jdc
Well-Known Member
The point which I raised - about chafe being a 2 way process - shouldn't hijack the OPs thread, so let's just agree to differ.
Securing to a visitors mooring
- Thread starter Dino
- Start date
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
Chain on mooring eye, metal to metal, will erode the steel on each far more than rope on mooring eye. If a mooring buoy owner has a high number of visitors and all are using chains, that could result in faster wear and tear on the mooring eye, compared to rope. Shackle (boat mooring line) on shackle (mooring buoy) will be the same, metal on metal wear.
When the Hippo style buoys, with only a mooring eye (shackle) started showing up, the RYA sailing schools started using the chain method to lasso the buoy. This started wrecking the buoys by applying an upward force on the bottom of the buoy, which it was not designed for, being just a float.
In my experience, you do not need a chain strop to attach to a mooring buoy. I used one, once, on a charter yacht, it did work well, same as any threading exercise for a plain rope. Anyway, pick up lines are now a lot more common than they used to be, so the chain method disadvantages anre almost a moot point now, where I sail.
rotrax
Well-Known Member
Well, in my experience, sometimes you do!
In the more wild, out of the way places, it can be essential. We nearly lost our Island Packet SP Cruiser off Glengarriff in a heavy gale.
The best sheltered visitors buoy had a ring at the top and a long pick-up rope, 8mm braid on the small buoy. I hooked this onboard, made it off with a wind around the cleat, the buoy stopped it leaving the cleat, while I got a heavy line-1 inch 3 ply-through the eye.
It blew an 8, gusting nine all night, our boat, in cruising trim, weighed almost 17 tons and had great windage.
Next morning the 3ply was chafed right through, only the pick-up buoy's 8mm braid was holding us off the rocky shore.
Phew! Got away with it!
Now you know why such a bridle with a metre of chain in the centre can be useful! Some of the buoys in Strangford Lough needed it too, and one off Carlingford.
From DIRECT experience!
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
It would be useful if you described how this was rigged e.g. as a single strop with a knot on the buoy mooring eye, or as a strop passing through the buoy eye secured to your boat at each end. Or something else. Wind and, or wave, swell is always a wear risk that needs to be managed. I have used my kedge chain in boisterous conditions as a back up on the mooring buoy ring to the bowline primary rope as described in my initial reply to the OP.
The point you make though is valid, that we need to guard against wear, especially in wind, and a chain can be useful to eliminate the rapid wear that a fiber rope could be exposed to.
dunedin
Well-Known Member
I don’t see why a bridle with chain in the middle is ever “needed” (although we do still carry one can’t remember when last used it).
Ropes only chafe if they can move back and forward against a rusty metal ring.
Clearly, as people have said earlier on, a single rope from one bow fairlead through the buoy and back to the other side is a recipe for failure, as this will wear back and forward.
But as others have suggested, ropes bowlined onto a buoy should not suffer that issue. And if concerned include a round turn in the bowline.
We use two ropes, both usually bowlined to the buoy with a very long knot such that it can be untied from on deck.
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lustyd
Well-Known Member
Mooring is a compromise. A line directly through a ring will chafe, so the recommendation is to pass it through twice, creating a round turn. Doing so with any suitable rope will usually fill the ring, preventing a second line being used. That's if there's even room for two passes, often there isn't, and often a manky set of strops are filling the ring meaning either you trust the obviously untrustworthy strop or find somewhere else to stop.
General recommendations are an interesting discussion, but out in the real world you need many tools in your box to cope with whatever you find. It's rare for us not to find a way to be secure though. Anyone telling you there's one sure way to moor your boat is wrong and lacks experience.
General recommendations are an interesting discussion, but out in the real world you need many tools in your box to cope with whatever you find. It's rare for us not to find a way to be secure though. Anyone telling you there's one sure way to moor your boat is wrong and lacks experience.
But they vary enormously in quality and confidence. Gigha, for instance, have a long piece of what I'd describe as string. This was worse than nothing because I had to get the string out of the water before I could attach to the buoy, otherwise it would have gone in the prop
dunedin
Well-Known Member
Yes, I am not sure I agree with AngusMcD view that few places in Scotland need own ropes, and Gigha was one of (multiple) places I was thinking of that have a light pick up rope not to be used other than to aid initial pickup (I have seen a couple of muppets overnighting big boats on the thin polypropylene three strand!)…..
But they vary enormously in quality and confidence. Gigha, for instance, have a long piece of what I'd describe as string. This was worse than nothing because I had to get the string out of the water before I could attach to the buoy, otherwise it would have gone in the prop
Early and late season many of the buoys at Gigha (and Loch Ranza?) seem to have lost their thin pick up ropes - which can be handy if able to loop own rope, as these tend to be available when others are full.
Hook&Moor pole is perfect for these situations.
rotrax
Well-Known Member
The one inch three ply was passed through the ring of the buoy and bought back to the boat. It was blowing a rising six, gusting seven, so with the very high freeboade of our boat it was not easy. No way I was going in the dinghy in those conditions.