Went out for a sail today and saw a wonderful whale breaching display out of the Heads. The wind finally picked up on the way back for a decent sail. STack pack worked well. Remembered on the way to mooring that I threw my mooring hook in the drink last time. D'oh, I'll use the ladder as a hook instead. Get the ladder out... um, wtf? No mooring buoy!
Motor over toward the beach - there it is washed up on the sand. MF. Pulled up on a marina mooring, rowed in and retrieved the buoy. Looks to me like someone ran over it and cut it with the prop.
While we're here, the rope below runs from the loop in the main, thicker mooring line. It was quite long (maybe, 3 metres) but I guess if it were shorter it would have less chance of getting cut. Any opinions?
PS: Had mooring checked last week so everything should have been kosher. And no, I didn't run over it myself.
G'day Rog. Is that a polyprop rope that floats?
Not saying this is your situation but I have a couple of moorings near me, boats with high bows, that have metres of rope that floats on the surface. In any sort of chop you don't realize it is there. I try to go downwind of the mooring buoys to avoid such ropes but I can't always do it, especially when the mooring is floating near the down wind boat because of the excessive mooring rode.
Select to expand quoteMorningBird said..
G'day Rog. Is that a polyprop rope that floats?
Not saying this is your situation but I have a couple of moorings near me, boats with high bows, that have metres of rope that floats on the surface. In any sort of chop you don't realize it is there. I try to go downwind of the mooring buoys to avoid such ropes but I can't always do it, especially when the mooring is floating near the down wind boat because of the excessive mooring rode.
Yes, I believe it floats, MB. I suppose the point of this line is to make it easier to lift the buoy on to the deck and give you more play when you don't stop right on top, is it? Maybe I'll talk about using thicker rope with whoever I hire to dive down and get it back (I don't feel like diving it myself without a boat to get back on to).
If you use a rope riser you only need about 500mm of rope from the buoy to the riser where it goes over the bow roller. Just enough so that your buoy can hang off the bow rail to display your rego number for the mooring. This is for NSW people.
Select to expand quoteRamona said..
If you use a rope riser you only need about 500mm of rope from the buoy to the riser where it goes over the bow roller. Just enough so that your buoy can hang off the bow rail to display your rego number for the mooring. This is for NSW people.
To clarify, Ramona, you reckon I can reduce that 2-3 metres of line (from the large spliced eye that goes over the cleat to the buoy) down to 500mm?
And I could increase the diameter also, I assume?
While we're here, I'm thinking that one of those buoys with the pole through designed for easy retrieval without a boat hook ('mast buoys'?) would increase visibility to other boats? Especially with some fluoro flag on top. My wife asked for one when we first got the boat but I told her it would only dumb us down for picking up other moorings. Any opinions on these? Only see them occasionally.
Select to expand quoteDrRog said..
Went out for a sail today and saw a wonderful whale breaching display out of the Heads. The wind finally picked up on the way back for a decent sail. STack pack worked well. Remembered on the way to mooring that I threw my mooring hook in the drink last time. D'oh, I'll use the ladder as a hook instead. Get the ladder out... um, wtf? No mooring buoy!
Motor over toward the beach - there it is washed up on the sand. MF. Pulled up on a marina mooring, rowed in and retrieved the buoy. Looks to me like someone ran over it and cut it with the prop.
While we're here, the rope below runs from the loop in the main, thicker mooring line. It was quite long (maybe, 3 metres) but I guess if it were shorter it would have less chance of getting cut. Any opinions?
PS: Had mooring checked last week so everything should have been kosher. And no, I didn't run over it myself.
Hi with the new rope put an old shackle on the line to weigh it down when it's in the water. Line goes down and not a problem for other boaters but still easy to pick up.
We all like an easy pick up don't we. 
Cheers, Bob.
My rope to the buoy is about 500mm of 10mm braid. It attaches to the riser about a metre from the end of the loop. My riser is 50mm Seagreen poly and floats so the loop is on the surface close behind the buoy. The riser is way too thick and I have been going to switch to 25mm nylon. Normally my tender is left at the mooring so returning I usually just park alongside and either pick up the loop or just the tender painter. The painter is tied to the buoy ring. MY tender is a catamaran and the painter is off one bow so its like parking against a wharf.
My mooring is in a fairly hot spot for amateur fishermen and they don't care what they run over!
Thank you MB, R, and Uncle Bob. Yes, Bob, we do and what I'm after is a new pick up line - the old one just left me a lonely, washed-up buoy. [boom - tish!]
Select to expand quoteDrRog said..
Thank you MB, R, and Uncle Bob. Yes, Bob, we do and what I'm after is a new pick up line - the old one just left me a lonely, washed-up buoy. [boom - tish!]
I had a pole but it disappeared one day. Very handy and I will put another one on when I get the chance.
DrRog, I have one of those pole moorings and they are very good. At first I had the pole part and the buoy part separate
but I found that in a breeze the pole would tend to lie at 45deg due to the buoy being attached underneath. This defeated
the object of an easy pick up. So I put the pole through the eye of the buoy and the buoy rests on the pole float. Problem
solved, the pole now sits upright.
Cheers MB and Sam.
I bought a white foam float with a hole through it today. I assume I can just stick some conduit through it, weight the bottom and maybe spray the float with Plasti Dip or something? Anyone else DIY'ed one?
I have seen Great White Sharks nibble them moorings.....apparently statistics out today claim at least 1500 swimming the East. Coast currently!
Select to expand quoteDrRog said..
Cheers MB and Sam.
I bought a white foam float with a hole through it today. I assume I can just stick some conduit through it, weight the bottom and maybe spray the float with Plasti Dip or something? Anyone else DIY'ed one?
Exactly what I did. I kept the pole separate from the buoy for ease of stowage on deck.
Select to expand quoteDrRog said..
Cheers MB and Sam.
I bought a white foam float with a hole through it today. I assume I can just stick some conduit through it, weight the bottom and maybe spray the float with Plasti Dip or something? Anyone else DIY'ed one?
Hi I made mine from electrical conduit, two different sizes that fit nicely one inside the other, a foam float that I had to force onto the conduit, a lead weight on the base to keep it upright in the water and a length of 12 mm rope approximately twice the length of the conduit through the middle with an eye splice on each end.
Shackled one end to the mooring loop and the other end sits at the top of the conduit ready to grab when I return. If it's a bit windy the rope can be hooked to the cleat while the boat settles to the wind and then the mooring line pulled in and secured.
Works really well and means that I can put her back on the mooring myself, I sail single handed usually.
Cheers Bob.
Nice set up, Bob. Thanks.
Well, an interesting Post Script to this story; I employed a mooring contractor who has scuba divers to retrieve the line. Rough quote: $200. I wasn't well and needed it done so went ahead. Invoice: $275.
When I inspected the main riser line I found it had been twisted until it had multiple deformations. Strangely, the clear tubing had disappeared and the eye splice had been redone in a somewhat bodgy manner:
The contractor who retrieved it stated that they didn't modify it at all. Huh? So the only thing I can surmise is that someone has run over it and got it caught in their prop and twisted it and mutilated the eye splice and tubing. Then they've tried to rectify it by re-splicing the line then either dropped it overboard unattached to the buoy or dropped it over connected to the buoy by a few strands which subsequently broke. Despite their efforts to rectify it, they failed and cost me money. They had my mooring number so they could have got in touch and done the right thing.
So then I'm left with a rope that needs rectifying and a report from the mooring contractor (whom I had not used before) stating I need the chain replaced with photos of chain worn through to about 25%. That's weird because I'd had the mooring lifted and dropped by my usual contract only 6 weeks prior. The whole thing was just getting weirder and weirder.
So i call my usual contractor and explain the situation and forward the photos. He says he'll have a look asap. Next day he lifts it and finds that the worn chain is ground chain for weight only - there is another length of chain for strength beginning and terminating at the same places so, no, the chain does not need replacing. So he replaces the length of rope and splices it and tells me that because of all the stuffing around I've had that he will not be charging me at all. How many times in the marine industry have you heard the phrase, "No charge"???
I cannot tell you how difficult and confusing it was dealing with the other company; conflicting messages depending on who you spoke to and I'm sure I would have been up for another $500 or so by the time they'd serviced the mooring unnecessarily. I should have called my usual guys straight away despite the fact they don't have a scuba service - they could probably have retrieved it anyway.
The trouble with contractors is they often do the job when your not around. Locally they have serviced the wrong mooring or boats have come off moorings less than a month after a service. If your not doing the job yourself or at least supervising then you really need to find a decent bloke you can trust and stick with him. This is the hard part.
Don't use clear tubing either, it suffers from UV, hardens and the edges cut through that silver rope easily. Use the blue flat fire hose wrapped around the riser and UV resistant cable ties.
Hi all
On my mooring the main riser runs through a large float and above the float is a protective sleeve where it sits over the bow roller and a spliced eye
I like the idea of the riser running freely inside the large float because thereby is always tension (the weight of the chain) on the riser when there is no wind so it sits securely on the bow roller
Spliced on to the eye is around a meter of lighter line with a small float on the end of it
It is easy to pick up with the boat hook because you just aim between the two floats and the two floats make it nice and visible to anyone who is motoring around the moorings
Regards Don
First class choice of abrasion tube there Don. If it was my boat I would use a short length of yacht braid to close off that loop in the Seagreen rope. Just a clove hitch will do. In my river we have had yachts that have had the loop "jump" off the bollard in boisterous conditions. Came back in from sailing one day and a neighbours 65 foot half a million dollar boat was secured only by the marker buoys cord. It was 6mm Spectra but I did not know that till I got onboard and sorted it out.
Hi Ramona
i normally use the meter or so of pickup buoy rope to close the eye up and lock the eye over the post on the boat
In the photo I have it half secured
Regards Don
