How strong are the mooring points on your boat.

[Ross]

I have wondered ever since I rebuilt my boat years ago if I had made it strong enough. In the storm called Sandy I got the answer. The port side stern line pulled the dock cleat out of the pier and let the boat bump against the neighboring boat. I have a bent bolt on the boom gallows and the rubrail is loose near the bow. There is no other damage.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I'm always more concerned about dock cleats and rings than I am about the lines or the cleats on the boat. A better test seems to be when you are tied to a piling.

In the past week I have seen several demolished piers and bulkheads both on the ocean front and canal front on the Hudson (at Port Liberte). I'm amazed at what the pilings withstand, seemingly immovable.

I saw an ocean front boardwalk structure, actually more like a deck, that was built on an inner bulkhead with 26 pilings and an outer bulkhead with 26 pilings. There was just one broken piling with the rest of the structure demolished. The waves battered the 2" thick planks of the outer bulkhead to pieces, leaving the pilings standing unmoved. The rod tie-backs were mangled and the 8x10 cross bucks were detached or broken, yet the pilings stood. At least 6' of sand had washed out leaving the inner pilings standing with almost 20 feet of height exposed, holding back a parking lot that had waves crashing on it at high tide and still they stood. This structure was at least 170' long (pilings were spaced 6' apart) so it was no small segment. The only piling that broke was where the inner planks kicked toward the ocean at the bottom, leaving a very small segment of the parking lot with a sink hole.

At Port Liberte, the floating piers floated over the pilings and came to rest on patios and against buildings, or resting on top of the pilings. I was amazed that one resident said that the waves were beating against the homes about waist high on the ground level. This was several feet higher than the tops of the pilings. I don't think there was a single piling that looked displaced. I saw a barge with a crane starting to replace the piers exactly where they came from ... those that weren't mangled that is. These pier were floating but they had a concrete topping and were at least 6' wide so these were no small stuctures. Each segment may have been at least 20' long. These buildings face the backside of Lady Liberty and look across lower New York Harbor at Brooklyn, and the V Narrows bridge is in plain view.

I'm amazed at what those pilings withstand.

I saw a Sun Odyssey 45 moored against one pier, with the next piers over laying against a building. I was thinking that whoever left their boat there was lucky that they just happened to be on a pier that wasn't displaced, but the Manager told me the boat was just moved in there over the weekend after the pier had been put back in place.

 

[Ken13559]

Under normal circumstance (not Sandy or Katherina) who pays for the damage to the dock cleats in storm or sever wake? Boat owners or marina?

 

[Ron20324]

I'm surprised you didn't have a second line to a second cleat or preferably, piling.

 

[Ross]

The pier is 6 inches thick and appeared to be sound. The cleat belongs to the marina they have the responsibility to ensure that it will do the job expected of it.

 

[SenecaDaze]

Snubbers take alot of strain off boat and mooring

 

[jibes138]

Ross is sharing a good lesson learned. I have seen cleats on docks torn out that were attached by lag bolts. So it is a good idea to know how the cleats are attached to the dock, how strong they are and how to attach your boat in a storm. I firmly believe a mooring is prefereble to a dock in a bad storm or hurricane. In hurricane Bob in new england I stayed at the marina to help out and what I observed was the fenders would pop out of the water higher than the floating docks then come to rest on top of the dock so the boats would all be getting pounded directly into the dock. Spent a lot of time in the storm just putting fenders back in the water to save some damage to various boats. And this was only maybe 50 mph winds, far below hurricane force. Most folks rightly worry about chafe but should also consider if the cleats can handle the loads.

 

[Ron20324]

During Isabelle, there were two boats each tied to a cleat on opposite ends of a board across the finger pier. The cleats were nicely bolted, but the board was only nailed to the stringer. The result was the board came up and the two boats were linked by it dangling with the two dock lines for support. The marina was just totally rebuilt this last 2 years, and the nails are no longer used in favor of nice heavy cleats and nuts and bolts.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I wonder how many marinas actually pay much attention to the cleats and dock rings. It seems to me that many just leave it to the slip lessee to take care of their own.

 

[All U Get]

Maybe this would be a good time to ask why dock cleats aren't perpindicular to the boats they are supposed to hold. As a cleat for spring lines they are oriented well, but not for the for and aft tying. Hmmmmm just wondering.
All U Get

 

[MrBee]

Ross,
Sounds like you fared well. how are the docks ? We were the Irwin behind you for a few years. Did the bulkhead get fixed yet ?

Brian

 

[rgranger]

Years ago I owned a Coronado 25' and I had it tied up at my personal dock.

We had a strong winter storm blow directly at her broadside. My cleats held, the dock cleats held, the rope did not chafe... but the plank to which the dock cleat was attached pulled free of the dock taking the entire board, and cleat with it. Once the stern was free the boat pitched back and forth from the bow line until the bow line parted and she was pushed up into a cove. Got lucky, not real damage to the boat.

 

[kloudie1]

Our marina does not have cleats .. we tie directly to pilings .. Has been fine through many hurricanes and tropical storms. I've been there since 1978..

 

[Ross]

These are good large size cleats properly oriented and through bolted. The pier is 6 inch thick douglas fir and has reached the end years of its useful life. This didn't just yank the bolts out ,it took a fair section of the wood with the cleat.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Ross, it sounds like the cleat may have been trying to sustain the bulk of the entire load. I am sure that you had sustained winds from a constant direction, which leads to one connection point, or maybe just 2 that bear most of the load even though many ropes may have been used to tie off the boat.

When I tied Thunderbird down, I was most worried about the cleats and rings on the wooden dock. I figured that even if the fittings didn't give, the planks were liable to pull loose from the stringers. I spent some time on my own last spring reinforcing the dock with fasteners, because I knew the County wasn't going to focus on this issue. Nobody bothered me while I did my reinforcing work ... I often believe it is more expedient to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission.

I like my location, though because I am partially protected by a concrete structure and there are tie-off posts which are concrete-filled pipes set in the concrete pier. I had at least 3 ropes attached to those. Even so, I studied the wind patterns on Monday evening and adjusted lines so that it appeared that lines were taking a distributed load in the gusts.

This is the only storm where in the 8 seasons I have had the boat here that I had this kind of concern beforehand ... and it was justified. Last year, during Irene, I wasn't nearly as concerned and didn't need to be so much. Even so, we don't get the sustained winds. They come in gusts and from variable directions. But even during the worst of the storm, there were periods when the boat is resting without any strain on the lines, due to the protection of the hills and trees.

 

[Ross]

I have seen the boat through seven named storms on this same pier secured in the same manner.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I guess that Doug Fir finally had enough!

 

[Dan Johnson]

SenacaDaze...

Snubbers may do a good job under normal circumstances, but in sustained wind/wave action, they can be a source point of line failure. I speak from experience per the picture below. This was a starboard bow line that was worked so much by 3 to 4 foot waves over a sustained period that it frayed the line (half inch double braide) until it failed.

 

[Maine Sail]

Snubbers may do a good job under normal circumstances, but in sustained wind/wave action, they can be a source point of line failure. I speak from experience per the picture below. This was a starboard bow line that was worked so much by 3 to 4 foot waves over a sustained period that it frayed the line (half inch double braide) until it failed.

Or the snubbers just do this:

BTW as we all know from the "mast up vs. mast down" storage questions the spars add little windage.... Think this boat would have been heeling like this in 45 knots without a spar...?

 

[SenecaDaze]

snubbers wear out just like dock lines and need to be replaced often.
i had one only lasted one month in sun and waves.
not saying they are the answer only a help in reducing stress on cleats