Swinging mooring

[TrailerSailer]

I'm interested in opinions on how to attach to a swinging mooring. Professionally laid with a chain pendant.

Is it normal practice to take the pendant over the bow roller as the main attachement point or should the main attachment be by an additional rope bridle running back to the fore deck cleats?

 

[PetiteFleur]

Depends - my swinging mooring has a rope strop with an eyesplice on the end, orange polythene so it floats, just pick it up and slip it over the cleat. It is a b***** when it's the top of a spring tide and it's windy! I keep meaning to add another rope onto it but never quite got round to it.........
perhaps this year. Other moorings on the next river have a bouy with a chain on the top and this is pulled on board and cleated off; sometimes there is a rope strop as well.

 

[Eygthene]

On my old boat I took the chain over the bow roller and straight to a strong cleat in the middle of the foredeck. I would add a "mousing line" to stop it jumping out of the bow roller in bumpy conditions.

The "new" boat has no cleat in the centre of the foredeck, but one on each side. I shall take the chain over the bow roller to one cleat with a rope through a link just behind the bow roller, to the opposite cleat, to centralise the load. Again, I will mouse the chain on the bow roller.

Some of our members use a rope strop, rather than taking the chain on deck. This avoids the rust stains, but introduces wear on the rope at the roller, needing a plastic sleeve around the rope where it goes over the roller, also risk of wear where the rope rubs on the chain to the buoy.

I prefer the chain, rust notwithstanding, as I have been frightened by wear of my rope strop in the past and it is one more thing to go wrong.

 

[Burnham_Bob]

I've had a swinging mooring for years. There is a rope attached to the buoy which I simply take over the roller to a cleat on the bows. I have a split pin that goes over the bow roller so the rope won't jump out. Never had any wear or chafe on the rope at all.

 

[absit_omen]

Don't 'cleat off' with chain. It will undo itself in rough conditions. If you do, make sure it is seized with rope.

Happened to me once when I found my, thankfully, bilge keeler on the foreshore afer a blow.

Very embarrassing!

 

[William_H]

I use 2 ropes from a large buoy which itself supports the weight of the chain.
We are obliged to use large buoys provided by the authority.
One rope goes to a cleat in the middle of the foredeck the other which takes the primary load attaches to the eye half way down the bow intended for winching boat onto trailer. This latter takes the primary looad with no chafing concern and some protection from other boats that might come adrift.
The rope on the deck is the first connected and last released because the lower rope is harder to reach. I usually release and attach from the dinghy.
certainly if you use rope go for several ropes as backup and protect from chafe. olewill

 

[theoldplucker]

I would never use rope even when protected with plastic hose. Have known the plastic to break in a blow and the3 chafing starts. Known a few to break adrift. A neighbouring yacht last year had a new proffesionally made rope strop. Within 3 weeks on the mooring his boat (thankfully a bilger) was blown onto the beach.
Always chain for us, with shackled loop to end to drop over cleat. A chance of a few rust stains is preferable to losing the boat.

 

[VicS]

The chain should have a loop in the end, either a permanent loop or one formed with a shackle that has the pin seized.

Bring the chain over the bow roller and drop the loop over the cleat. Lash the chain to the bow roller unless the fitting has a pin to prevent the chain jumping off.

For extra security also put a lashing round the chain loop so that it cannot come off the cleat.

 

[giraffe]

have a look at:
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/967873/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1

martin

 

[simonfraser]

i've used rope strop, plastic hose, mousing line, never any wear. i replace it every three years, why ??
perhaps the wear depends on the weight if the boat, mine's only 1T.

 

[Piddy]

Gosport Boat yard use a substantial (probably 1.25" dia) single rope strop with thick rubber hose as anti chafe fixed to an enormous riser supported by a big yellow buoy. The strop has an eye in the end that drops over the cleat. The sizes may be smaller on moorings for smaller boats.

I haven't heard of any boats wandering off unattached over the last few years but I guess the effective shelter from large seas must be taken into account.
Hauling chain on board doesn't appeal to me let alone the issue of surface rust getting into the white deck gel coat.

I'd suggest talking to the professionals that laid the mooring to see what they suggest as they will know about the local conditions.
Hope that helps

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

A few metres of stainess steel chain may be the answer.

 

[Refueler]

Had 3 different swinging moorings.

First I used the chain up and over to main mooring post on deck. Made fast by round then back reversed to lock. Small lashing to hold chain end to standing part to prevent coming loose. Light lashing at bow roller to prevent it jumping out.
Other two I had - I used multiple ropes to separate and different strong points. I'd had a boat break it's mooring post and then decided to not trust one single point again. 3 ropes of about 10mm each (boat 25ft heavy motor sailer). One went to mooring post as normal. One went to windlass. One went to mast base. The mooring post took the weight with windlass just slightly slack to back up, the mast base line slack a touch more so it usually took no part but was as an insurance job.
It's worth noting that 3 small lines are effectively stronger and better than 1 large line of same aggregate size. You have redundancy built in and also the fact you use more than one mooring point.

That's my view anyway.

Oh nearly forgot - the ropes should attach below the marker buoy to the chain and not to the buoy. I used a smaller marker to pick up the ropes. Both buoys I made sure came out of water to stop rubbing on hull. Rope marker buoy with small light line on pulpit.

 

[steve_l]

DON'T use stainless with galvanised!!!

Good (bad?) example from our harbour last spring...
Two lengths of galvanised chain as a riser to a mooring bouy, joined by a stainless shackle. The buoy broke free, no sign of the stainless shackle but the ends of the chain 1m either side of where the shackle should have been were progressively wasted away to nothing.

 

[lw395]

quote:
It's worth noting that 3 small lines are effectively stronger and better than 1 large line of same aggregate size. You have redundancy built in and also the fact you use more than one mooring point.
I think this is true if the loads are properly shared, not if the lines are each well loaded in turn as the previous one chafes through.
There are several ways of mooring a boat, a lot of what is said in this thread is good advice but may not be the best for YOUR boat on YOUR mooring, conditions vary.
Whatever you do, check for the slightest sign of chafe after 24hrs, 1wk, first decent breeze etc.
It is very hard to truly eliminate single point failures, and if you accept that one thing will break, there is a chance that the backup will break also.
Another point to bear in mind is that a mjor ingredient of chafe is movement. If your bearing point (eg bow roller) is a long way from the cleat, the alternating loads maymean that the rope is moving significantly back and forth at this point, due to the elasticity of the rope. (this is made worse if you use plural smaller ropes and one takes most of the load)
I eliminated this on my last boat by adding a big cleat as close as possible to the bow roller, therafter my rope strop lasted 3 long seasons on an exposed mooring in Portsmouth.
Moving the cleat had the additional benefit of the mooring strop not preventing opening of the anchor locker.
I also found that for my boat in my location, attaching the strop to the top of the buoy was best, much better motion in rough weather, buoy cannot rub topsides in wind-over-tide, swivel is out of water. If you do this, obviously the buoy's central rod is a single point failure, so must be big enough and maintained accordingly. I know I'm in a minority in this and don't dismiss other people's thoughts. I'm just trying to understand the core issues and explain an alternative approach.
These guys have some useful info: http://www.divingbelle.co.uk/

 

[graham]

You beat me too it Steve. Stainless shouldnt be mixed with plain mild steel or galvanized .your mild steel chain will act like an anode slowly disolving as its protecting the stainless.

For our 25 ft. yacht I use two pieces of floating rope about 35mm dia. to attatch the boat to the mooring. We have two mooring cleats so double safe. I dont use pipe as a chaffe protector.If theres no rough edges the rope wont chaffe that quickly. Inspect it several times a year replace at the first sign of wear. This will be cheaper than repairing your hull from damage caused by rasping on a chain pick up.

 

[LeonF]

I have always used rope. Two lines with a hard eye at the buoy end shackled to a swivel. The boat end has two soft eyes that go over the bow roller and onto the same port cleat, as the starboard side of the double roller has the anchor chain. The roller is set right on the bow, the bowsprit protrudes beyond, so I have a lashing on the end with a large shackle to take the lines forward as far as possible to stop them chafing on the bobstay. I also have a soft inflated buoy, this stops the boat chafing when wind and tide sets the boat alongside the buoy.
The only time I have had a problem with the mooring line was when the swivel seized and the two lines twisted badly, one rope untwisting itself.
Could the angle at which the lines head down to the buoy make a difference? I have low freeboard so it's a shallowish angle.

 

[Refueler]

My boat sat for yonks without problem with that. I was abroad most of the time and needed a system that meant my boat was secure. That provided it. Others who insisted on single strops - some ended up on eastern road wall ...

Maybe I didn't explain enough - the amount of take up before second line kicked in was minimal, same with 3rd. Mooring post is primary moorinbg point and then move down the list in terms of designed sustained loads.

 

[Refueler]

[ QUOTE ]
DON'T use stainless with galvanised!!!

Good (bad?) example from our harbour last spring...
Two lengths of galvanised chain as a riser to a mooring bouy, joined by a stainless shackle. The buoy broke free, no sign of the stainless shackle but the ends of the chain 1m either side of where the shackle should have been were progressively wasted away to nothing.

[/ QUOTE ]

100% agree .... seen too many wasted chains from that disease. Two boats I know in Langstone years ago lost through that little mistake.

Galvanized or black iron are best but not mixed at all. You can see the corrosion and amount it eats .. giving good warning.

 

[TrailerSailer]

Many thanks for the responses.

The real essence of my question was around the use of the bow roller for guiding the pendant on board, but I did not want to influence the answers.

On my yacht (37') she has been attached to the bouy by chain as suggested over the bow roller. However the bow roller has collapsed and the dealer is suggesting that it should not have been used for mooring as it is only fit for anchoring. Personally I find this a strange suggestion and will argue that fitting was not fit for purpose.