The Lines Parted

This is almost unbelievable. I'm sure many of you will remember my thread "The Pod Parted." So my friend who hit a rock and lost the pod drive unit finally got his boat all fixed and back in the water after 5 1/2 weeks.

Saturday he left with his wife for a weekend trip to one of our favorite harbors, Port Jefferson, NY. I own a mooring there and when my friend goes there he asks permission to use my mooring if he knows I am not heading there. Naturally I give my permission. This time I had promised it to another friend. Port Jeff has an extensive mooring field and as the season is drawing to a close many moorings were vacant and he picked up an unused mooring.

At about 8am this morning they were awakened by a loud bang. He rushed to the saloon and found the anchor pulpit and the anchor of a boat sticking through a 5' long oddly shaped port side saloon window. Glass was everywhere. Seems the winds had kicked up and the mooring lines on the "appropriated" mooring parted and his boat turned beam to the wind and drifted onto the boat on the mooring downwind of his. The mooring had 2 lines and they let go at the mooring ring. He was able to remove himself from the impaled position because pod drives can move the boat sideways.

Thinking back to a recent thread about using a mooring that is not yours...

I guess his season is over.

Howard

With all due respect Howard your friend needs another hobby. Boating just may not be his thing.

Craig,

You may be right, however he's been boating for many years. I think it's just his turn in the barrel. I guess he's on a steep learning curve.

I can relate, my dad ran cattle for 60 years before a compound fractured leg and 7 broken ribs within 2 months convinced him to leave cow punching to the kids.

This web site may well owe its existence to anchor and rode threads. Given all the diligence and thought expressed about anchor type, brand, weight and connecting bits and pieces - why do boaters blithely tie up to an unknown mooring?

Do I sense a disconnect? Just curious.

sunchaser said:

This web site may well owe its existence to anchor and rode threads. Given all the diligence and thought expressed about anchor type, brand, weight and connecting bits and pieces - why do boaters blithely tie up to an unknown mooring?

Do I sense a disconnect? Just curious.

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I think so. I don't understand why people do that.

If ever I pick up an OPM, I have a good look at it first. What you see above the water can also be an indication of what`s below.

sunchaser said:

This web site may well owe its existence to anchor and rode threads. Given all the diligence and thought expressed about anchor type, brand, weight and connecting bits and pieces - why do boaters blithely tie up to an unknown mooring?

Do I sense a disconnect? Just curious.

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And why don't they set alarms on moorings as well.

Tie up to the ball and tug on it in reverse. If it holds, then go to bed.

Ski in NC said:

Tie up to the ball and tug on it in reverse. If it holds, then go to bed.

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...

Greetings,
Mr. s. "Do I sense a disconnect?" Surely not. Why would you EVER think that on a TF thread. It seems the norm for a lot of threads on...

Even on a somewhat "known" mooring, such as one assigned to you after consultation with the harbormaster, try to use your own lines to the chain if at all possible. At the Vero Beach mooring field, I once had the painter from the mooring break off in my hand as I was about to put it over the cleat; lesson learned. At our summer mooring in Westport, MA, I had new double bridles installed for the season as that is how their system was set up (though double rather than single was a special order). As stated on the "strange mooring" thread, I too would never pick up a random mooring of unknown quality.

Ski in NC said:

Tie up to the ball and tug on it in reverse. If it holds, then go to bed.

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If it dos'nt what then?

manyboats said:

Ski in NC said:

Tie up to the ball and tug on it in reverse. If it holds, then go to bed.

Click to expand...

If it dos'nt what then?

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Get out of there.

When we use a mooring we back down hard as to simulate what we think 40 knots of wind or so would be pulling. I know it's pretty subjective. This thread is one we've heard before. If the operator had backed down to even 1000 rpms I think he would have saved himself some grieve.

George: This past June when we were in Vero beach they had a 50' max loa. A 52' Nordhavn wanted a mooring and the staff were polite but firm saying no.

This past June when we were in Vero beach they had a 50' max loa. A 52' Nordhavn wanted a mooring and the staff were polite but firm saying no.

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Interesting; maybe I taught them a lesson! However it wasn't my boat size that caused the painter to break, as it wasn't attached to the boat yet. We were also once rafted up there with two other boats on the same mooring: one an old Chris Craft MY about our size, the other "Dyad" of bigdumboat / Opencpn fame. This was on one of the first sets of balls on the south end near the bridge. The broken painter incident took place further up the creek past the docks. So I wonder, do they not moor larger boats anymore, or were no big boat moorings available when the Nordhavn called in?

Ski in NC said:

Tie up to the ball and tug on it in reverse. If it holds, then go to bed.

Click to expand...

A mooring is just a fancy anchor. So you take the same steps and precautions with it you would with an anchor.

Two differences, one positive and one negative. It should be very well anchored and less likely to move than an anchor. It may be poorly anchored and you don't know as much about it as you do about your anchor.

sunchaser said:

This web site may well owe its existence to anchor and rode threads. Given all the diligence and thought expressed about anchor type, brand, weight and connecting bits and pieces - why do boaters blithely tie up to an unknown mooring?

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In this case the boater was a non-member.
Had he been a member he would have known better.
----Maybe----

Hawgwash said:

In this case the boater was a non-member.
Had he been a member he would have known better.
----Maybe----

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Not necessarily, there were a lot of members here all in favor of glomming on to strange open private moorings. Let's say you load test it and break it, or break it loose.. now what? You've effed up someone else's property that he may have kept his little day sailer on. Nice!

caltexflanc said:

Not necessarily, there were a lot of members here all in favor of glomming on to strange open private moorings. Let's say you load test it and break it, or break it loose.. now what? You've effed up someone else's property that he may have kept his little day sailer on. Nice!

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That's why I said "Maybe."

A friend lives right next door to an Elementary School. He driveway is used for a parking lot every morning. When she asks the 20 somethings not to do it she gets the favoured word of that entitled group.

What a horrible sequence of events for your friend. I guess I always grew up anchoring and am comfortable with it. Seems many new boaters are nervous to anchor. I like that you can still see all the tackle, every time you anchors vs moorings. Even if your mooring is on a maintenance plan.

On a sort of related topic... My harbor uses Helix moorings with 1.5:1 scope chain. And appropriate pennants. Talk about short scope! Anyway their policy is chain removal every 5 years and chain replacing every other cycle.

I amend that to simply putting on new 5/8" chain every 5 years. My pennant I take care of, replacing it every two years. Nylon gets hard and less stretchy after sun exposure. Being cheap with ground tackle leads to indigestion.

cappy208 said:

Being cheap with ground tackle leads to indigestion.

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Wifey B: And not the kind to be cured by Pepto Bismol.

BandB said:

A mooring is just a fancy anchor. So you take the same steps and precautions with it you would with an anchor.

Two differences, one positive and one negative. It should be very well anchored and less likely to move than an anchor. It may be poorly anchored and you don't know as much about it as you do about your anchor.

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And a mooring is and anchor that doesn't get hauled and inspected after every use.....

Maritime here require you service your Maritime licensed mooring annually. Service involves a mooring contractor lifting the whole apparatus, block and all, checking it, replacing anything necessary, and dropping it back where it was. While it is up, your boat is attached to the contractors boat. Process takes maybe half an hour.
I think insurance requires the same procedure. Contractor told me some owners insist on watching, I saw it done by coincidence.

BruceK said:

Maritime here require you service your Maritime licensed mooring annually. Service involves a mooring contractor lifting the whole apparatus, block and all, checking it, replacing anything necessary, and dropping it back where it was. While it is up, your boat is attached to the contractors boat. Process takes maybe half an hour.
I think insurance requires the same procedure. Contractor told me some owners insist on watching, I saw it done by coincidence.

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I think mooring is much more common there. In some parts of the US it is quite minimal. There's also a good bit of opposition by some boaters to replacing free anchorages with paid mooring.

hmason said:

Craig,

You may be right, however he's been boating for many years. I think it's just his turn in the barrel. I guess he's on a steep learning curve.

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Speaking for myself...I'd rather trust my own anchor than an unknown mooring any day, especially at night..!

What is it with people who are so nervous about anchoring, they would rather pay for a marina berth or pick up a mooring, which is infinitely more fiddly, even if it doesn't let go on you.
'course I do have a Sarca...

BandB said:

I think mooring is much more common there. In some parts of the US it is quite minimal. There's also a good bit of opposition by some boaters to replacing free anchorages with paid mooring.

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If you get to New England, beginning with Long Island Sound, you'll find moorings out number marina slips.

caltexflanc said:

If you get to New England, beginning with Long Island Sound, you'll find moorings out number marina slips.

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We were just there and did see that. That's why I was careful to say some parts of the US. Long Island Sound would be interesting to know the numbers. While the mooring is quite visible, there are a lot of large marinas. Last time we moored was Catalina, but we just did so for the day. About a month later was when the storm hit there.

The only time I've ever picked up a private mooring was off of an uninhabited cay in the Bahamas where some lobstermen leave their boats, unattended, during the offseason. There is a lot of current there and a hard scoured bottom. Tough holding.

I dove down and inspected the mooring...chain the size of my thigh shackled through an engine block that looked like it came out of an aircraft carrier. No pendent, so I tied directly to the chain.

Slept like a baby.