Bow Chocks for 22 Cruiser

[Jim and Anne]

Greetings all,
Anne and I have finally taken delivery of our new 22 cruiser which we've named CompanionShip. It's up on stands in the yard and I have rolled on the last coat of barrier coat and bottom paint. Now it's ready to go back on the trailer. I'll spend the weekend installing the radio, GPS, fishfinder, and transducer and other outfitting chores and then it will be ready for launch. I'm sure you all can understand our excitement.

I do have a question for you experts out there. We will be keeping the boat on a mooring for the boating season. (which here in New England with the C-Dory pilot house should be until November) Because of being on a mooring I will need to install bow chocks (skene chocks) to run the mooring pennants through. Have any of you installed chocks? If so could you provide advice as to placement and installation. I searched the forums but was unable to find any helpful information. I've even looked through many of the photo albums but have been unable to even find photos of boats with chocks installed. So if you know of any photos maybe you could point me in the right direction.

Thanks for your help.

I'd like to thank all those who have posted here with their sage advice over the years. Reading through the posts and seeing everyones enthusiasm for their C-Dory's was one of the reasons we went with a C-Dory. Your a great group of helpful (and sometimes very funny) people.

Jim

[thataway]

I would use captive chocks and thru bolt them, after coating the inside of the hole with epoxy. the chocks I refer to are: Windline Marine locking line chock Model LC1
http://www.windline.com/accessories.html

These are sturdy enough for full time mooring, will take a pennant up to one inch, and lock , as well as can be thru bolted. A chock screwed to the deck is an accident waiting to happen in the balsa cored deck.

[Jim and Anne]

Thanks Bob,
I have looked at that style of locking chock. But my inclination is to go with the diagonal opening type because they would be easier to drop the line into at night or if it was a bit bumpy.
It seems to me that in order to thru bolt into the deck, the chock would need to be set back from the edge so far that the pennant would rub the gelcoat--somewhat negating the one of the purposes of the chock. I'll be puzzling the solution over the weekend.
Jim

[patrick and linda]

hi jim,
congratulations to you and your bride on the recent cd-22 purchase.
i can't give you any better information than bob has posted.
so, thought i'd just wish you well and share in your enthusiasm for boating.
best regards
pat

[Captains Cat]

Hi Jim, congratulations on the new boat. I thought they came with bow chocks, one on each side of the bow, at least mine did, it wasn't an extra. Anyway, you're right, you will need them. I'd put heavy ones up there, the diagonal ones are fine, easier to put the line in but if you make up a rig that stays there permanantly, a pennant, if you will, that remains on the boat, you don't have to go to the bow!

Take a nice heavy line, about 25' long with an eye in each end. Run it through the chock and to the cleat on the bow centerline. Then lead the free end, down the side of the deck back to the edge of the cockpit. You can then clip that end on the mooring buoy, however you choose to hook it up without leaving the cockpit.

When departing, you can motor up to the mooring buoy, snag the line with a boat hook and unclip it and put the end into the cockpit again. Just make sure that it's not long enough to get back into the screw(s) and long enough to reach about halfway down the length of the cockpit.

When returning to the mooring, approach the buoy, snag it with a boat hook and clip your line on and let the boat drift away from it.

With this method, you don't have to worry about what kind of chock you use, you could even put one on each side and make a bridle sort of affair to connect to the single line going back to the cockpit.

Where in MA are you going to keep it? I've sailed out of Marblehead, Hingham and Quincy, great places to be!

Charlie

[Jim and Anne]

Hello Charlie
We'll be keeping the boat in Cotuit Harbor, which is on the south side of Cape Cod.
I grew up in Weymouth, so I know the Hingham and Quincy areas quite well. Thanks for the tip on running the line from the bow back to the cockpit.
I just looked at your photos of Captain's Choice to see about placement. Are your's thru bolted in the position they are in?
Jim

[thataway]

Almost all chocks and cleats on the edge of the deck will allow the lines to rub on the gel coat--so we install 1/8 rounds (rub rails of SS) which go right where the line might rub. All of my cruising and most of my racing sailboats had these strips of SS.

I just don't trust screws on any mooring gear which may take a load. Several ways to get around the gel coat rub problem.

[C-batical]

An alternative to using a stainless steel chafe guard, is to apply a strip of automotive clear mylar chip guard. It protects the gelcoat, is cheap, and easy to apply. I use it on several places on my boat, anyplace where there is a chance of chipping or abrading the gelcoat.

Best regards,

[Rob & Karen]

[Captains Cat]

[ccflyer]

OK - so this is a bit off topic

1st - Let me say Jim and Anne did their "due diligence", that means "lots of research", before buying a great boat. I know they waited YEARS for a mooring in one of the nicest bays on the south shore of Cape Cod. When their number finally came up and they were considering several boats, I gave them a pitch while aboard the Retriever. Last fall as I was selling all the pluses of the boat, they also wanted to know what I found wanting. (It's a b**ch to land single handed in a stiff wind). Jim sized the berths for comfort, while they both seem to appreciate the CD, on Vineyard Sound, was better suited to slower cruising as a chop develops.

Now, here's my off topic question - when you're bottom painting a boat for the first time, how do you know where to draw the water line? I had one guy who does this for a living tell me, "We put them in the water and walk around them with a magic marker!"

Phil

[thataway]

These are called "Rub strakes" They are made of stainless and on current West Marine catalogue page 555.

Taco makes these:
http://www.tacomarine.com/cat--Stainless-Steel-Hollow-Back-Rub-Rail--ss_hollow_back.html The ones I use are hollow back, are smooth and tapered. They do screw on, but since there is no load on them, a couple of self taping screws and 5200 keeps them in place nicely.

Another example is at:
http://www.bosunsupplies.com/products2.cfm?product=L209RS

I usually launch a boat and let it sit overnight--most places there will be a little "scum line"--and go a couple of inches higher. Some boats I have eye balled where I thought the water line would be--not always exact--but usually within an inch or so.

[Doryman]

[Sea Wolf]

Warren-

A pennant is a flag, but is also a pendant:

Pendant - The line by which a boat is connected to a mooring buoy; a short rope hanging from a spar having at its free end a spliced thimble or a block. Sometimes called "Pennant"

After establishing the waterline, you may want to consider using it just as a guide to draw in the top of the bottom paint parallel above that waterline.

The scum/bottom growth can grow above where it is because the wave action of the water can keep it wet above the absolute waterline at rest in static conditions.

Depending on what you experience where you're moored, you might raise it as much as 2-3 inches above the waterline, then add an accent boot stripe. Too much, and it might look funny, though.

The boat will look great if the colors are choosen properly!

Joe.

[Doryman]