Hooking up to a mooring

[jrc]

Approaching a mooring into the wind is good advice for ragbags or stinkpots. If you approach with the wind at your stern, you will likely run over the mooring. Most times that just means some scratches on the boat bottom. Been there, done that.

On a windy day, the tricky part with is to get close enough to boat hook the mooring without overshooting and scratching the gel coat. The second tricky part is hooking up the lines before the boat falls off down wind. If your too slow then you're holding the boat against the wind with arm strength. My shoulder stills hurts when I think about this.

[pmj]

jrc and Idt have it right..We spent 4 years on a mooring as well..in the ocean..on the lake you don't have to deal with tides and winds, so it should be much easier on the lake. Definately point into the wind no matter what kind of boat you have.
We found the biggest asset to picking up a mooring is using a mast buoy.
I attached a picture, I hope it worked.. It makes it so easy to pick up the mooring line, especially if you have a high freeboard.

[wehatetoquitit]

My boat has a cuddy with a low bow ring. Evan laying flat on the Cuddy top and leaning under the bow rail, it was almost impossible to reach. My solution was to attach a line from the bow ring with the other end attached to a snap swevll which sits on top of the cuddy. Then I purchased a "Mooring Catcher" (www.linecatcher.com). It works great. There is a shaft which comes out from the center of the mooring ball. Near the top of the shaft there is a hook which holds the Mooring line. Its a breeze. Just pull up, grab the line and snap the bow line rope onto it. Evan a not-so-very-gracefull, or skilled boater like me can do.

[Steve]

I should have clarified, as I agree with the above. For long stays on the mooring, the bow eye is a better place to tie off. However, if you consider that it you were anchored out, the bow cleat would be what you used. It should be plenty strong to hold the boat. But nevertheless, I agree on the bow eye, if you can use it.

[jrc]

Originally Posted by Steve

I should have clarified, as I agree with the above. For long stays on the mooring, the bow eye is a better place to tie off. However, if you consider that it you were anchored out, the bow cleat would be what you used. It should be plenty strong to hold the boat. But nevertheless, I agree on the bow eye, if you can use it.

Actually if you read any boating books, they recommend your technique. Two lines semi-permanently attached to the mooring with shackle and thimble. The other end spliced as a loop on each line. This is called a mooring pennant. When you pick up the mooring you attach each loop to a bow cleat. On most boats, two bow cleats has to be as strong as one bow ring.

I didn't use this method for a few reasons. I didn't always get the same mooring so I couldn't leave stuff attached. The line running from the cleat to the mooring runs over the gunnel and may chafe and/or ruin the gelcoat.

And the most important reason, everyone else used the bow eye.

[Skipper of the Sea Que]

Originally Posted by wehatetoquitit

[snip] Then I purchased a "Mooring Catcher" (www.linecatcher.com). It works great. [snip]

Great idea wehatetoquitit.

Here's a working link (no typo ) to the LineCatcher Industries web site. I wish they had more close up pictures of their Line, Mooring and Dock Catchers.

Happy and safe boating (and mooring too ).

[AC2717]

thank you for all ideas please keep them coming, I am thristy for the info. Also how long should the tie up line be? and what thickness should I be looking for on a boat of this size?

[Steveo]

Originally Posted by pmj

jrc and Idt have it right..We spent 4 years on a mooring as well..in the ocean..on the lake you don't have to deal with tides and winds, so it should be much easier on the lake. Definately point into the wind no matter what kind of boat you have.
We found the biggest asset to picking up a mooring is using a mast buoy.
I attached a picture, I hope it worked.. It makes it so easy to pick up the mooring line, especially if you have a high freeboard.

I have actually used this as my only mooring device, have for years. It's a easy way to pick up the mooring and eliminates the mooring ball damage to gel coat. Attach decal directly to it and make sure you have strong line connecting it to chain. As with all moorings never attached boat "through" mooring device (buoy or otherwise). Even if it has a metal rod (or even chain) through the ball, you will never see the corrosion that occurs hidden in the ball.

[Merrymeeting]

I've used the technique alluded to earlier as my bow eye is too low to reach also.

Assuming you've figured out a way to grab hold of the buoy, I attach to the buoy by looping through the buoy eye to one of my bow cleats using a spare line I use for this purpose. Once I'm ready, I climb into the "tender" (a small rowboat in our case), row around to the bow and hook on my permanent buoy line to the bow eye. Then I release the spare line from the cleat, pull it free of the buoy, and row away.

[masssteve]

check this out, Don't know if it will help you or not?

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...llpartial/15/0

or this

http://www.shop.com/op/~Captain_Hook...236?sourceid=3

[AC2717]

Just wanted to say Thank you to JRC for offering the lines to me, they will be put to good use, also thank you to everyone else as well for all your input, love this forum