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

[jdc]

I am somewhat surprised that both the OP and Prv seem to have their anchors on the bow ...

+1.

On the mooring I always hoist the anchor with a short strop tied to the pulpit so that it's completely above the rollers and can't interfere with the mooring. Takes 90 seconds to do and 45 seconds to put back once I drop the mooring.

I also think that there may be some arguing at cross purposes about how to attach. There are at least two commonly used systems for moorings:

On our 'proper' mooring in Mylor near Falmouth we have a spherical buoy where the strop is attached directly to the top of the swivel and so is below the buoy. The strop is chain, with a conventional small pick-up buoy distinct from the main mooring buoy. When we aren't there it drops below the buoy and doesn't seem to get tangled.

On our 'summer' mooring in Plockton we have a Norfloat MB120 rigid buoy where the chain goes through the buoy and is attached to a ring at the top. We attach to this using two rather short rope strops with hard-eyes shackled to the buoy and soft-eyes which go over our cleats, one through each of the two bow rollers. The rope is poly-steel and so floats. This way it doesn't tangle with the riser and is easy to pick up, and being short it stops the buoy banging against the boat.

Thus under different circs I use chain or rope. Both work, but I wouldn't recommend hybrids between the two approaches.

 

[Jamesuk]

I usually roll with 3 lines, two of which are on a bowline and taught the other is the slip line ready for departure.

 

[Robin]

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

THat is what we do too and served us very well over many year your side of the pond. We had a second bow roller on our last two UK based boats and used that for the chain line . our current boat has only one bow roller so we use the bridle arrangement as in your pic on the very rare occasion we might choose to use a mooring v simply anchoring.

Edited correction. I don't have spliced loops but use an old braided line bowline tied to each ends of the the chain to form a continuous loop with the chain in order to pull feed it through the buoy ring and reverse the setup ready for departure, leaving just the braid line to slip. We Pick up moorings with a boathook attached slide -off snap hook doo hickey, then use a line threader 'happy hooker' to feed the chain line plus chain through and back on board.

 

[lw395]

Yes that is how I had it set up. Through one fairlead, down to the mooring a single turn on the mooring and back to the other side.

I was swinging on the same mooring for months last year with exactly the same set up with no sign of wear or chafe. But I am doing it differently now.

I am think the culprits were small barnacles on the loop at the top of the mooring which does not have a plastic cover.

Re having the anchors on the bow rollers, yes they do catch on the mooring lines on the very rare occasions the trades stop blowing and I get some clanking. But I like having two anchors ready to go at a seconds notice. I have only needed an instantaneous anchor twice in 13 years continuous cruising but when you need them you really need them.

It's unlikely to be barnacles unless the top ring of the buoy is often underwater?
More likely corrosion, or rough bits where someone has attached with chain or something.
I've seen mooring workers lift buoys with a crane hook leaving a burr on the top ring.
Some visitor's moorings are rusty early in the season, well polished by August....

 

[TQA]

It's unlikely to be barnacles unless the top ring of the buoy is often underwater?
More likely corrosion, or rough bits where someone has attached with chain or something.
I've seen mooring workers lift buoys with a crane hook leaving a burr on the top ring.
Some visitor's moorings are rusty early in the season, well polished by August....

The loop above the buoy is rope, one inch nylon, it should have a plastic sleeve but does not, it is in the splash zone so gets some fouling, it does not have any obvious barnacles but needs a closer inspection. I am in the process of upgrading the mooring to include a large concrete sinker and will have the mooring line and fittings out of the water and cleaned up for inspection.

BTW the fouling growth in the bay I have my mooring is about as bad as it gets anywhere. The combination of the effluent from the rum distillery and year round 80 + F temperatures make it extreme.

 

[prv]

On the mooring I always hoist the anchor with a short strop tied to the pulpit so that it's completely above the rollers and can't interfere with the mooring.

I'd like to be able to do that, but my bow roller fitting incorporates a metal strap over the top of the anchor shank (hidden behind the furler drum in the picture). The anchor can't be taken off the roller except by lowering it out on its chain, and being a 20kg Spade that's a lot of weight in an awkward place to manhandle if not strictly necessary.

Pete

 

[SimonFa]

I usually roll with 3 lines, two of which are on a bowline and taught the other is the slip line ready for departure.

I read somewhere that the two lines option, each taken back to the same cleat was a good protection against rubbing, but having read the thread I think I'll also put a turn in as well.

I also leave a slip - run back to the cockpit when I'm single handed.

 

[dunedin]

I'd like to be able to do that, but my bow roller fitting incorporates a metal strap over the top of the anchor shank (hidden behind the furler drum in the picture). The anchor can't be taken off the roller except by lowering it out on its chain, and being a 20kg Spade that's a lot of weight in an awkward place to manhandle if not strictly necessary.

Pete

That's exactly the same arrangement and same weight as our anchor. But still would not risk the boat so remove the anchor if windy or leaving the boat.
Hence why we are working on a labour saving approach to removal - not fully sorted yet, but the combination of the asymmetric halyard and a short 3:1 tackle with jammer (made up for the task) makes the task much easier. Attach tackle, lower anchor till out of bow fittings and some spare chain, then lift via the tackle

 

[jac]

I'd like to be able to do that, but my bow roller fitting incorporates a metal strap over the top of the anchor shank (hidden behind the furler drum in the picture). The anchor can't be taken off the roller except by lowering it out on its chain, and being a 20kg Spade that's a lot of weight in an awkward place to manhandle if not strictly necessary.

Pete

I've started using the spinnaker pole uphaul to lift my anchor from the roller. You still need to push and shove and manhandle it to get it where it should be but when the weight is held by someone with a clutch and halyard to assist it does save the back!!

 

[DJE]

Never done it but I suppose you could use the spinnaker pole as a derrick to do away with all the pushing and shoving. You would need a pole lift and a seperate halyard or a tackle fixed to the end of the pole.