Pontoon /mooring which is safer?

[graham]

Just returned from the Y.C. My boat and all the others on swinging moorings riding out the storm(gusts up to 75 knots) with minmal damage. The odd sail cover working loose etc.

Boats on the pontoons sustaining damage due to heeling violently in gusts and fenders all ending up on deck.

I spent an hour assisting various owners before considering it too dangerous to be on the pontoon .

What annoys me is how few owners had taken any real precautions despite well advertised weather .

The idea of safe and sound on a pontoon berth is in my opinion mis guided .

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[Little_Russel]

Possibly. But I think that you will find that people who keep their boats in marinas get less stuff nicked.

<hr width=100% size=1>Sail the Se7en seas...

 

[johna]

Did you get aboard and check your boat for damage? I did just stepped aboard off the pontoon.

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[global_odyssey]

Wouldn't it be nice if marinas actually provided fixed soft fenders as well as adequate and well-spaced cleats on all their pontoons!

They all seem to charge far more than the 'intrinsic' value of the services they provide, don't they? (imho). It would represent such a small precentage of the mooring charges, yet be so beneficial for the users.

OK, I get it - the resultant damage is good for them - their mates will get the repair work!!

Sorry for the cynicism and controversy.


<hr width=100% size=1>I've got wind......................
...............................in my sails!

 

[VicMallows]

Guess it largely depends on the particular Marina and Mooring locations. I'm on a drying/swinging in Chichester Hbr and am relatively happy (gusting 11, steady 9 at Hbr entrance). Still wish though it was in Hythe Marina (very sheltered from SW), where it would be if I hadn't chickened out of the delivery trip 2 weeks ago due to a forecast gale which never materialised! ( yes, the marina that the water ran out of due to lock failure recently!).

Interested to see it's as bad in Wales ... thought it was more local to here.

Vic

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[starboard]

Boxing Day 1999...Troon marina,winds in excess of 100mph for nearly 4 hours, many boats damaged because they were heeled over so far that thier toe rails were in contact with the pontoon and therefore immpossible to fender. In these conditions providing a swinging mooring had held firm the boat would have ridden the storm as it will always lie head to wind and been well clear of any fixed objects that could do damage. I also wonder how people in marinas tend to secure thier investments with poxy bits of string!! surely a few pounds spent on decent rope will provide a good insurnace policy for thier often large investment!

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[halcyon]

Depends on location and wind direction. Last big blow we had was 94 that did big damage due to it being easterly, pushing 100 mph. At the time all boats in the marina faced East and all sufford damage from rolling and for aft pitching against pontoon. Our boat on a swinging mooring sufford no damage, even though we had 6 foot waves running through the trots. But we did loose 14 boats from swinging mooring due to mooring stones moving, though one sank after the boat behind nocked out the port in the sugar scoop stern with it's bowsprite, another had a hole cut into it's stern from the anchor chain of a yacht that had dragged it's mooring. Another 20 boats approx were lost in Falmouth as well that day. Visted Mayflower Marina Plymouth the day after and that was held together by wrope, the floating breakwater was sunk, and most boats damaged.
How to you stop a storm? That evening at Mylor, Caldrose advised the storm would carry on all night, and a freinds cat was just about to go aground, his wife asked Derek what they could do, he said pray, 30 minutes later the water was dead flat and not a wisper of any wind, makes you think.

Brian

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[graham]

No I couldnt get aboard safely but past experience tells me all is well .Iuse hugely oversize mooring gear connected to a bollard that could be used to crane the boat with.

As someone else has said why pontoons dont all have permanent fendering I will never know.

The extra cost would be offset by less damage and not wearing out so many fenders.

As for people using inadequate mooring lines ,it never ceases to amaze me ,the same people probably drive expensive cars on bald tyres.

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[TheBoatman]

In a blow the best type of mooring has to be a swinger. Providing it's in good condition the boat will always lay to the wind.
Here in Kent we have had 2 recorded hurricanes, in the last 20 years, and on both occasions our YC swinging moorings (boats) have suffered no damage.

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[oldharry]

<the boat will always lay to the wind.> I dont think so.

In an ideal world yes: unfortunately tidal flows through many mooring sites make very sure that boats ride all over the place, get chains caught round the keels, ride up on the wind so that the chain graunches the topsides each side of the bows, and places huge shock loadings on the gear as the boat is pulled up short at the end of the scope moving perhaps at 2- 3 knots.

Add the local sailing club yobs having a race through the moorings - you can guarantee that at least one dinghy will clobber a moored yacht - not infrequently actually punching a hole in the topsides, and certainly scarring the gel coat or the expensive paint system. Do they report it to anyone? like hell they do.... !! Snigger snigger and sail off.

Then Fred returning from his weekend misses his mooring and has to go round again - oh drat that ones in the way - ooh, nasty!

But I agree that a good sheltered mooring is probably the best place to be when its blowing a Hooly.



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[graham]

We are fortunate to have no tidal stream through the moorings due to millions of pounds of public money spent on the Cardiff BarrageBut as the river lies on an east west line we do get the wind accelerating down the valley it creates.

Pontoons closed this morning due to structural damage last night.No serious problems to any of the boats on moorings that I could see.

In my experience there are more bumps and scrapes caused by people getting it wrong in marinas than amongst swinging moorings.

If money were no object I would have a pontoon berth for normal use and an incredibly strong swinging mooring for when hooligan force wind is predicted.(And a code 0 )

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[Joe_Cole]

Out of interest, how did "MV Picton" fare in the storm?

Joe

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[graham]

Cant see it from our side of the bay but would have been sheltered if still where I last saw it just outside Penarth marina.

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[Heckler]

was in the club the other week and there were some old mags there, picked up a circa 2000-2001 one and in the letters section was a letter form i presume the owner of said boat praising the marina people for letting said boat have a berth
stu

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.beneteau-owners-association.org.uk

 

[AndrewB]

If you were right ...

... insurance premiums would be less on a mooring than a pontoon berth instead of the other way around.



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[Joe_Cole]

Stu,

Doesn't surprise me, but I think they fell out when he started making unrealistic demands.......however, I think that we had better not open up that whole saga again!! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Joe

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[oldharry]

I have a swinging mooring myself - and recently acquired one that was not in the racing circuit of any dinghy club! Boat totally unscathed when she came out at the end of the season - for the first time in years! And the new mooring has very little tidal flow either, so no chain marks on the bows.

Insurance premiums are loaded against swinging moorings simply because if anything does go wrong the bill is likely to be much bigger. If the mooring fails the boat will go walkies, and s**s law demands it will clobber half a dozen other boats before ending its career on the seawall, possibly with one or two others it has torn from their moorings on the way up, leaving the insurers with bills for repair or replacement of several yachts, as well as the removal and disposing of all the wreckage.

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[VicMallows]

Vast difference between companies. One refused point-blank for all-year on the swinging/drying mooring; other said no difference to marina at all (and cheaper/same cover) Guess depends on their (limited?) particular experience.

(If coming from the South, and turned right and North at the NAB to your mooring, certainly wouldn't insure you!)

Vic

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[LadyInBed]

No one has mensioned fore and aft moorings either on piles or buoys. I rate them much safer than either swinging or pontoons, with two fore and two aft lines they stand up well even to cross winds. Admittedly you tend to find them on rivers and less exposed locations, but that just goes to make them more safe.

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[shamrock]

Sure, tide flows through a swinging mooring means that boats don't always lie head to wind. But the question is about what happens in a blow.

80 knots of breeze, 3 knots of tide. No contest. Boat lies head to wind and, as long as nothing else gives, it's the best place to be.

We had our boat break free from a pile mooring in 80-90 knots, the fact that she couldn't swing head to wind put huge strain on the gear and snapped two 20mm nylon lines (she's only a 3 ton 1/2 tonner (?!)) I'm sure she'd have been fine on a swinging mooring.

We also survived, but only just, a similar blow a few years later when we were in Camper and Nichloson's at Gosport. The swell through there was seriously dangerous and our oversized lines kept us in place but others took a lot of damage.

we're in a much more sheltered East Coast marina now, thankfully, but even so, if it ever blows over 90 knots again, I'd rather be riding on a strong swinging mooring with chain from the buoy to the bows.

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