New England moorings

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,

I'm going over my lists and checking them twice for my trip up the coast to New England. I was wondering if I should make up any type of special lines to deal with mooring balls. My idea was just to have a 30' piece of heavy line that I would tie to the ring on the mooring ball, run through an anchor chock, and make fast to a bow cleat. This has worked for me in the past when up in Annapolis but I only see about one mooring ball a year down here and was wondering if there was a better way of dealing with them.

Thanks,

George

[Figment]

I never trust the rings atop the mooring balls.

Good moorings will have a pendant shackled to the chain underwater.
Infrequently used moorings will have lots of nasty growth on the pendant that you won't want on your foredeck. It's convenient to have a line to slip through the eye of the pendant in these cases.

If the mooring has no pendant, I'd rather shackle my own line to the chain below the bouy than trust the ring. I know a lot of folks who use a big stout carabiner as a convenient alternative to a shackle, but I don't know that I'd trust a carabiner with a boat as large as yours.

[dasein668]

What Mike said. He's pretty much right on.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Thanks as always guys. I'll look for the chain pendants and just tie in.

George

[Tim]

Even better: if the mooring has no pendant, or has a heavily-fouled pendant, don't use it. It's probably neglected all the way to the bottom. Why would anyone trust their boat to something like that?

FWIW, in Maine you'll rarely even find a mooring ball with a ring on top. Most moorings here are inflatable balls with a molded eye at the bottom, to which the chain is attached. So you will rarely even have the option of tying to the top of a buoy here. This will vary in other locations, of course.

In some harbors, it's a real challenge to anchor, since moorings have taken all the available space; typically, however, these same harbors also have organized guest mooring services that will direct you to the proper mooring (for a fee, of course). In these places, moorings make sense, and you can generally trust the tackle (at least in Maine).

But in other harbors, if you can anchor, anchor. Too many people trust their expensive boats to random moorings that might only have an engine block at the bottom, or old chain that's rusted mostly through somewhere. With your own ground tackle, you know what you're dealing with. Moorings are nice sometimes--and are sometimes the only true choice in busy places--but they offer a real false sense of security unless you know it's a well-maintained and appropriate mooring.

You must be getting excited about your cruise. Have fun, and don't let all the reading taint your actual experience. Reading about it is great fun, but the realities are frequently a little different, so go with the flow and enjoy, and make your own experience rather than trying to relive someone else's. Happy cruising!

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Tim,


Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful reply. I don't plan on being in too many really popular harbours and will be anchoring most of the time. I do have to justify my spiffy new 45 lb. CQR anchor and 275' of G4 chain after all! :-) As it is, Denise and I anchor out prettty much everywhere down here on the Chesapeake and are used to it.

Thanks for the tip on guest moorings in the popular harbors. I have a feeling that I'll be spending more than a few nights at these no matter how I plan this trip.

Just to be safe, I'm carrying a total of four anchoring systems for the New England trip. The big CQR for overnights in remote places, a 22 lb. Danforth on 100' of chain with 160' of line as a backup anchor, a wad of $50's for guest moorings, and a platinum Visa card for floating docks. I'm hoping that this four pronged approach will see me through the trip without too many sleepless nights. ;-)


Thanks again,

George

[Hirilondë]

You seem to have your plan well thought out. It is always good to be suspect mooring to gear you have no previous experience with but keep in mind some marinas actually have top notch gear. We use 500# to 5000# (ok, well only 1 of these) mushrooms followed by heavy chain, then lighter chain and shackled to balls. Off the balls we have 2 pennants both with large eye splices, floats and 1 has a fiberglass whip for pick up. Our regular customers use both pennants, one through each chock.

[Figment]

A personal tip on the fiberglass pick-up whip: If the helmsman under/overshoots the mooring, do NOT use the whip to pull the pendant to the boat. UV aged fiberglass gives nasty splinters.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Figment,

Just got back from a cruise planning dinner at the yacht club and one of the guys made that very point. He said that he won't even touch one of those things unless he's wearing work gloves.

Thanks again for the tip,

George