Some advise please. Mid-river mooring.

[RichardtheBoffin]

Hi All,

My previous experience has all been on the Thames, moored in a marina, but now my boat is moored mid-river. The local boat yard set up the moorings for me when the boat was launched.

The river is tidal and when the tide, flow and wind are all in the same direction, it has quite a strong effect on the boat!

I have yet to muster the courage to do any trips, until I am confident with getting moored up again!

The boat has a long bow line into a buoy and two short stern lines onto another buoy.

The lines have been tied off onto the shackles on the buoys. They don't loop back. (probably to avoid chafing?)

The actual warps are quite long, so on the Thames you could throw a loop over a mooring bollard from quite a distance.


The way the lines have been attached to the moorings suggests that they should be released at the boat end and left to sink and then picked up with a boat hook when returning, but that seems like a lot of rope to leave behind!

Ideally I'd like to be able to cast off and moor up single handed, but this may just not be possible.

The boat is a 26 foot cruiser with a single outdrive so not that maneuverable and the decks are quite a long way up from the waterline.

Any advise welcome!

 

[Bouba]

Hi All,

My previous experience has all been on the Thames, moored in a marina, but now my boat is moored mid-river. The local boat yard set up the moorings for me when the boat was launched.

The river is tidal and when the tide, flow and wind are all in the same direction, it has quite a strong effect on the boat!

I have yet to muster the courage to do any trips, until I am confident with getting moored up again!

The boat has a long bow line into a buoy and two short stern lines onto another buoy.

The lines have been tied off onto the shackles on the buoys. They don't loop back. (probably to avoid chafing?)

The actual warps are quite long, so on the Thames you could throw a loop over a mooring bollard from quite a distance.


The way the lines have been attached to the moorings suggests that they should be released at the boat end and left to sink and then picked up with a boat hook when returning, but that seems like a lot of rope to leave behind!

Ideally I'd like to be able to cast off and moor up single handed, but this may just not be possible.

The boat is a 26 foot cruiser with a single outdrive so not that maneuverable and the decks are quite a long way up from the waterline.

Any advise welcome!

Without pretending I could moor on the Thames. I have always gone along side a bouy and hooked it from the pilot side of the boat, this gives you from the helm seat to the stern and then the length of the boot hook to catch it. Do the upriver one first so you can drift down to the second bouy. Never try to hook it from the bow, the freeboard of a motor boat is much lower towards the stern and much closer to the helm if you need to readjust

 

[Mr Googler]

how about tie all 3 moorings together with a single line and a buoy at the centre when you leave. When you come back you only need to grab the one line which you can tie off on a mid cleat. You then have time to reattach all the moorings to the appropriate cleats on you boat without the worries of drifting away!

 

[jac]

What you describe is fairly standard trot mooring. It's worth ensuring that there is a good pick up buoy on each line, man enough to take each line but also clearly visible.

Some people will join the bow and stern lines together on leaving so there is just one to pick up but that seems like setting another trap for yourself.

Get used to ferry gliding - use the strong tide to your advantage so that you are still moving through the water but at stationary against the buoy. Doing that you can gently approach the uptide buoy with it near your pick up point then very gently go across the tide to it before picking it up . Once you have that one in place you can drop back to pick up the others with no need to drive at all - just ease back on the throttle and you will go gently backwards - remembering that you're still going forward through the water though.

 

[Murv]

A pick up line between the two bouys can be very handy when single handing, as you can pick it up from the helm and loop it over a midsheaps cleat. If you do set one up, make sure you have lots of floats on it!
Also worth attaching a shorter warp to the front bouy, with a loop for your bow cleat, and a small float on the end. That way, you can motor in, pick up the the small float with a boat hook, and then go up front to attach it as the boat drops back.
If the tide is running the other way, it's actually easier getting the stern line on, just a bit trickier to steer. But, once it's on, the boat will lie against the pickup line and you can wander forward and grab the bow line.
Just take your time, and always engage neutral just as you approach the lines so that you don't get anything wrapped up!

I was a bit intimidated first using a fore and aft mooring, but it's actually a whole lot easier than a pontoon mooring (for me,anyway) and I regularly single-hand a 22' single engine boat on shaft on and off the mooring.

 

[RichardtheBoffin]

thanks for all those suggestions. I actually found mooring on Marina pontoons ok, but you only got one shot at it otherwise you get blown across to the next pontoon and not having a bow thruster meant some embarrassing getting off and walking the boat round!

Leaving the warps tied to the moorings with floats on sounds like a plan. Joining all three together sounds good too as long as I don't get tangled.

The bow line is the key as most of the time the boat will drift in the right direction to do the stern lines, most of the time!

With no rainfall and a strong rising tide, the river does flow backwards sometimes.