Hooking up to a mooring

[AC2717]

Hi all,
I have boating experience with tying up to docks and running up on land but just last september my wife and I have bought our first boat. It is a 1988 Cobalt 23BR. It has a deep V hull and a lot of free board.

The association we are in has atleast a mooring for everyone. well I have never hooked up to a mooring before and could use some pointers as to what to use and how to use it.

I will not be able to reach the ring on the bow from leaning over the bow because it is too far down, but I do have a boat hook.

A suggestion has been to take a shackel and pt it on the ring and attahed it to a line and leave the line attached to the boat with another hook ro shackel on the other end to hook up to the mooring and I could pick that up with a pick up flag or the boat hook.
I dunno if I want a shackel hitting the bow constantly.
What type or what lb Test line do I use? I am down near the margate on Paugus bay
what do I use to conntect?
how much line to I use? Mooring field is set up for 27 footers, mine is the last on on the outer corner.


so what do you have for me? Thank you

[Steve]

The system I like is the smaller mooring ball buoy that you attach the mooring line to. This buoy has a very long stick coming out of it that you can easily reach from bow. You pull the small buoy out, grab the line make it fast to your cleat, and drop the buoy back in (it has a smaller secondary line holding it to the mooring ball).

Let me see if I can find a picture.

[Steve]

This is an example, but apparently this one didn't rate very well, so look for another model.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...allpartial/0/0

Here's another idea that you could easily grab with the boat hook:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...allpartial/0/0

To really make it easy though, don't try to reach over to tie off to the towing eye. Too far down. Use the bow cleat.

[NightWing]

I wouldn't trust a single bow cleat to hold the entire boat against the weather. The bow eye is much stronger. There are snap hooks that can be affixed to a special pole and catching the mooring ball eye is easy.

[fatlazyless]

Maybe give this a try. After passing the buoy, just push the tiller towards the boom so's it does a come-about and then hold the tiller in that postion so's the wind stalls and spills outta the sail. The buoy should be right there and a snap to grab.

[NightWing]

He doesn't have a blow boat.

[jrc]

I spent four years on a mooring so I'll give you my routine.

The gear:
Get two mooring rigs with a bull snap shackel on each end. Thats four shackels and two lines. You use two for redundancy. Most marinas on the lake sell them, but they only have bull snaps on one end. You need to add snaps to the other end. The diameter should be 1/2 to 5/8 for that size boat and the length should be the same as your neighbors.

The routine:
After a day of boating, go to the dock and drop off your family. While you are there hook one end of each rig to the bow hook on your boat. Put the other ends in the boat. Boat out to the mooring ball, and get your bow near the ball. (easy in calm water, take a lot of practice in wind and waves) Walk up to the front of the boat and hook the mooring ball with your boat hook. Pull the mooring ball in and clip on the rigs. Figure out how you will get to shore.

BTW I have two leftover mooring rigs, PM me if you want them.

[Gatto Nero]

Have a second bow hook installed higher up the bow that you can reach.

[ITD]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

Maybe give this a try. After passing the buoy, just push the tiller towards the boom so's it does a come-about and then hold the tiller in that postion so's the wind stalls and spills outta the sail. The buoy should be right there and a snap to grab.

Right idea, but you should always end up pointing into the wind, with just enough forward momentum so that you stop moving when you grab the buoy. If its a smaller boat, you can push on the sail to stop forward motion if you come in too hot. Master this and you will be able to maneuver a boat just about anywhere.


PS Approaching pointed directly at the wind will make tying up your "stink pot" much easier also, especially when it is really blowing.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Gatto Nero

Have a second bow hook installed higher up the bow that you can reach.

Nothing wrong with that idea, but the bow eye should be fairly low to keep the boat's motion lower to the waterline.

Also, I wouldn't use a clip for mooring: use an attached shackle with an attached nail to tighten it. I once moored our ski boat using a clip-hook, only to watch it drift by the dock later—apparently after a wake had flipped the clip over—unclipping it!

There are several designs of manual "mooring sticks" that can hook a line onto a mooring automatically from your deck and release it too.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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