Visitor's buoys

[Stemar]

Re: Visitor\'s buoys

A bit of a blow plus a couple of knots of tide can make picking up my mooring single handed quite interesting. If conditions are difficult, I use a "poke it-pull it" type boathook (can't remember the proper name, but £30-odd at the boat show).

I attach the line to my gybe preventer lead out over the bow roller. A poke passes the line through the ring on top of the buoy and once I get that back on board, Jissel's going nowhere. A casual stroll to the sharp end and I can pull the buoy up with less effort than grabbing it with the boat hook.

 

[cliff]

Re: Visitor\'s buoys

[ QUOTE ]
Whilst moored just off the coast of Arran in West Scotland we woke up after a change of tide to find a local fisherman banging on our hull to warn us our "lassoo" had slipped off the buoy and we were drifting a mile offshore !

[/ QUOTE ]Favourite trick amongst the islanders - unhook your lassoo then let you drift. I believe they used to be called "wreckers" along the coast of Cornwall and Devon.
--------------------

"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"

 

[copterdoctor]

Re: Visitor\'s buoys

Picking up a bouy is easy. Say to crew "we are going on that bouy over there" (don't be too specific or they may catch you out) go to bouy shout "make fast". Job jobed crew can now come aft and make the tea.

What's the problem?

 

[starboard]

Re: Visitor\'s buoys

[ QUOTE ]
Quote: How about using your anchor??

It won't fit through top rings on most visitor bouys!! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Smartarse!!!!!!!! at least if you use your anchor you will know how good the gear is that is fixing you to the sea bed!! have no sympathy for those that pick up moorings not knowing how secure....or indeed not the ground tackle may be........maybe its a south coast thing were the art of anchoring has long been forgotten!!!!!

Give me a "delta" and a good lump of chain any day!!

Paul.

 

[MacMan]

Re: Visitor\'s buoys

[ QUOTE ]
maybe its a south coast thing were the art of anchoring has long been forgotten!!!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

I see many on the South Coast, more specifically the Solent, who have either inadequate tackle, or ability/knowledge, or both to Anchor effectively.

However there are plenty of us in these parts who do want to Anchor and often do. There are some places but many of the options are already taken with mooring buoys.

Some sometime we have no choice but if we wish to stay in a particular spot we have to take a mooring buoy.

 

[ditchcrawler]

Re: Visitor\'s buoys

I sometimes use the lassoo method but I have a short length of chain in the middle of my rope which makes it better to throw & it also sinks when round the buoy

 

[peterb]

Lassoo method

There's a problem with the lassoo method. Many mooring buoys have a ring on the top which is part of a rod passing down through a tube in the buoy, with the mooring chain attached to the bottom of the rod. With normal methods of mooring (either to the ring or to a strop fixed below the buoy) the tube is under no load. Under the lassoo method any pull on the lassoo becomes a compressive load in the tube, and this can cause the tube to buckle and split. The boat doing the lassooing won't notice, but the buoy can then gradually fill and sink. Not a good idea on a visitor's buoy (but perfectly OK if you do it on your own mooring!).

 

[snowleopard]

Re: Lassoo method

I heard of a set of moorings in the Solent area that were used regularly by sailing schools to practice lassoing. The owners fought a losing battle to put a stop to it because it was knackering their buoys!

 

[RupertW]

Re: Lassoo method

I can see where you're coming from but as topsides get higher and mooring buoys continue to come in every type, shape and size then lassooing will get more popular, and I'll certainly keep using it as my method of choice.

It should only be done for a short time to get a proper tie-up in whatever variation the buoy demands and if anyone is providing visitors buoys that are vulnerable to the method then tough. It's a bit like providing spaces in a car-park that can get damaged by car tyres going over the white lines.