Salutary lesson or why you always have a second line to a mooring.

As someone who has never used a mooring, should there be a turn through the eye of the mooring or not?
 
bbg said:
As someone who has never used a mooring, should there be a turn through the eye of the mooring or not?
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There are several different ways to secure your line/s to the mooring buoy but the one you need to avoid for anything other than a short period is a simple loop from the boat through the buoy and back to the boat. This will simply rub the loop against the buoy (line or eye) backwards and forwards with the wave action until the loop is worn through.

Richard
 
bbg said:
As someone who has never used a mooring, should there be a turn through the eye of the mooring or not?
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Never used a mooring? Do you always anchor?

And yes, two lines either tied with a suitable knot to the buoy (round turn and two half hitches would be much better than a bowline as a bowline can't be undone under pressure) or a short length of chain shackled to the bouy or two lines through the buoy with a turn on each to avoid/eliminate wear. Or a proper pick-up strop with an eye in the end dropped over a suitable cleat. Some moorings very properly have two strops (as belt and braces).

Other points to consider are wear where the stop comes through the bow roller and whether the boat will be bemusing against the buoy in wind over tide.

A few others I probably haven't thought of yet as well...?

All IMHO of course.
 
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Always anchored, used a marina or dry-sailed. Or just sailed for a few weeks at a time without putting into port.
 
john_morris_uk said:
A few others I probably haven't thought of yet as well...?
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Yep :)

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A short length of chain, with a rope tail spliced onto each end and loops to go over the cleats. The chain takes the wear of the buoy ring, the rope prevents damage to the boat. We can't use a bow roller because the anchor occupies one and completely blocks the other.

I put clear heat-shrink over the rope/chain splices to help them slide more easily through shackles and rings on top of buoys.

Note that there is still an ordinary mooring warp attached loosely to the buoy as backup :)

Pete
 
There was a turn on the mooring loop.

The main line that wore through was 7/8th twisted nylon which has a breaking strain of 20,000 lbs new and a SWL of 2,000 lbs.

The back up line was a single line of smaller diameter. It is actually the line I use from the bow back to the cockpit to pick up the mooring. It should have been replaced by a heavier line but I am waiting to get my mooring inspected and put it off. The phrase 'ISLAND TIME' is applicable.

I am on daily inspections now but am still at a loss. The boat was on the same mooring last summer for months with exactly the same primary line with no signs of wear.
 
prv said:
Yep :)

IMG_0265_zpswl9i0hba.jpg


A short length of chain, with a rope tail spliced onto each end and loops to go over the cleats. The chain takes the wear of the buoy ring, the rope prevents damage to the boat. We can't use a bow roller because the anchor occupies one and completely blocks the other.

I put clear heat-shrink over the rope/chain splices to help them slide more easily through shackles and rings on top of buoys.

Note that there is still an ordinary mooring warp attached loosely to the buoy as backup :)

Pete
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I have a set-up like that for the very few occasions that I use a mooring like that. However, I always bring both ends back aboard over the (second) bow roller. The way that you have it, the chain will incessantly saw back and forth on the buoy, as the boat swings around. The noise and wear on the chain and buoy are entirely unnecessary. If you can't use the bow roller, it would be better for both ends to come in through the same fairlead.
 
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prv said:
Yep :)



A short length of chain, with a rope tail spliced onto each end and loops to go over the cleats. The chain takes the wear of the buoy ring, the rope prevents damage to the boat. We can't use a bow roller because the anchor occupies one and completely blocks the other.

I put clear heat-shrink over the rope/chain splices to help them slide more easily through shackles and rings on top of buoys.

Note that there is still an ordinary mooring warp attached loosely to the buoy as backup :)



Pete
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This is what we use. It looks like your anchor might have cut the line.
 
I have known boats lost when nylon strops chafed through; the owner knew she was at risk but a series of gales made it impossible to get out to the boat, and despite the usual precautions the 16mm nylon chafed through.

Too much is made of the ' elasticity & shock absorption' of nylon strops, this is negligible for the usual length of a mooring strop.

Another risk I discovered the hard way is that the permanently floating buoys often have razor sharp barnacles underneath; when the boat nudges up the buoy in light wind over tide conditions and the strop loops under this buoy, it has a life of minutes, maybe hours at best.

' Backup ' chains or lines are an indecisive fudge, and if a boat is on a mooring for say a few weeks / months unused these can combine into a twisted spanish windlass, damaging or lifting off either the boat's mooring cleat/s or the mooring sinker from the seabed !

I have observed all this from over 40 years as a mooring owner / self maintainer / and on working parties laying & maintaining other moorings for my club too, as well as having moorings at other places.

I use a single, strong, regularly maintained chain, and above all else keep the swivel strong, checked and replaced regularly; on all-chain moorings the swivel is usually the weakest link.

Of course every shackle must be securely wirelocked ( moused ) with Ormiston or similar wire; some people use plastic electrical tie-wraps as a quick cheap answer but I don't trust these for a second, even those supposedly better at withstanding U/V.

On picking up a mooring as a blue water visitor I'd have my own topchain ready and after bringing the mooring top buoy aboard shackle this own chain on, at least lightly mousing it too - having had as good a look as possible at the state and size of the mooring's chain which might hopefully give a clue what size boat it is intended for.
 
NormanS said:
The noise and wear on the chain and buoy are entirely unnecessary. If you can't use the bow roller, it would be better for both ends to come in through the same fairlead.
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We were in Alderney two nights ago, riding to that strop in reasonably breezy conditions. There was the occasional groan and clunk, but nothing too dramatic and certainly not enough to keep me awake in the forepeak. I did look at the middle of the chain when I brought it on board yesterday morning, and couldn't see any wear to speak of.

Certainly I wouldn't use a setup like this for a home mooring, I'd shackle on either a chain or a strop with a thimble in the eye, but for occasional nights on visitor buoys I'm not at all worried about wear.

I don't have any fairleads; I suppose I could put both legs onto one cleat, but it seems preferable to me to arrange things symmetrically to lead straight ahead.

Pete
 
I am on the relatively benign waters of Windermere.

On our home mooring I use chain to under the mooring buoy with a back up loose rope mooring strop with chain to below the primary chain.

I carry a retired but servicable mooring rope with spliced loop at boat end and short chain to screw gate caribiner for nights away on other buoys. If there is much wind forecast I rig a second line.
 
My old inland swinging moorings insisted on two lines, with snubbers. Only used hard eyes and shackles to mooring ring. Then a back-up chain. All with chaff protection. These all had to be cleated or shackled to different points on the boat if feasible!
Sounds overkill, but I saw many worn through warps, twisted chain and un-seized shackles due to the dance that boats did during the winter. It was meant to be compulsory to also check your boat every two weeks; this was done communally by club members and logged.
 
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