Using moorings other than your own

[Porthandbuoy]

I pick up a crop of drifting mooring buoys off the beach in front of my house most winters. Sometimes they hang about for months about 80 yards offshore, looking for all the world like a mooring anyone could pick up. (There's one out there now; been there about a year). When the next big blow brings them ashore there is nothing but a few metres of rusty, worn riser chain attached. Unless I know a mooring is of the right weight and serviced I wouldn't pick one up.

 

[johnalison]

Given that my stop will not be overnight or unattended, I'm not overly concerned about the state of the tackle. If it gives way during my stay, which will only be in calm conditions anyway, then too bad.

We found that the system in the Yealm was that a visitor was entitled to pick up an unoccupied mooring with no dinghy attached, and the HM would come for visitors' fees, as one would expect.

 

[capnsensible]

Interesting. Some people then, will trust securing their multi thousand pound investment to something unseen , Unknown, unidentified, untested, unregulated, unseamanlike.

Not for me, shipmates.

 

[tico]

When I had a mooring, it was clearly marked with a max weight/LOA, and I had no problem with it being used when I was not there.
I did take exception one day to return to it to find someone had gone racing and left their dinghy moored to it.

 

[Stemar]

Interesting. Some people then, will trust securing their multi thousand pound investment to something unseen , Unknown, unidentified, untested, unregulated, unseamanlike.

Not for me, shipmates.

The mooring may be unseen, though I usually heave up as much of it as I can to get an idea of its condition, but I'm right there and able to do something about it if the mooring does fail.

As for upsetting the owner if I manage to break it, arguably, if it fails because I've hung a small catamaran off it in benign conditions, I've done the owner a favour by ensuring his boat isn't depending on it in a named storm the following week.

 

[pyrojames]

The mooring may be unseen, though I usually heave up as much of it as I can to get an idea of its condition, but I'm right there and able to do something about it if the mooring does fail.

As for upsetting the owner if I manage to break it, arguably, if it fails because I've hung a small catamaran off it in benign conditions, I've done the owner a favour by ensuring his boat isn't depending on it in a named storm the following week.

Unless the owner hasn't been using because they knew it was weak and was waiting for a service... ?

 

[jdc]

I think, as a mooring owner myself, that there is a moral and practical responsibility on the owner to mark a mooring as broken / dangerous / needing repair if he knows it to be broken / dangerous / needing repair. Not to do so is irresponsible, imho.

There is some similarity with landowners' responsibilities (I pinched this from some solicitor's pages):
"Occupiers should carry out regular risk assessments to identify reasonably foreseeable activities on their properties - even unlawful activities such as trespass - and carry out inspections and maintenance to ensure there are no defects that could breach their duties to trespassers."

I reckon that someone picking up your mooring is "reasonably foreseeable". I don't know of any case law, but I don't need a lawyer to tell me what's right.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Interesting. Some people then, will trust securing their multi thousand pound investment to something unseen , Unknown, unidentified, untested, unregulated, unseamanlike. Or are having bad day


Not for me, shipmates.

I think you could give fellow sailors a bit more credit than you appear to or do you think we all stupid . Boat owners I,m sure make their decisions based on information known to them about particular moorings etc over many years of the sailing in the area.

 

[mjcoon]

There is some similarity with landowners' responsibilities (I pinched this from some solicitor's pages):
"Occupiers should carry out regular risk assessments to identify reasonably foreseeable activities on their properties - even unlawful activities such as trespass - and carry out inspections and maintenance to ensure there are no defects that could breach their duties to trespassers."

I didn't appreciate that a landowner had a duty to trespassers. Though I did understand that it was excessively unwelcoming to secrete cocked gin-traps about the place...

 

[capnsensible]

I think you could give fellow sailors a bit more credit than you appear to or do you think we all stupid . Boat owners I,m sure make their decisions based on information known to them about particular moorings etc over many years of the sailing in the area.

Nah. Plenty just rock up and take one, leaping into the unknown. Good luck with that.

 

[LadyInBed]

Interesting. Some people then, will trust securing their multi thousand pound investment to something unseen , Unknown, unidentified, untested, unregulated, unseamanlike.

Not for me, shipmates.

Valid point, but made provocatively!
I use others club moorings, normally in Poole harbour if I return late evening / miss tide to go up river / weather not conducive to anchor in Studland. I've also borrowed mooring buoys that I can see have been in recent use up river in L’Aber Wrac’h and other Brittany rivers where there is no room to anchor.

 

[Graham376]

Why don't you write on the mooring the boat size or weight (I think LOA is probably more relevant than weight) which the mooring is designed for?

Tried that, doesn't work.

 

[jdc]

I think the max size of the boat for which a mooring is safe is more to do with spacing between moorings than strength. I know that several posts talk of boats larger than the one it's designed for breaking the mooring, but, tbh, I find that pretty ridiculous:

My mooring is designed to hold my boat in 100mph (87 knots), after 40% corrosion on all riser components, and with a safety factor of at least 2 on top of that.
The force a boat exerts in a wind is pretty much proportional to the square of wind speed, and a bit less than the square of the boat's LOA.
So if I have a mooring designed to hold my 25' (say) boat in 87 knots, and along comes a 50' boat and picks it up - an extreme example I reckon - that means the mooring is 'only' designed to take 43.5 knots (F9). And that's assuming the mooring corroded to the limit, so it'll probably take quite a bit more in practice.

Most of us picking up strange moorings with a 50' boat would not be doing so in a F9+.

 

[awol]

My mooring is designed to hold my boat in 100mph (87 knots), after 40% corrosion on all riser components, and with a safety factor of at least 2 on top of that.
The force a boat exerts in a wind is pretty much proportional to the square of wind speed, and a bit less than the square of the boat's LOA.

I would like to see those calculations and assumptions.

 

[Laysula]

Strikes me that the type of people that moan about someone using their mooring are the same sort that don't tell the marina when their away because they don't want anyone to use "their" berth.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Strikes me that the type of people that moan about someone using their mooring are the same sort that don't tell the marina when their away because they don't want anyone to use "their" berth.

What an odd conclusion to arrive at.

 

[KINGFISHER 8]

Buy a nice big buoy for your 10 tonner and paint 2 tons only on it.

 

[jdc]

I would like to see those calculations and assumptions.

The calculations on force due to wind are courtesy of the American Boat and Yachting Council, but more explanation and analysis can be found on Alain Fraysse's website. The spreadsheet for my mooring can be found here.

Critique and constructive comments v welcome!

 

[doug748]

Buy a nice big buoy for your 10 tonner and paint 2 tons only on it.

Yep, but make it a tatty buoy and paint on it:

26 tons Reg. In Use.
MFV Silver Harvest.

.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Nah. Plenty just rock up and take one, leaping into the unknown. Good luck with that.

?
Just watch it in the future mate. I know some bad people in Gib.