Rafting on buoys

[richgiddens]

The visitor buoys at Itchenor are rated for up to six vessels. Now, I've rafted and I've picked up a buoy but never rafted on a buoy. Not sure what the procedure is. Instinct says, raft up then take a bow line to the buoy and, presumably, stay rafted up?
Advice please.

 

[mainsail1]

Yes, go alongside another boat rafted to the same buoy. Use all usual lines and fenders. Then put a slip rope through the buoy ring and secure in such a way that you have some of the strain on your line.

 

[Lucky Duck]

If possible make sure your masts are not directly opposite each other.

That stretch of water gets quite a lot of traffic, some of it producing a fair bit of wash.

 

[Cockaigne]

Yes, go alongside another boat rafted to the same buoy. Use all usual lines and fenders. Then put a slip rope through the buoy ring and secure in such a way that you have some of the strain on your line.

The problem with doing it that way is that the wind and/or tide will push you back out of reach of the buoy. I prefer to motor right up to the buoy so I can more easily reach down to get a line on it. Then drop back into position alongside your neighbour and attach breast ropes and springs.

 

[Roberto]

Should someone complain there is not room, just keep inviting your friends and add more boats

 

[Cockaigne]

Île de Hoëdic - Port de l'Argol? I was there last week but managed to get a catway.

 

[Seajet]

I've been on the visitors' buoys at Itchenor when given the ' we're leaving at dawn ' idiot unfriendly treatment by selfish gits trying to keep the buoy to themselves; the obvious answer is ' well enjoy your trip, won't worry us as we'll be made on to the buoy, we'll give you a hand off if you like ' - of course they never do, so next day ' still here then ? '

It IS important when rafting on buoys anywhere to stagger the masts using the springs so they don't clash in wash from passers by or if the weather pipes up.

 

[richgiddens]

I've been on the visitors' buoys at Itchenor when given the ' we're leaving at dawn ' idiot unfriendly treatment by selfish gits trying to keep the buoy to themselves; the obvious answer is ' well enjoy your trip, won't worry us as we'll be made on to the buoy, we'll give you a hand off if you like ' - of course they never do, so next day ' still here then ? '

It IS important when rafting on buoys anywhere to stagger the masts using the springs so they don't clash in wash from passers by or if the weather pipes up.

Hi all,
thanks for the replies. Good call re staggered masts, I probably wouldn't have thought of that.
Re rafting generally, my experience has largely been very positive. On one occasion in Yarmouth, I was barely able to get back to my own boat having been plied with about a gallon of G&T's supplied by the boat that I rafted to!

 

[Muddy32]

Should someone complain there is not room, just keep inviting your friends and add more boats


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Ah the central buoys. We used to use them in St Peter Port before the pontoons were there.

 

[scruff]

Should someone complain there is not room, just keep inviting your friends and add more boats

Good grief - that looks horrendous! Part of the joy of sailing & picking up moorings is the peace & privacy!

 

[laika]

Then put a slip rope through the buoy ring

You make that part sound easy. The approaches here would seem to be:
* Get the dinghy out
* Employ the services of the local berthing master / harbour master
* Get onto the bows of one of the existing rafted boat and haul in to bring the bows right up to the buoy allowing you to pass your rope through the ring. This option may be somewhat strenuous if there's a couple of 10 tonne boats already rafted and may not be appreciated by the owner of the boat whose string you are playing with.

Personally I try and avoid rafting on buoys if any other option is available

 

[johnalison]

You make that part sound easy. The approaches here would seem to be:
* Get the dinghy out
* Employ the services of the local berthing master / harbour master
* Get onto the bows of one of the existing rafted boat and haul in to bring the bows right up to the buoy allowing you to pass your rope through the ring. This option may be somewhat strenuous if there's a couple of 10 tonne boats already rafted and may not be appreciated by the owner of the boat whose string you are playing with.

Personally I try and avoid rafting on buoys if any other option is available

Doubling up is not too bad but it starts to get complicated after that. As second boat it is not usually very difficult to pull the nose in and reach the buoy, perhaps with the help of a boathook, and perhaps the third boat, arriving on the other side, but then it become the kind of scramble described. Some years ago I developed a theory that buoy-rafting boats should be of markedly different sizes, when the small boat won't disturb the larger, and the larger will be like a solid wall to the smaller, to the advantage of both. My first attempt to put this in practice was not initially well received by the small boat I had chosen in Braye, but they did admit the following morning that it had been a peaceful night.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Some places, such as those on the River Yealm, provide two 'tails' on visitors' buoys to assist.

We have tended to visit Braye outside the really busy periods so have not had to contend with rafting but it has always felt a bit to 'restless' a place for me to be entirely comfortable with it.

 

[laika]

As second boat it is not usually very difficult to pull the nose in and reach the buoy, perhaps with the help of a boathook

Although I note your interesting mismatched boat size theory...I suspect berthing masters generally direct similar sized boats to raft together. In my case that would end up with me attempting to pull in 20+ tonnes against the current as the first boat to raft up (ie the second boat in the raft). I'd certainly give it a go but with any significant current I wouldn't fancy most people's chances.

 

[lw395]

You make that part sound easy. The approaches here would seem to be:
* Get the dinghy out
* Employ the services of the local berthing master / harbour master
* Get onto the bows of one of the existing rafted boat and haul in to bring the bows right up to the buoy allowing you to pass your rope through the ring. This option may be somewhat strenuous if there's a couple of 10 tonne boats already rafted and may not be appreciated by the owner of the boat whose string you are playing with.

Personally I try and avoid rafting on buoys if any other option is available

It's normal to get the tender out.
A small boat can raft on a bigger one without a line to the buoy if there's little wind, current or waves, but generally either get the tender out unless you host can reach the buoy to pass a line through.
IT would be unusual for two boats together not to have at least one tender inflated between them?

I have had harbour staff offer to put my line through the buoy for me, Salcombe IIRC.

 

[Yngmar]

You make that part sound easy. The approaches here would seem to be:
* Get the dinghy out
* Employ the services of the local berthing master / harbour master
* Get onto the bows of one of the existing rafted boat and haul in to bring the bows right up to the buoy allowing you to pass your rope through the ring. This option may be somewhat strenuous if there's a couple of 10 tonne boats already rafted and may not be appreciated by the owner of the boat whose string you are playing with.

Personally I try and avoid rafting on buoys if any other option is available

You forget the many uses of a telescoping boathook and some patience. We've managed to thread a mooring line through a loop in a marina slimeline that was way too short for our boat. Underwater. One boathook to pull the loop open at an angle, another to drop the end of the rope through, and then some artful twisting and twirling to pick it back up on the other side of the loop. All mostly underwater Took about 10 minutes.

 

[johnalison]

The ideal way would be for the first boat to thread an extra line, which could be quite light, and make it fast loosely. This line could be handed across to the second boat and used to pull its own mooring line through before being returned to the first boat.

 

[[3889]]

Good grief - that looks horrendous! Part of the joy of sailing & picking up moorings is the peace & privacy!

It is. I've rafted on that very buoy and had a Dutch boat use springs seemingly made of Dyneema nealy rip my cleats out. I also watched 10 Brit boats make an unscheduled departure amidst much clanging from the adjacent buoy at 4am after failing to apply the staggered masts suggestion.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Where is it?

 

[Cockaigne]

Where is it?

Île de Hoëdic - Port de l'Argol.