the shackle is stiff and flat against the top of the buoy and does not respond to Moorfast Prodding to thread a line.

Once the buoy is level with my quarter I can reach down and thread the rope through. Depending on the drift, one hand is gripping the boat, or trying to lift the shackle and the rope hand is pushing the rope through. If it has a chain part, the weight of the chain has pulled it back out as I faff about.

Nine out of ten times the shackle is hooked with the boat hook and the Moorfast threads the line. I don’t see a need for a rope / chain slip as I always double up anyway.

 

[Rosie1963]

If you lasso a bout with a rope riser that passes up through it, the repeated lassoing and pulling the rope round on departure you end in sawing through the rope riser. Please pick them up as they were designed to be.

in 2014, during a massive refit ashore during the summer, my buoy was lost. The riser had been sawn through from what I can only deduce was from constant lassoing. When I asked EYE - they specialise in supply of commercial moorings in East Anglia - they concurred. They suggested sewing on a webbing tube to the riser (and the loop); I got the impression they have seen this before. It does not matter what type of buoy you have: hard, soft, medium.... if the riser goes so does your buoy! ohhh and a new polyform one is upwards of a £ton for a 35foot yacht. Why should I pay for a "decent" foam filled Norwegian made one at double the cost when some inconsiderate boaters are sawing through my riser?

PS - I should add that my original buoy was eventually returned to me by a walker that picked it up and dropped it into the Marina where it got passed onto the yacht club and then my boatyard!

 

[Kukri]

in 2014, during a massive refit ashore during the summer, my buoy was lost. The riser had been sawn through from what I can only deduce was from constant lassooing. When I asked EYE - they specialise in supply of commercial moorings in East Anglia - they concurred. They suggested sewing on a webbing tube to the riser (and the loop); I got the impression they have seen this before. It does not matter what type of buoy you have: hard, soft, medium.... if the riser goes so does your buoy! ohhh and a new polyform one is upwards of a £ton for a 35foot yacht. Why should I pay for a "decent" foam filled Norwegian made one at double the cost when some inconsiderate boaters are sawing through my riser?

I know both Rosie and Pyrojames and I concur with both. If you “lasso” buoys that don’t belong to you, you are not welcome on our river, which for the avoidance of doubt is the Orwell.

 

[RupertW]

You have the advantage of 2 hulls - with 1 that abomination would clatter against the hull at every turn of the tide. Oh, wait, you don't have tide either.

Nonsense bred from your inexperience.

I am tied to one of these right now with a monohull and no banging for the simple reason that I've put a couple of feet of line out. Caught in the proper method by lassoo then transfer to lines through the loop.

Eventually the luddites will be burst out of their silly inflatable bouy obsession by RYA and other sailing schools teaching he proper method (lassoing) to enough people. The cost of the head-in-the-sand approach will thankfully be met by those who refuse to learn what the phrases "seamanlike" and "fit for purpose" actually mean. Don't worry there are far more of us lassoing than silly inflatable bouy owners.

 

[lw395]

I know both Rosie and Pyrojames and I concur with both. If you “lasso” buoys that don’t belong to you, you are not welcome on our river, which for the avoidance of doubt is the Orwell.

I considered fitting a rope cutter at one point.
Maybe a good lashing of tar?

 

[NormanS]

Nonsense bred from your inexperience.

I am tied to one of these right now with a monohull and no banging for the simple reason that I've put a couple of feet of line out. Caught in the proper method by lassoo then transfer to lines through the loop.

Eventually the luddites will be burst out of their silly inflatable bouy obsession by RYA and other sailing schools teaching he proper method (lassoing) to enough people. The cost of the head-in-the-sand approach will thankfully be met by those who refuse to learn what the phrases "seamanlike" and "fit for purpose" actually mean. Don't worry there are far more of us lassoing than silly inflatable bouy owners.

Petulant ignorant dangerous tripe. And some of us can spell buoy correctly.

 

[Stemar]

Eventually the luddites will be burst out of their silly inflatable bouy obsession by RYA and other sailing schools teaching he proper method (lassoing) to enough people. The cost of the head-in-the-sand approach will thankfully be met by those who refuse to learn what the phrases "seamanlike" and "fit for purpose" actually mean. Don't worry there are far more of us lassoing than silly inflatable bouy owners.The arrogance in this statement makes me think I wouldn't enjoy a pint with you. In any case I'm glad my mooring is surrounded by other moorings, so unlikely to attract your attention. For the record, it's MY mooring, I pay for its upkeep and you, along with all other members of the lasso brigade are not welcome. Apologies for the poor formatting; the forum has suddenly decided not to allow any formatting or carriage returns.

 

[Aja]

Nonsense bred from your inexperience.

I am tied to one of these right now with a monohull and no banging for the simple reason that I've put a couple of feet of line out. Caught in the proper method by lassoo then transfer to lines through the loop.

Eventually the luddites will be burst out of their silly inflatable bouy obsession by RYA and other sailing schools teaching he proper method (lassoing) to enough people. The cost of the head-in-the-sand approach will thankfully be met by those who refuse to learn what the phrases "seamanlike" and "fit for purpose" actually mean. Don't worry there are far more of us lassoing than silly inflatable bouy owners.

What arrogance.

Donald

 

[RichardS]

This thread's gonna blow. Stand clear folks. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[GHA]

Very much like ghosts and aliens then? :encouragement:

Richard

Or like AIS being better at night....

Or so many threads on here about how we can pick up targets at 300, 400, 500 miles away across open sea at night....

..........

 

[chriss999]

My mooring is in line with the majority view here, ie silly inflatable buoy with daft pick-up buoy. Most in the vicinity are the same.

It works for me, though picking it up is a knack. for instance I usually use slowtack, stewmar & seashoreman's method as outlined in posts 7, 12 & 13. Works nicely assuming, I'm not blown sideways into the buoy (when it all becomes horribly tangled up with my bilge keels).

Luckily it is in shallow water so far from being tempting to be lassoed by sailing schools or by those folks used to better equipment.

There are some substantial lassoo-fodder buoys in deeper water hereabouts. They obviously cost more. My sailing budget goes elsewhere & I'd rather not have this delicate flower spoiled by lassos.

 

[awol]

I am surprised that the middle seas yachts with their substantial buoys don't employ a buoy jumper for their mooring activities.

 

[Kukri]

It would be very interesting to know whether ANY of the people who are so keen on lassoing mooring buoys have moorings of their own.

I suspect that none of them do.