Regional Verbiage

[TrawlerBear]

From Chapman’s

I’m new to trawlers and thus studying my Chapman’s. It defines MOORING as “a semi-private anchorage installation consisting of a heavy anchor (usually of the mushroom type) or block of concrete, chain a mooring buoy, and a pennant of nylon or other synthetic line.” In the Glossary of Selected Terms there is no “moorage” but describes mooring as “(1) Permanent ground tackle. And (2) A place where vessels are kept at anchor.” The term dockage doesn’t appear but its root “Dock” is defined as “An encloses it nearly enclosed water area; a place where vessels can make fast, as at a pier, wharf or floating structure; frequently used incorrectly to refer to the pier or wharf itself.”

So it sounds to me like a dock or dockage would be actual above-water structures in a protected area like a marina and moorage would be an anchorage without any structure of the type where you would pull lines off a buoy to make fast. Good luck!

As in so many things there are likely regional variations. I’ll leave it to those with much greater experience than me to further clarify.

My boating history is Florida based. Anchorage = Anchored in a protected water, usually free but can be a fee. Moorage = Tied to a mooring ball, usually a fee. Dockage = Tied to a dock, marina or private structure, usually fee based.
I've gotten used to the word moorage = dockage as used here. Was wondering if this is nationwide usage or regional, etc?
I no longer own a copy of Chapman's.

 

[BluewaterN47]

TrawlerBear,

Chapman's is one terrific resource, but even Chapman's is fallible!

I would recommend that serious mariners not get too hung up on a precise definition of "mooring". As elsewhere in life, it's easy to focus too narrowly on the semantics and lose out on the real meaning of a word or phrase or idea.

As the Wikipedia entry on moorings suggests, it's not all that simple. My recommendation: don't get roped-in with narrow views of what IS and what IS NOT.

As a (retired) career U.S. Navy officer with 20+ years of active service and more than 50 years of cruising in small yachts, I take a wide view of "moorings" and that includes both bottom-planted anchors and blocks/heavy chunks of granite/concrete/iron/steel and also alongside moorings such as piers/docks/pontoons/quays/wharfs and more, all of which have one thing in common: they arrest a vessel's movement and more or less hold her in place.

Bottom line (pun intended), in the wide view most anything secured to the bottom, even your anchor, can be considered a mooring in the full sense of the word.

So let's not get hung up on semantics!

Milt Baker, Nordhavn 47 Bluewater, Southwest Harbor, ME

 

[BandB]

When I was in banking I financed a 'shipyard' and many enhancements thereafter, for Edison Chouest Offshore in LA. I think the largest vessel they built there was the Nathanial Palmer (310') a 'research vessel with icebreaking capabilities' - still in use today for the National Science Foundation in Antarctica as the USA's only marine asset there. My favorite customer for many years. Gary Chouest was one of the smartest customers i ever had. He knew how to use debt / leverage.

One of the smartest men you could meet and a true professional and gentleman. Also, an avid sport fishing family and family of long time boaters, hence leading to no only the huge offshore business but acquiring recreational boat builders as well.