Mooring use

[bayview]

My power cord comes with me because I need it at the next dock. Home dock lines stay put as does the water hose.

 

[Codger2]

I'm stuck on the FH....

"Keep your F.....g hands off" my moring!

 

[kwmeyer13]

I read it as Keep Your Fat F&$@ing Hands Off.

 

[markpierce]

Keep your cotton pickin' hands off me! (KYCPHOM?)

 

[BruceK]

I find it, I guess amusing is the word... people who are blithely content to attach their boat to any old random thing floating in the harbor...

The authors of a local cruising guide saw a chartered houseboat attached to a mooring buoy(no surprise there), except the buoy was not attached to a mooring apparatus. I suppose the constant drifting eventually told them something was wrong.

 

[O C Diver]

Keep your cotton pickin' hands off me! (KYCPHOM?)

Don't think you can say that in our politically correct times anymore. Might be racial.

Ted

 

[O C Diver]

We had permission to use the mooring and had done so several times in the past but this time we had a friend raft up to us and then the wind and waves came up.

Bottom line is we snapped the mooring chain which happened during the day when we were on our boats so we were able to motor out of danger just as we were being blown into shallow water. We retained the mooring ball and took it to the island and got the owner's name and number from the caretaker and let him know what we'd done.

My wife and I paid to have the mooring repaired which involved a diver, new chain, etc.

Well done! 8 out of 10 would have just left without offering to pay for the repair. The 9th would have tried to sue the owner for failing to properly maintain something he wasn't prevented from using.

Ted

 

[markpierce]

My power cord comes with me because I need it at the next dock. Home dock lines stay put as does the water hose.

I don't leave anything behind. Cord, dock lines and hose may be needed at the next destination. Once left a hose, but it wasn't there on my return.

 

[CPseudonym]

Once left a hose, but it wasn't there on my return.

Consider the stolen hose an act of kindness. Never surrender custody of your boat water hose unless you do not care about water quality.

 

[markpierce]

Sir Craig, I've learned my lesson.

 

[CPseudonym]

Sir...

I'm humbled

 

[SCOTTEDAVIS]

"If you feel it reasonable to tie up to my privately maintained mooring then I assume that you will feel it equally reasonable for me to occupy your boat while it is there."

Hardly , most folks moor on property they do not own or rent , so use by other Pilgrims is the norm, worldwide.

FF no need to bring my boat into this.

 

[CaptTom]

I'm conflicted over the whole mooring thing. One of the oldest rules of the sea is to leave other people's stuff alone, except maybe to rescue it.

There are people with legitimate needs for a mooring; fishermen, local boat owners who need a place to keep their boat, and any "working waterfront" business. I'd never, never mess with any of them.

Then there are "destination" moorings filling remote anchorages, owned by recreational boat owners who only visit there occasionally.

In my mind, these are two different things. In the US, the Corps of Engineers "owns" the bottom, and has allowed states wide latitude in balancing the rights of citizens to use this public trust. In New England, most states delegate mooring regulation to the local municipality.

This is fine until a popular anchorage is suddenly filled with unused destination moorings.

Is it right for a few people to deny all other citizens the right to use that anchorage?

In Maine, there is a consensus developing that you can pick up a destination mooring at will, and move to another if the owner shows up. Mid-week, this system works fine. On nice weekends, it can become a problem.

We need a better system, but I have no clue what that would be.

 

[psneeld]

The solution is the banning of all non-approved and not paid for moorings. Have minimal. fair and balanced, rates for sanctioned ones)


If one is placed without permit..anyone can tie to it or remove it...no questions asked.


sounds pretty simple to me.

 

[O C Diver]

The solution is the banning of all non-approved and not paid for moorings. Have minimal. fair and balanced, rates for sanctioned ones)


If one is placed without permit..anyone can tie to it or remove it...no questions asked.


sounds pretty simple to me.

That's fine until the chain breaks in the middle of the night, boat hits the rocks and sinks, and the lawyers come out of the woodwork like flies to a fresh turd.

Ted

 

[psneeld]

Not what I am getting at..the only moorings that aren't government...should be completely private, only used by the owner, but they should be in a planned mooring field and paid for.


Anything else cant be "claimed" so tying up to it would have no consequence if the "illegal owner" shows up.

 

[BruceK]

I'm conflicted over the whole mooring thing. One of the oldest rules of the sea is to leave other people's stuff alone, except..

In Maine, there is a consensus developing that you can pick up a destination mooring at will, and move to another if the owner shows up. Mid-week, this system works fine. On nice weekends, it can become a problem...

Here you need a place specific license from Maritime to lay mooring apparatus. Maritime patrol mooring areas so unauthorized ones won`t last long. The license is boat specific, and vacancy > 6 weeks is not allowed.
I`m not sure what is meant by "destination mooring",I`m guessing it is a mooring used occasionally and not the boat`s permanent mooring. Again, we have those, and the Rules differ on usage, but they are still laid pursuant to a Maritime license,with an obligation to service the mooring annually which usually involves a mooring service co. lifting, examining and repairing as necessary. Boat insurers also insist on an annual service. Thus the chances of a mooring being in unsafe condition are minimized but imo, if you lift someone else`s mooring it doesn`t come with a warranty that it is in good order.
Thinking about it, a sign on a mooring that it has not been serviced in living memory might discourage borrowers.

 

[Marin]

The 9th would have tried to sue the owner for failing to properly maintain sotmething he wasn't prevented from using.

All the mooring buoys at this private island are individually owned. Some owners allow other property owners on the island to use their mooring buoys when the buoy owners don't need them. These arrangements are made through the island caretaker. It is understood that anyone who uses someone else's mooring buoy does so totally at their own risk.

Had we known the chain connecting this particular mooring ball to the concrete anchor was sized for the owner's boat we most likely never would have used the mooring and we certainly wouldn't have put two heavy boats on it. The caretaker had no idea of the hardware rating and we'd never met the mooring owner; we were just using a mooring the caretaker said we could use.

So the fact we broke the chain was solely on us. After we paid the cost incurred by the owner to have his mooring repaired he said we were welcome to continue using it. But now that we know the sizing of the hardware we will most likely not take him up on this unless we know the weather will be very settled during our stay. Instead we use our own ground tackle or one of the other moorings that are owned by folks with boats similar in size, weight, and windage as ours.

 

[Marin]

My power cord comes with me because I need it at the next dock. Home dock lines stay put as does the water hose.

Don't know about other marinas but in ours water hoses left coiled on a dock or wrapped around a dock box are highly prized items for dogs to pee on to say nothing of gulls pooping on them. Having witnessed the dog pee thing about four million times we would never leave a water hose exposed on the dock unless the only thing we were ever going to use it for was washing the boat.

We have no reason to take our water hose with us on the boat but we leave it locked in the dock box when we aren't actually using it. We rarely need our ground power cable with us on the boat as most of the places we go don't have ground power. So that, too, gets coiled up and stowed in the dock box when we leave.

 

[FF]

The simplest system is to mark any mooring ball with the boats tonnage.

Commercial Rental moorings should be marked with a different color ball, and price.

" Private Moorings" can only exist in areas where there is a "Queen Ann Grant" which allowes the use of areas of the water bottom from before the Revolution , these are still in force.

If you have to move at midnight , thats the price of the system.

 

[Cottontop]

If one is placed without permit..anyone can tie to it or remove it...no questions asked.

sounds pretty simple to me.

Do not apply this reasoning to lobster/crab pots. Get yourself killed.

 

[CaptTom]

I should point out that, to my knowledge, the "destination" moorings I've seen ARE registered with the local municipality. Usually a nominal fee (under $200) is paid, and regular inspections required. Enforcement probably differs from place to place.

Frankly, the town clerk doesn't care if a pristine anchorage that's been used by visiting boats for generations is filled up with mooring balls belonging to local owners who only use them a few times each year. Another hundred bucks in the town coffers is OK with them.

I think my point (if I have one) is that it seems these should operate under different rules than moorings that are actually needed and used.

Leaving room to anchor outside the mooring field is BS. The best place to anchor is close to the protected shore where the depth and holding are just right. If that's where all the moorings are, it's no longer an anchorage IMHO.

In the US, the submerged lands of the state are supposed to be held in the public trust, for all to enjoy. Not just the closest friends of the harbormaster. (Yes, that happens.)

 

[Larry M]

These are the town moorings in Oak Bluffs, MA last week: $40/night/boat. Rafting is mandatory. I know it's a short season but ...

 

[O C Diver]

The land on Marthas Vineyard is even more crowded than that during the summer. My simple rule, not between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Ted

 

[psneeld]

Do not apply this reasoning to lobster/crab pots. Get yourself killed.

That's a separate issue....probably more important because of making a living issue.

Some places there is strict regulation of placement of crab pots. The crabbers are well out numbered and probably just as fearful of boaters as the other way around.

 

[Cottontop]

That's a separate issue....probably more important because of making a living issue.

Some places there is strict regulation of placement of crab pots. The crabbers are well out numbered and probably just as fearful of boaters as the other way around.

Sorry, didn't make my point clearly, as it is the same thing. Many lobster/crab pots are not "commercial," but that doesn't matter either. The point is, appropriating to yourself the fruit of someone else's effort/stuff, is a tricky business, regardless of your justifications.

A different example. After a heavy snowstorm, someone shovels a parking space. Feeling entitled to their labor, they put a lawn chair in the space to "save" it. Someone else comes along, needs to park, figures the lawn chair placer does not "own" the space, and isn’t parked there anyway, so moves the chair and parks. When the shoveler returns, hard feelings and sometimes real ugliness ensues.

I would always try to find someone local to tell me what the local custom is, and I would abide by the local custom whether I agreed with it or not (absent emergency).

 

[psneeld]

Sorry, didn't make my point clearly, as it is the same thing. Many lobster/crab pots are not "commercial," but that doesn't matter either. The point is, appropriating to yourself the fruit of someone else's effort/stuff, is a tricky business, regardless of your justifications.

A different example. After a heavy snowstorm, someone shovels a parking space. Feeling entitled to their labor, they put a lawn chair in the space to "save" it. Someone else comes along, needs to park, figures the lawn chair placer does not "own" the space, and isn’t parked there anyway, so moves the chair and parks. When the shoveler returns, hard feelings and sometimes real ugliness ensues.

I would always try to find someone local to tell me what the local custom is, and I would abide by the local custom whether I agreed with it or not (absent emergency).

I look at pirate moorings as a lawn chair left for months in the middle of a public park....

If I sit in it and someone comes along and says I sit there every Saturday for 6 months of the last 10 years....I can get up, say big deal, tough do do...or say prove it is even yours.

What is the lawn chair owner going to do? Call the cops? Beat me to a pulp?

They might work or they might backfire....who knows.

Private use of public space no matter WHAT effort has been put into it is a gamble...you have no leg to stand on when trying to prove something.