Piles mooring ~ suggestions please:

[Clive_Rigden]

May I seek the advice of operational experts?!

I am moving Enigma onto a piles mooring in the Beaulieu River. The wooden Piles are 75ft. apart and each has a steel bar with rings; I have shackles and metal eyes for splicing mooring lines to - two aft & two for'ard. Enigma is 30ft. overall and the piles will be shared with another yacht of 53ft.

How do Forumites suggest I organise the mooring lines and what sort of line should I use?

Four 45ft. lines of floating rope tied to a single bouy sounds expensive.
Four 30 ft. lines with eyes both ends & thinner "picking up" lines joining them all together on the bouy sounds complicated.

In addition, do Forumites recommend using a skirt between the topsides and fenders between the yachts and if so, what sort of material, colour &c. should be used? Enigma has newly treated and polished white topsides and the other yacht almost brand new dark blue topsides - should that be of any relevance.

All contibutions gratefully received . . .

Cheers! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[LORDNELSON]

I moor between piles on the Hamble (70 ft). My solution will probably not be of much use to you because I solved the problem by buying a pontoon and chaining it between the piles (40 ft pontoon, new, in place about £2600), I do not know if you are allowed pontoons between piles on the Beaulieu River and in any case if there is such a disparity between the size of boats sharing the same pile-set a pontoon may not be suitable. If you do not use a pontoon bear in mind that any ropes left in the water will become weed infested, slippery and unpleasant to handle. See If you can work up a good relationship with the next door boat so that, except when both are out at the same time the ropes can be attached to the moored boat and thus, to some extent, kept out of the water. On the Hamble some owners appear to leave a dinghy (tender) attached to the mooring lines, which I think can help with picking up the lines. Have you tried watching boats on the Beaulieu and seeing what arrangement they have? I do have a diagram issued by the Hamble Authorities (circa 1960!) showing their recommended arrangement of lines for mooring between piles, I think it is rather complicated but if you would like a copy send me your email address in a PM and I will scan it and send you the result

 

[Sea Devil]

................Four 30 ft. lines with eyes both ends & thinner "picking up" lines joining them all together on the bouy sounds complicated..........

When I had trots on the Hamble I more or less had that except the two stern lines were a bit longer, without eyes, so I could adjust the situation ...... I had an eye for the shakle and I made a splice so I could just drop the head lines over the cleats.. The stern lines just had eyes for the shackle to the ring,

The two 'outside' lines fore and aft just had short bits of line on them so when I was going I would uncleat the two outside lines and move them inside tying the to the inside lines .... if that makes sense?

The two inside lines had just one thinner 'picking up' line running to the bouy in the middle..

Cannot remember if I had floating or sinking mooring lines - I think the HM made a ruling about this.

As for the fenders a soulution may be to make a skirt that runs the length of the 'touching areas' of the two boats and hang it between the fenders and the hull - canvas - plastic ???

 

[Clive_Rigden]

Thank you for this ~ most helpful. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[VicS]

Something I saw some years ago in France, either in Ploumanac'h or in the river outside Lezardrieux, possibly both, might be the solution if permitted.

Pairs of large mooring buoys rigidly linked: imagine two buoys on their sides fitted one on each end of a metal pole like this O--O and two or more of these units linked together by short lengths of heavy rope and tethered between the piles like this: l·········O--O·····O--O·········l

There may even have been more than two buoys per unit. It's a variation on the pontoon idea but soft to lie against and with no risk of fenders popping out of place. Also puts a bigger gap between the boats than fenders alone would.

I appreciate it would cost a bit but your neighbour might be prepared to share it.

I do hope you like the idea, it would justify the effort put into constructing the diagrams.

 

[fastjedi]

I believe the "common" way is
1. 1m of chain round the ring shackled to a mooring line with a hard eyelet
2. A thiner lazy line and float between the two mooring lines
3. Bow and stern lines between the two yachts (tricky with the size differential)
4. Leave the mooring line on the other yacht when there (with permission) Keeps the lines slim free and prevents them from getting stuck under the other yacht
5. Occasionally put a pair of extra lines round the ring when bad weather is expected
6. Argue SHMBO everytime you return to you pile mooring

 

[Elessar]

"40 ft pontoon, new, in place about £2600"

I always thought I was buying the flipping thing twice over when I paid the marina fees - now I KNOW I am!

 

[LORDNELSON]

Re: Piles mooring ~ suggestions please - re buying marinas!:

Please add: New chains every third year (£300 - 400), annual third party insurance (£75 I think), high pressure cleaning of deck each spring (£45), replacing lines every so often, moving pontoon off piles as required by harbour master for piles maintenance (£225 this year) etc etc!

 

[Clive_Rigden]

Thanks, that's a novel idea; I'll have a chat with my new "posh" neighbour. the only problem I foresee is that we finish up with too much weight going up and down the pile rod.