Mooring Buoys

bartender66 · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:44 am Post subject: Mooring Buoys

Hi,
How are you tying off to mooring bouys? We have a 22 Cruiser with the single anchor rope deck cleat mounted on the center of the bow. When tying off to a mooring bouy the line snags on the anchor and roller when the boat spins. I've noticed that most boats have two deck cleats mounted near the end of the bow and they tie off on one cleat, then thru the ring on the mooring bouy, and over to the other deck cleat.

Alyssa Jean · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject:

Try running it alongside the anchor rode over the bow roller. Mine stays in place if done that way.

westward · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:45 pm Post subject:

Greetings. If you moor on a buoy frequently here's the easy way: Have a heavy-duty mooring line made up at a good marine supplier as follows: Save and use the factory eye loop on one end; enough line length to reach from your bow eye to a convenient attachment location in your cockpit (ours is a padeye I installed on the bulkhead starboard of the doorknob), and have a high quality stainless clip with integral swivel spliced into the other end of the line. Use the factory loop to attach this line to your bow eye, run the line back to the cockpit attachment, and clip on to your attachment point for storage. Then you can simply come alongside the mooring buoy, unclip from your attachment point and clip to the ring on the buoy. After one or two attempts you won't even need to use your boat hook to grab the buoy ring. When running, pull your mooring line up and over/behind the cleat just outside your sliding side window so the line doesn't bang against the hull with wave action. You can adhere a square of white PVC stock to the bulkhead around the attachment point to prevent your stainless clip from scratching the bulkhead gelcoat. My mooring line is 3/4" I think, and the clip cost quite a bit but has lasted 6 years with no noticable deterioration. A good mooring line setup is cheap insurance when the wind kicks up and you're "on the hook". Good luck! Mike on Westward

bartender66 · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:31 am Post subject:

Thanks you guys, Mike your setup sounds like the way to go! I'm going to buy the rope and swivel this weekend and locate a marine supplier who can splice the swivel onto the rope.

Terry

gljjr · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:01 pm Post subject:

Terry,

If you pick up a fid at the marine store it should come with directions on how to splice the snap onto the rope.

BTW: here is a link with how to put an eye on a double braided rope. http://www.dirauxwest.org/knots/braideye.htm

bartender66 · Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:07 am Post subject:

Thanks Gary. I'll make a trip down to West Marine and see what they have.