Swinging moorings - a newbie

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The bright lights of marina living are beginning to dull and I find myself becoming attracted by the thought of a swinging mooring. Initial worries are:

1) Boat security - do mid-stream boats get busted in to more than marina berth boats?
2) do moorings strops break/mooring anchors fail and the boat drifts off in to the night? If the mooring kit is well maintained can this risk be largely removed?
3) Do boats get crashed in to more than they do in marina berths?
4) Id the dinghy ride to the boat a complete pain in the backside?
5) Do owners of boats on moorings pine to be in a cosy marina berth with shorepower and easy walk ashore to the pub or do theyrevel in the beauty and quietness of the river mooring
6) do you lay awake at night when the forecast is "W, backing SW gale 8 occasionaly severe gale 9"
7) Does the boat get damp
8) Does SWMBO think a river mooring is the modern equivalent of living in a cave?

All feedback gratefully received.

rob
 
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1) Boat security - do mid-stream boats get busted in to more than marina berth boats?

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They are probably more vunerable - but then they are also more inaccessible. We haven't been broken into either in marina or mooring
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2) do moorings strops break/mooring anchors fail and the boat drifts off in to the night? If the mooring kit is well maintained can this risk be largely removed?

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We use oversized 3strand warp with a loose chain backup to a mooring that is maintained by club members. Yes it is a risk - but at least the boat isn't crashing into something hard when the wind is in the wrong direction!!
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3) Do boats get crashed in to more than they do in marina berths?

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Swings and Roundabouts - it is more exposed - especially if you're on a thoroughfare - but, in a marina you've got movements up and down the run ....
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4) Id the dinghy ride to the boat a complete pain in the backside?

[/ QUOTE ]A litte - in that I have to plan when I'm going to the boat and know that it will take me time from parking the car - in the winter a local marina berth is much nicer for access - but then you don't get the solitude of a mooring
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5) Do owners of boats on moorings pine to be in a cosy marina berth with shorepower and easy walk ashore to the pub or do theyrevel in the beauty and quietness of the river mooring

[/ QUOTE ] When we holiday we tend to go to marinas - so we can choose to "do the pub" when we're actually onboard.... if you want to go to the pub then just go !!
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6) do you lay awake at night when the forecast is "W, backing SW gale 8 occasionaly severe gale 9"

[/ QUOTE ] No - she is well protected by land
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7) Does the boat get damp

[/ QUOTE ] Not really - during the winter she is in a marina and that's when the dampness shows - unless you run the dehumid
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8) Does SWMBO think a river mooring is the modern equivalent of living in a cave?

[/ QUOTE ] Nope!!
 
Pyro's always had his on a swing mooring. As a SHMBO, I much prefer this option as it costs a fraction of a marina and I always persuade Pyro head up the river in the tender alone and then bring the boat alongside the club so i can step aboard in comfort!

As for damage, the only time he's had either of his boats busted was both times he'd left them in a marina!! The first was in a gale and she broke a line and busted the toe-rail when she'd have been safe as houses on the swing mooring, and the second time was when the new boat was 'safely' tucked up an a marina and got rammed! The old boat did used to scrape her bottom on the old swing mooring but we've got a bigger boat and a deeper mooring now so that's not an issue.
 
I've never had a marina berth, but have visited plenty. The answer to all your questions is "it depends on where the mooring is". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But to be more helpful:
1) Boats tend to get broken into very rarely. This happened to me once, and it was almost certainly kids who swam out to the boat. More damage was done than items of value nicked. Do boats at marinas get broken into regularly? Boats on moorings are often older and have poorer owners, so fewer goodies to nick. They are harder to get at than those on a pontoon, and are further apart.

2) I've never had a mooring strop break, largely because I always use a chain strop. Next year we are lashing out on a length of stainless steel chain, to cut down on the orange hand syndrome.

3) It really does depend. I know a couple of folk in Poole harbour who have had serious damage done to their boats, but in our creek nobody has any reason to get close to the boat and the only boats are those going into or out of the creek to and from their moorings. (Touch Wood!!) I've not had this problem.

4) Depends how far and crucially, how exposed. I bought a heavy-ish rigid dinghy that only ever goes between the boatyard and the mooring, and carries the two of us plus luggage without a ridiculously low freeboard. If it's too rough for the dinghy, it's too rough to to take SWMBO sailing. Again, a trip to the middle of a harbour would be another proposition altogether, although many companies and sailing clubs have ferries.

5) No, I find marinas industrial and noisy. My favourite bit is sitting on the boat, glass of wine in hand watching the sun go down and listening to the curlews and redshanks.

6) No. Not since October 1987 passed with no damage.

7) It's the same water as you get in a marina .... unless you're talking about lack of electricity.

8) See (5) above. SWMBO loves the "countrified" nature of our mooring, and she is not a natural troglodyte.
 
I have just a couple of points to add to Fireball's comprehensive reply.
Marinas are magnets for the sticky-fingered. I have heard of many well organised raids on boats in so-called secure marinas.
On (3) the only time my boat has been damaged, its been in a marina with the fendered hull rubbing on the pontoon. A friend lost his mast-top instruments when a neighbour's hallyard came free. Another friend lost his radar when a neighbour's mast collided with his in a blow.
On (4) this is the downside and requires much more pre-planning then turning up at a marina. The actual dinghy trip isn't so much of a problem... not having chandlers and a handy shop is.
On (6) - best of both worlds. Slip the mooring for a trip to the pub and stay on their mooring if you must. Otherwise, enjoy the peace.
 
I'm not a swinger, but I have piles.

My comments:

Security - used to be harder to get to afloat moorings, but as so many marinae are installing security gates, etc, maybe afloat will become easier for tea leaves.

Strops - doesn't really apply, but I have two (one oversized) lines at both ends, in case one breaks.

Bashing - swings and roundabouts

Dinghy ride - I enjoy about a 300 yd row, there and back. But I do have to allow time to get the tender from the compound into the water, and the row, so probably lose about 20-30 minutes per trip compared to alongside mooring. BTW - get a hard tender that's easy to row, not a deflatable. And rowing is more satisfying than outboarding, plus less fuss storing and transporting oars than an outboard. PS oars float, outboards don't.

Peace vs convenience - not very peaceful on my mooring until river traffic stops, but at least I have views that aren't confined to walls of white GRP six feet away

Awake at nights - no

Damp - no

Cave - no, in my case.

TIP - if SWMBO is allergic, go down by yourself, move the boat from the mooring to a marina, then pick her up from the train. That way, one night's marina fees, not one week's.
 
Just to add my personal experience to teh gems of wisdom expressed above:

[ QUOTE ]
1) Boat security - do mid-stream boats get busted in to more than marina berth boats?

No idea what the stats are. Nothing stolen so far (well, perhaps some fuel siphoned off, but we are not absolutely sure

2) do moorings strops break/mooring anchors fail and the boat drifts off in to the night? If the mooring kit is well maintained can this risk be largely removed?

Not really that often. You should have backups, though. At the moment we are on a fore and aft: a pain to get onto compared to a swinger, but there are 4 hefty lines holding us on.

3) Do boats get crashed in to more than they do in marina berths?

Definitely no: marinas are much worse

4) Id the dinghy ride to the boat a complete pain in the backside?

No

5) Do owners of boats on moorings pine to be in a cosy marina berth with shorepower and easy walk ashore to the pub or do theyrevel in the beauty and quietness of the river mooring

Absoluetly not - and I enjoy the feeling of the extra grands sitting in my pocket. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

6) do you lay awake at night when the forecast is "W, backing SW gale 8 occasionaly severe gale 9"

No, I would do that if she were attached to a hard pontoon, though. Maybe I am being optimistic here, but that is my current thinking.

7) Does the boat get damp
What is the difference?

8) Does SWMBO think a river mooring is the modern equivalent of living in a cave?
No



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My experience was that, yes I have had a little damage, but I've also had damage in a marina. The remoteness of my mooring probably made some maintenance get deferred, which cost me money, but trivial compared to the savings involved. I am more confident that the boat is ok on a swinger in a blow than when ashore chocked up by some of our esteemed boatyard chaps.
I guess it depends on how you want to use the boat and what mooring you can get.
 
Without a moments hesitaion......stay in the marina! There's no other finer (or safer) way to stroll along the pontoon, kick fenders and share anecdotes (and an occasional drink) with like-minded people. Almost as much fun as using the forum.

In this day and age you simply have no need to worry about the money. If you had been on a mooring, perhaps the money saved would have been invested in shares. Just think of the losses you would have made. You could have invested in a high interest rate bank account. That bank by now must surely be bust so you've lost out again. See, much better to be in the marina.

If you can't afford the marina. Don't worry. Just borrow it. If the government is happy to borrow without any means to pay it back, why should you concern yourself with such trivia. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Well, i'll provide a counter to this 'swingers love-in'!!!!

If you want a wet backside and limited ability to get heavy kit out to the boat easily then go for it....

I suspect that many would miss the opportunity to just 'nip out for an hour' that a swinging mooring makes far less viable.....

Also, its handy to have 240V.... means that power tools are useable... and you can keep your batteries nicely charged, etc etc... leave your fridge switched on between weekends?... no problem.....

And there's someone about to spot that occasion when 'your bilge pump seems to be running a little too much'.....

I'm not knocking swinging moorings.... they can be lovely.... just want to balance the posts above to bring a more two sided view to the debate...
 
Yes, and every now and then as you are rowing back from the boat it looks like this:-

Wicor1.jpg
 
DJE

That is an extraordinary photograph! It has an almost surreal, post credit-crunch, quality. Did you take it? Would it be inappropriate to ask if I could have a copy (to use as wallpaper for my computer's desktop)?

Babylon
 
Morgana,

Just to counter your counter, yes a marina does have those advantages, but (with the exception of leaving a fridge running for a week) you can get most of those advantages by popping into a marina for a day/night, at a fraction of the cost of being a 12 month victim.

And as for nipping out for an hour, if you live any distance from yerboat, that's not really a practical idea anyway.
 
That's not the reaction I usually get to photgraphs posted on here. You winding me up? It was taken with a mobile phone too.
 
The main disadvantages of mooring to marina have already been mentioned: load shifting is limited to what you can get into and out of the dinghy (including yourself), and you need to be waterproofable getting to and from the mooring. Though who goes sailing without waterproofs?

For me the one big thing is that there is only tidal access (mine is +/- 3 hours). That is what marina bods are paying for. The halfway house is a half tide pontoon berth, both in terms of cost and convenience.

On the bashing side, I did once sit on a ship in Dunstaffnage bay, watching the yachts in the marina bouncing up and down against the pontoons in a January gale, and realised just how much damage could be caused by such a berth.
 
Another compromise:- we have an all tide mooring with all tide dinghy access and for about 50% of the tide we can get the boat alongside the boatyard jetty to take on fuel, water or heavy stores. (Also handy for unloading the imports after a channel crossing.)
 
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That's not the reaction I usually get to photgraphs posted on here. You winding me up? It was taken with a mobile phone too.

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No, I'm not winding you up at all. Aside from having dedicated a portion of my younger life to amateur photography (that fun stuff with chemicals etc), my current work is as a creative in the design sector. None of that however 'qualifies' me to judge what is or isn't a good photograph. Rather, its just that this image, amongst the thousands of 'perfect' photos taken with digital cameras every minute, happens to have - for me at any rate - a certain quality, which I really like.

I did wonder whether it was taken with a mobile-phone camera, as it is precisely the 'less-than-perfect' cheap lens optics that gives the picture its surreal, almost other-worldly quality.

I didn't by the way at first register the vertical poles as yacht masts - I just saw the yellow-green looking water near low tide in the foreground, the 'industrial-looking' backlit structures in the background, the setting-sun sky - and found it all much more evocative and intriguing than the billion-pixel bright-sunlight perfection of usual digital photos.

Er... better get back to work now.

:-)
 
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