High wind mooring pickup

[HAL]

The high wind mooring situation weights on the fun of sailing with the building wind, as the question becomes not how the boat sails best in this wind, but will I be able the get it back on the mooring.
How do you handle (under power) high wind in a tight mooring field? This is the situation. When coming up to the mooring we find the gusty wind has picked up allot. Our boat has light displacement and high freeboard (bow blows off easily). The mooring is inside the mooring field. Picking a line through is very difficult due to the different types of boats, swinging in different type arcs, at different rates. A clear path if any, keeps opening and closing. We must use uncomfortably high speed to maintain a reasonable course in gusts. At speed .if an opening closes, making a correction is all the more difficult and the results of any misjudgment will be magnified.
Are there some tricks on how to handle this?

 

[tommays]

Are field is REALLY tight with about 700 mourings i am on the outer edge at my request becasue i dont like trying to grab a mooring with another one 8' to my stern

And a lot of the older folks in the area had to be moved because the tight areas were beyond there current abilty

 

[larryw]

I'm in a slip in a marina, so the only experience I have with moorings is picking up a bow/stern mooring at Catalina Island or Newport Beach. The wind can be an issue, but I've learned that, in general terms, to try and work with it rather than against it. The island involves grabbing a floating wand, pulling it up to get the bow loop, then pulling up the sand line, which is attached to the loop, and walking it aft to get the stern loop. You have to come in at an angle so that the sand line doesn't go under the keel. As soon as the wand is in hand, STOP THE BOAT. First Mate gets the loop aboard and on the bow cleat, then puts a foot on it. I go forward, get the sand line, pull it up and walk aft, until the stern loop comes up, then put it on. I'll try to have the wind on the off side, so that when it blows me sideways a bit, the boat will pivot on the bow line and I will end up perfectly aligned with the plane of the sand line. It takes some practice. Another thing, don't be afraid of bailing out of a bad approach. Don't try to save it, things will become pear-shaped quickly. Just bail fast and come around again. My two cents.

 

[caguy]

Now try it solo.At Avalon the Harbor Patrol is more than willing to help in high wind situations. They will raft you up and give you step by step instructions.

Frank

 

[Rick Sylvester]

Turn it around

If the breeze is blowing dogs off their chains and you can't keep your bow into it for any length at low speeds, don't fight it. If your bow wants to be leeward, let it.

Back up to the mooring stern first. The wind will work for you. When you pick up the pennant you can initially secure it to a stern cleat. Your boat will sit happily stern to wind.

At your leisure run a line from the pennant to the bow cleat. When you're ready, remove the pennant from the stern cleat. As the boat turns on it's own take in slack at the bow. The boat will stay within it's own length as it turns.

If it's REALLY blowing you can use the engine to help with inching the bow back up to the mooring. There's no drama though because you're already secured.

You'll get some strange looks at first but sometimes it pays to think outside the box.

BTW, I use this same technique when I'm waiting for a bridge opening in a ton of wind. I just park the boat where I want it stern to the wind with the engine slow in reverse. It'll stay within a few feet of where I want it for minutes at a time without me touching a thing as I watch everyone else doing doughnuts to kill time. The only downside is that we don't get protection with the dodger.

Hope this helps.

 

[bffatcat]

breezy mooring pickup

Ive picked up a mooring usually under sail for the last 40 years in a very crowded harbor.
After you have owned your boat for a while you will get to know how much distance the boat
will travel once you round up into the breeze. I roll up my jib about 200 yards from the mooring. I approach the mooring on a beam reach. How far away from the mooring I am when I round up depends on how fast Im moving. Main sail only. Before its time to round up
I put my boat hook on deck so it will be handy for pickup. No I dont use a tall buoy I prefer
a small float on the pennant. I find it easier than a tall buoy If I dont come up just right I have some reaching room with my 6ft boat hook. If its blowing over 25 I still sail but I start my outboard just in case .

 

[sailingdog]

You can also take a long dockline, and run it back to the windlass or a genoa winch, and then lead it through the bow chocks, and walk the end of it outside the stanchions/shrouds/etc, back to the cockpit, and then come up alongside the mooring ball and tie the line to the mooring ball or pennant. Then, as you start dropping back on the long line... you can use the windlass or winch to snug the line up so that you're hanging off the mooring properly, without having to run forward and hope the bow doesn't blow off. Once the boat is in the proper bow-to-mooring position, tie off the mooring properly.

 

[HAL]

Thanks ,I'll try that.

Thanks for the tips.
I'll try a little more working with the wind and coming up on the beam, as if sailing . I’ll continue to work with boat hook, line led aft and backing into it and I’ll remember I can always come around again and again.