Swing mooring - Advise needed re. tieing boat to mooring

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Hi all,
There's a chance i'll be on a swing mooring for 2 weeks next season. The mooring is already set, brand new, big yellow visitor mooring bouy thingy with a nice big metal ring on top of it - excellent!

Now I just have no clue as to what rope method I should use to tie the boat to the mooring. I've a Sealine S23 with 2 bow cleats, so it would make sense to tie to both cleats to share the load. I've seen yachts etc. around the area on moorings tied like this, with almost rachet strap like material as a rope

Can anyone give a swing-mooring newbie advise?

Many thanks folks
 
I keep my boat on a swinging mooring all the time and, because I have no bow roller, I use a bridle. This consists of a short length of heavy warp running from each forward cleat down to a chain swivel, which is attached to the mooring ring by a big shackle. The warps are run through short lengths of tubing at the boat end, to stop chafe on the hull, and the loops through the chain swivel are also covered in tubing for the same reason. I use bowlines with an extra half hitch at both ends, although I believe that splices are stronger. I've used the same arrangement for five years without mishap and I'm about to replace both the warps, not because they're showing any sign of wear but because it seems sensible. It's cheap (because I bought a short "end of drum" length of rope). Works for me.

Having said all of that, if you're just keeping her on the mooring for a couple of weeks, I'd be tempted to take a line from one cleat, put a couple of turns round the ring on the buoy and take it back to the other cleat. I did this for the first three weeks of boat ownership (before I'd cobbled together the Heath Robinson arrangement above) and it worked fine, without any problems. Mind you, my mooring is very sheltered, so if you're going to be moored anywhere with a bit of swell, chafe might be an issue - in which case, it's back to para (1) above.

Good luck! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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Chain over the bow roller I would think, with a secondary method to boot. Chafe is your new enemy!

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There is no 'bow roller' so a chain is out of the question!

Yes I know it'll chafe, i'll try to put some material between the rope/strap and the boat - At least it's only for 2 weeks so it should polish/compound out
 
jhr - what an informative reply, many thanks /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Think your suggestion (para 1) will do me just fine!
 
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to take a line from one cleat, put a couple of turns round the ring on the buoy and take it back to the other cleat. ... .... Mind you, my mooring is very sheltered, so if you're going to be moored anywhere with a bit of swell, chafe might be an issue - in which case, it's back to para (1) above.



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Yep - beware of the chafe doing this. As the boat swings and pulls from one cleat to the other the rope will saw over itself. The bridle is great, even if you do all rope for the time you are there. Alternatively, 2 seperate lines both made fast indepenently used to work for me. The second one was purely back up.
 
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not got a towing eye in the front of the hull?
used to put a bit of anchor chain and padlock from that to mine.

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Nope, didn't come with the boat. Although I am planning on installing one over the winter. If I get that installed, it would be used to hold the 'backup' line, but I would like the main pull to be on the cleats
 
if it was my boat i would bolt a nice strong post on the deck with a metal plate inside as cleats are easy to rip out and i would not trust them.
 
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if it was my boat i would bolt a nice strong post on the deck with a metal plate inside as cleats are easy to rip out and i would not trust them.

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Thanks for the info - didn't think cleats could rip out so easily. In fairness, it's only for 2 weeks next summer, and is in pretty sheltered waters
 
I have got a little 20 foot sail yacht in Chichester Harbour on a swinging mooring. It has a lifting keel so when sitting on the mooring with the keel up, its hull is flat like a power boat. I have not been on a swinging mooring for long, I have in the past always been in marinas however cannot afford it any more. For what its worth, in my short experience of being on the swinging mooring for the last few months, I have tried various methods of securing to the buoy. I found the only method that works well is to take the 1.5 metres of chain attached to the bouy straight through my anchor roller and straight onto a cleat on my foredeack (the cleat is designed to secure the anchor chain whan at anchor, so works perfectly with the mooring buoy chain). I found all other methods of securing to the buoy meant my boat was swinging wildely round and round with the tide and wind. Hope you find a good solution.
 
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