Swinging mooring tackle?

[Mudhook]

After much deliberation, prevarication, lurking and the odd question to the list, I’ve finally bought boat, in partnership. Most of my experience is with alongside marina moorings, or trots where you leave short nylon warps trailing in the water when you leave your berth.

What is the recommended gear for attaching to a swinging mooring buoy? We will be in the Orwell where there is some current, lots of passing traffic (some large) and exposure to wind in some directions. The boat is a 27ft Sabre weighing a good three tons and more. What would scuttlebutt boaters use?

Regards, Mudhook.

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[vyv_cox]

In the Menai Strait most moorings to my knowledge use two large Admiralty pattern anchors connected together with heavy ground chain. Mine was at least one inch but some 1 1/8 and 1 1/4. A swivel in the centre led the 3/4 inch riser chain to the buoy. Pick-up chain was 1/2 inch but 3/8 might be OK with a lighter boat or sheltered mooring. Some use rope for the pick-up, perhaps 1.5 inch diameter, as this causes less damage to topsides in wind-against-tide conditions. I sheathed my pick-up chain with condemned fire hose for this purpose.

The Strait is strongly tidal and exposed to SW and NE, probably more extreme than the Orwell.

All connecting links used by the moorings contractors were welded. Links were made up in mild steel in an overlapping configuration rather like a paperclip. This allows plenty of weld along parallel lengths and means there is no direct pull on the weld. I have seen it suggested that a shackle can be welded closed. You need to be a little careful welding galvanised components as the zinc will embrittle the weld.

My first boat was about the same size as yours and the dimensions above were specified by the contractor. However, the same was specified for my Sadler 34, nearly twice the weight.


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[Mudhook]

Re: Swinging mooring tackle? (buoy-boat end!)

Sorry vyv, I should perhaps have been clearer in my initial query. What I need to find out is what I should use between the boat and the buoy. Surely any old mooring rope, even with a round turn around the buoy ring, will chafe like billy-oh. I know you can put plastic pipe or similar to protect the rope from your cleats, but how do you protect the rope from the buoy? I'm confident that the mooring owner will have laid good enough ground tackle, but the idea of my boat hanging by a thread from the buoy for some weeks at a time doesn't appeal. Or do I drag the whole buoy aboard and secure to my sampson post or something? Apologies for any dimness on my part; I am just starting out!

Mudhook

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[Twister_Ken]

Re: Swinging mooring tackle? (buoy-boat end!)

If you can do it, heave the buoy aboard and make the riser chain fast on the foredeck.

If not, you can shackle on (and mouse) another length of chain to the riser, just beneath the buoy, and put a pick up buoy on the end of that, so that you are chained to the mooring. This works well if you can run the chain aboard over your anchor roller, and put a retaining pin through the roller cheeks.

Why not ask the yard or HM what he/she recommends locally?

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[Johnjo]

Mudhook see you have a Sabre 27,
There is a very good owners association www.sabre27.org.uk
well worth a look and very friendly

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[Mirelle]

Re: Swinging mooring tackle? (buoy-boat end!)

10 ton boat on Deben. Ground chain 1", riser 3/4", then a nylon rope with a bit of hose round it where it passes over the bow roller. I have thought of putting in a bit of chain to go over the bow roller, because the hose does chafe a bit.

The argument against chain is that it is hard work picking it up.

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[vyv_cox]

Re: Swinging mooring tackle? (buoy-boat end!)

I always used 1/2 inch galvanised chain, changed every two or three years when it started to rust. I think you will find that with 3/4 inch riser in some depth of water you won't be able to lift the buoy out. In 10 metres, which we had at HW, we needed a substantial buoy to support the weight of chain, so even if we had been able to lift it there would be nowhere to put it.

As I said previously, some people use a heavy nylon rope. It looks to be at least 1.25 inch diameter to my eyes, so presumably leaves plenty of scope for a bit of chafe. Chain with protection by fire hose has always been my preference but it does attract an amazing variety of sea bugs.

I suggest that attaching the pick-up length of 1/2 inch chain below the buoy, rather than to a rod that passes through it, causes a lot less chafe between topsides and buoy. It can be useful to initially grab the loop to attach the boat, rather than a pick-up buoy, as the pick-up buoy, line and chain can become wrapped around the riser in tidal waters.

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[Mudhook]

Re: Swinging mooring tackle? (buoy-boat end!)

Thanks to all for this useful info, and apologies to vyv for missing his original details about the pick-up chain! All good stuff, and I have some info coming from my boat-partner who is dealing with the people at Woolverstone.

Expect a few more dumb enquiries from us in the near future! We'll see you out there.

Mudhook

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[Twister_Ken]

Current edition of ....

...Piratical Stoat Boner has a long article on moorings with lots of pix and diagrams.

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[vyv_cox]

A prize cock-up on this subject

that I made, so I'll warn you just in case although I'm sure it won't be necessary. Our arrangement was as described by Ken above, the pick-up chain attached below the buoy, length to suit to the deck cleat. A length of polypropylene rope, ours was 1/2 inch, I think, spliced to the chain at one end and the pick-up buoy at the other. Problem was, I fitted a new, longer chain but didn't increase the length of the polyprop. Result was that the pick-up buoy was left bobbing about 3 ft below the surface of the water. It takes some picking up from the deck of a yacht, I can tell you.

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[TheBoatman]

Here on the Medway we use 2 x 18mm braided lines with eye splices. The eye splice is passed through the mooring buoy ring and then back on itself the 2 ends are then made fast on each foredeck cleat with the lines coming in over the bow roller. 1 is slightly tighter than the other so if you suffer a breakaway the remaining one will catch.
Having said that we have a 4.5 ton boat laying to a buoy for 6 months of the year and have never suffered a breakaway and the lines last 3 years before replacement. In that time we have rode out hurricane force winds with no problems.

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[pyrojames]

Re: Swinging mooring tackle? (buoy-boat end!)

I have almost the same setup on DW on the Orwell. 10 ton boat etc. I use a 32 mm rope in a PVC sleeve where it goes over the bow roller to protect against chafe, and change the rope every couple of years. Nothing has broken yet, but DW did drag a bit (30 feet odd) in the SW 10 last November. This was primarily because it was blowing across the line of the set mooring. Similar NWesters, with a couple of miles fetch, didn't shift it.

PyroJames

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