Picking up swinging mooring

[onenyala]

I normally tow my dinghy when out for the day but would prefer to leave it made fast to the pick up buoy. I have managed it a few times but have always been worried when shaping up to the buoy about getting the dinghy and the buoy on opposite sides of the boat and finishing up with the painter between the skeg and the keel.
Any suggestions ?

 

[sailorman]

I normally tow my dinghy when out for the day but would prefer to leave it made fast to the pick up buoy. I have managed it a few times but have always been worried when shaping up to the buoy about getting the dinghy and the buoy on opposite sides of the boat and finishing up with the painter between the skeg and the keel.
Any suggestions ?

approach from leeward & have a longer line on the dinghy to give some slack line to bring aboard

 

[prv]

I've never tried it as I've never been based on a mooring, but how about tying the tender to the main buoy and putting the pickup strop (and small buoy, if fitted) in the tender? You're essentially using the tender as the pickup buoy, except that you lift the strop out of it instead of picking the whole thing up.

Pete

 

[matelot]

I normally tow my dinghy when out for the day but would prefer to leave it made fast to the pick up buoy. I have managed it a few times but have always been worried when shaping up to the buoy about getting the dinghy and the buoy on opposite sides of the boat and finishing up with the painter between the skeg and the keel.
Any suggestions ?

Yes. Tie the dinghy to the support buoy on a rope as long as the pick up and drop the pick up buoy in the dinghy as you depart.

Seen more than one pal sail over the top of their dinghy - great fun!

 

[webcraft]

.
Approach to leeward and plan to get the bow of the yacht alongside the bow of the dinghy. Pick up the dinghy painter with the boathook. It's a much bigger, easier target than the pick-up buoy. We've never had a problem, been doing this for nine years.

- W

 

[Pitterpatter]

I've never tried it as I've never been based on a mooring, but how about tying the tender to the main buoy and putting the pickup strop (and small buoy, if fitted) in the tender? You're essentially using the tender as the pickup buoy, except that you lift the strop out of it instead of picking the whole thing up.

Pete

We had our first year on a swinging mooring this year. We did exactly this - but I attached a spare, shorter painter to the dinghy. The long one is used to tie up to the boat. Just before we leave I take the dinghy forward and tie on tight near the bow. Then you can tie the dinghy to the buoy with the short painter without having to support the weight of the dinghy as well. Having just the short painter also stopped the strops falling in as the did on occasion using the long one or even dangling on the water. All meant squeaky clean strops at the end of the season as they had never been near mud (on a drying mooring)

 

[onesea]

.
Approach to leeward and plan to get the bow of the yacht alongside the bow of the dinghy. Pick up the dinghy painter with the boathook. It's a much bigger, easier target than the pick-up buoy. We've never had a problem, been doing this for nine years.

- W

+1 You basically pull up alongside the dinghy and hook the rope. Always go for the rope not the buoy with or without the dinghy attached.

I think it makes it easier as you can always see the dinghy you are not guessing where the buoy is.

 

[stevebrassett]

I do exactly what PRV is suggesting. When I leave the mooring, I drop the pickup bouy into the tender, and then collect it from there when I return.

 

[oldharry]

Never secure the dinghy to the pick up buoy - if its blowing hard you will have the devils own job retrieving it!

I secure mine to the mooring pennant chain, just inboard of the bow roller before casting off. That way the pick up buoy has no extra load on it, and the dinghy fastening is neatly on deck when i am ready to pick it up and run it aft. I also give it at least a dinghy length of slack so that it rarely gets in the way when I am securing the pennant chain.

 

[Seajet]

I've had a swinging mooring of my own for 34 years, 30 of which had just a pickup buoy, for the last few years we've had a large permanently floating buoy with a pickup.

In both cases I tie the dinghy painter to the pickup buoy handle; I aim for the crew on the foredeck, or if singlehanding, me in the cockpit, to get the handle of the pickup buoy with the boathook, if that looks unlikely it's easy to hook the painter, no problem.

 

[duncan99210]

I've had a swinging mooring of my own for 34 years, 30 of which had just a pickup buoy, for the last few years we've had a large permanently floating buoy with a pickup.

In both cases I tie the dinghy painter to the pickup buoy handle; I aim for the crew on the foredeck, or if singlehanding, me in the cockpit, to get the handle of the pickup buoy with the boathook, if that looks unlikely it's easy to hook the painter, no problem.

+1 That's the way we used to do it when we had a swinging mooring on the Menai. If I was single handed, I used to pick up the dinghy painter from the cockpit and then walk forward, pulling in the pickup buoy as I went.

 

[Modulation]

+1 You basically pull up alongside the dinghy and hook the rope. Always go for the rope not the buoy with or without the dinghy attached.

I think it makes it easier as you can always see the dinghy you are not guessing where the buoy is.

+ another 1. It really is v easy and if anything goes wrong you just abandon the move and do it again.

 

[35mm]

If you are approaching the mooring correctly, you should never get the painter caught between the keel and the skeg! It's easier picking up with a dinghy on the mooring as you aim for the dinghy and have more to grab at. Tie the dinghy up short to the hand buoy rope and not the main mooring. So you just land the hand buoy, loop on, untie the dinghy and lead it to the cockpit. Easy!

 

[William_H]

Picking up a mooring

It is apparent that people have different mooring buoy arrangements. I have a big buoy which stays in the water and a couple of tether ropes from that. I tie the dinghy on a long painter to the deck mooring tether. This combination means the dinghy is just aft of the boat to stop it banging on the boat side. (before leaving and on return) All the ropes are floating polypropelene. The large target of painter and mooring tether are fairly easy to pick up from the bow with a boat hook.
The helmsman has hopefully taken the boat far enough down wind of the mooring before turning up into the wind to wash off speed. Helmsman has to watch the dinghy and buoy and shear away if speed is to great to avoid running over painter between dinghy and buoy. It can be more difficult with contrary tide flow and wind. If there is any doubt about the success of the arrival keep jib on and ready to back the bow away from the mooring to go around. As you do with departure. Worked so far for 30 years. Mind padding on the side of the dinghy helps and it is difficult single handed. olewill

 

[onenyala]

Wow. Information overload !
Thanks.

 

[chewi]

Never secure the dinghy to the pick up buoy - if its blowing hard you will have the devils own job retrieving it!

I secure mine to the mooring pennant chain, just inboard of the bow roller before casting off. That way the pick up buoy has no extra load on it, and the dinghy fastening is neatly on deck when i am ready to pick it up and run it aft. I also give it at least a dinghy length of slack so that it rarely gets in the way when I am securing the pennant chain.

+1

 

[lw395]

In any wind or waves, it's helpful if the dinghy has good fendering.
I agree the dinghy should not be tied to the pickup, tie it independently to the buoy.
If possible, leave the pickup in the dinghy to make retrieval easier and minimise tangles.

If singlehanded in a lot of breeze, run a warp back from the bow outside everything before approaching, and put that through the buoy from the cockpit. Go forwards with it and cleat the free end before the boat blows back too far.

 

[ffiill]

Make sure you have the longest boat hook your boat can accomodate-mines about 8 foot or so.
Last summer in Plockton I was entertained as I am sure were others at the sight of a beautiful expensive 60 foot ish yacht with husband and wife aboard.
Despite appearing to be a very well founded boat with competent crew the wife was given the task of trying to hook a pick up bouy on a vessel with quite a high freeboard.She was a small person and the hook I imagine was little more than 5 foot.
It took as I recall five attempts with her hanging over the pulpit until she took over the wheel and her partner managed to hook the bouy.
My worry single handed is getting tangled when I drop the bouy although I usually let the boat drift away.
Personally I always have my dingy with me either towed or on a long trip up on the davits.

 

[Fantasie 19]

approach from leeward & have a longer line on the dinghy to give some slack line to bring aboard

+1

Usually I aim to come in "along side" the dinghy - which should be holding head to wind or tide anyway... I'm also another one who ties dinghy to pick up buoy... I just find it easier.... among other things it allows me to secure the dinghy while the pickup buoy is still on the foredeck 0 I can then just chuck the lot off the front when I'm ready to go.......

 

[boaterbaz]

On my swinging mooring the dinghy is tied to the pennant from main mooring buoy. For a pick up buoy I used a pole through a polystyrene float, ballasted at the lower end and long enough to reach from deck without using a boat hook.