Single handed picking up mooring.....

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Matata

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We are a group of three "growing up" men. We would like the flexibility of maybe going out single handed. Sigma 33. Most things we can manage except for picking up our mooring since handed. It weighs a load. Normally we have someone on the helm,the other picking up the mooring small white buoy... Has anyone any smart solutions Ta Nik
 
May I suggest buying a copy of Stress Free Sailing by Duncan Wells.

The way I pick up the mooring single handed is at about 0.1 knot into the tide, have one of these pickup buoys with a hoop like handle and pick that up with the boathook from the cockpit (with a bit of practice you can walk forward and do it from the bow), pull the buoy inboard clip a warp, that is lead forward and through the roller, onto the chain once attached you have all the time in the world. Walk forward with the warp and pull the chain through the roller and attach in the usual way.
 
Matata said:
We are a group of three "growing up" men. We would like the flexibility of maybe going out single handed. Sigma 33. Most things we can manage except for picking up our mooring since handed. It weighs a load. Normally we have someone on the helm,the other picking up the mooring small white buoy... Has anyone any smart solutions Ta Nik
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If your present mooring involves hefting up the main riser chain, then you need a main buoy to support that weight. You then attach a lighter pennant to the buoy, and use that to secure the boat to the riser and buoy. This can be picked up easily enough using a boathook and secured until you are ready to pull up to the main riser. However, unless you have an electric winch, you wont pull the boat up single handed against much more than a top end F4, particularly if the boat is pitching at all!

Set it up in a way you can handle it comfortably. Lots of us do, and regularly provide amusement for onlookers as we get it wrong!
 
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Bringing a line from the bow outside all to the vicinity of the cockpit helps. Then you don't have to go forward until ypu are attached.
 
Matata said:
We are a group of three "growing up" men. We would like the flexibility of maybe going out single handed. Sigma 33. Most things we can manage except for picking up our mooring since handed. It weighs a load. Normally we have someone on the helm,the other picking up the mooring small white buoy... Has anyone any smart solutions Ta Nik
Click to expand...

Before approaching the mooring, cleat a mooring warp at the bow, then take the free end of it back to the cockpit, outside everything.

Put the boat with the pickup alongside the cockpit.
Pass the warp through the end of the mooring pennant or something attached to the pick up. Something stronger than the handle of a plastic pick up buoy.
Walk forward as the boat drops back, taking up slack in the free end of the warp.
Put warp on bow cleat.
That's what I do if I need to.

A variation is to have a big snap carabiner on the end of the warp, snap it on to the mooring alongside, then go to the bow taking up slack as the boat drops back. Make fast, then moor as normal with the mooring pennant/strop.
 
lw395 said:
Before approaching the mooring, cleat a mooring warp at the bow, then take the free end of it back to the cockpit, outside everything.

Put the boat with the pickup alongside the cockpit.
Pass the warp through the end of the mooring pennant or something attached to the pick up. Something stronger than the handle of a plastic pick up buoy.
Walk forward as the boat drops back, taking up slack in the free end of the warp.
Put warp on bow cleat.
That's what I do if I need to.

A variation is to have a big snap carabiner on the end of the warp, snap it on to the mooring alongside, then go to the bow taking up slack as the boat drops back. Make fast, then moor as normal with the mooring pennant/strop.
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Plus one to the above especially the big snap gate karabiner.

A flag buoy as the pickup buoy makes it even easier.
 
Like many, when singlehanded I use the method mentioned above, ie line from the bow, standing in the cockpit snap it onto the mooring, drop back, haul it in.

Then attach the boat to the mooring securely and disengage the line, and stow it for next time.

Practice makes perfect. What can go wrong is getting the tide wrong and ending up in a tangle round the keel. Or even worse swinging broadside to the tide whilst holding the mooring buoy and scrabbling to attach the line. That is horrid and if this happens I need to abandon the approach & try again. Or it ends in tears!!

Sometimes I use a variation on this. My line from mooring to bow comes back to the cockpit & I can haul it in without going to the bow myself. Doesn't always work & may be a complication too far. But it is really cool when it works
 
As others have stated, hook the pick up buoy, attach it to a carabiner, which in my case runs to the bow and back through a wee block, pull the pick up buoy to the bow and thereafter attach the mooring line in the normal manner. The strength of the carabiner's not really an issue, as it's stronger than I can pull it in, but any climbing shop will be able to tell you, if you want!
 
I find it's easier to catch a length of floating line than a standard pickup buoy with the boathook. So the mooring pennant has 2 buoys with just a few feet of floating line between them. The tide or wind usually spreads them apart to make an easy target. Then use the long line attached to the bow but free end in the cockpit.

Derek
 
If it's your own mooring you can rig up a pole type thing with pickup line attached, or buy a fancy buoy with a high pickup point, the Mara buoy looks great but cost £££s. There are cheaper options that sort of do the same thing.

On my own mooring without this - just a floating pickup line to a smalI buoy, I can happily deal with this singlehanded on a boat with a significantly higher bow than a Sigma 33 - UNTIL it's windy, and the bow has blown off before I can get from helm to bow with boathook in hand.

If windy therefore I pick it up off the stern, moor to it temporarily stern-to, run a line to the bow and turn boat. Motor stern-to into wind - most boats do this pretty well.

Even in light winds, the only way I can moor to many visitors buoys is similar - many have nothing but a metal ring in the top which is way out of reach from the bow - even lying on the deck and leaning over.
 
cpedw said:
I find it's easier to catch a length of floating line than a standard pickup buoy with the boathook. So the mooring pennant has 2 buoys with just a few feet of floating line between them. The tide or wind usually spreads them apart to make an easy target. Then use the long line attached to the bow but free end in the cockpit.

Derek
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May I respectfully deprecate the use of floating lines? Probably not an issue in Oban but in "heavily trafficked" estuaries they can be unpopular - a sinking line with a pick up buoy - which naturally assumes a position right next to the mooring buoy itself - avoids the risk of grabbing passing boats by the keel, rudder or prop..
 
jamie N said:
As others have stated, hook the pick up buoy, attach it to a carabiner, which in my case runs to the bow and back through a wee block, pull the pick up buoy to the bow and thereafter attach the mooring line in the normal manner. The strength of the carabiner's not really an issue, as it's stronger than I can pull it in, but any climbing shop will be able to tell you, if you want!
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The strength of the carabiner becomes highly relevant if you don't manage to "make it" to the bow and get the mooring strop over the cleat in time, so the boat is lying to the carabiner until you get sorted, and you have twenty five tons of boat to deal with!
 
On or AWB reversing to the bouy works every time. You total control of the boat at low speed and can see the buoy right up to the transom. Step back from the helm and it’s easy to put a warp thro the eye or pick up line.
 
I'm very lucky when picking up my mooring (fore and aft) as it's pretty well sheltered but I do worry about picking up swinging moorings without a pickup buoy elsewhere. I've been looking at these mooring hooks that thread a line through an eye but one of the club members have an Kong mooring hook which is a snap carabiner on a boat hook that looks a great piece of kit just to get it on something. If I have to use it I want whatever to clip on and not mess about, if I have to get in the dinghy to sort out a proper line after so be it but I have quite a low freeboard.

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