Installing Bow Chocks - O'Day 192

Indysailor · Apr 22, 2011

I don't think any of the smaller Odays have a different arrangement. It should be fine to just moor directly to the cleats- that's how I secure mine to a ball and it works. I leave one more slack than the other so that it is protected and acts as a safety in case the other one fails.

I would not use the bow eye.

Indysailor · Apr 27, 2011

No chafing, really.
Length was 8 feet, which was the max for our club/marina.

Indysailor · Apr 27, 2011

This was a typical mooring ball on an inland lake, with a ring on the top. The lines are equal length, I just tied one with less slack than the other so that one is the primary and the other acts as the secondary. They are the same lengths because it's good to alternate them, keeping them from wearing at different rates.

Joe11688 · Apr 28, 2011

Birdseye said:
Hi Folks,

First time boat owner. I just got my mooring gear situated and now realize that I have 2 bow cleats but no bow chocks which I will most likely need to add. I suppose I could lay on the bow each time, reach down and attach my pendant to the eye on the bow that I use to pull the boat up on the trailer (is this adviseable?) but it would seem more convenient to attach them to the cleats.

I was hoping someone here could give me some pointers about installing the bow chocks. Where should they be placed? The pictures I've seen show some pretty small screws and I'm wondering how well they will hold if the boat is tugging and pullingon the pendants.

Maybe it would make sense to just attach the boat to the bow eye (if this is an acceptable way to moor a boat). Maybe it would be a little less convenient but there would probably be a lot less chaffing?

Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nelson

Nelson,
If you are able to tie your mooring pendant line to your bow cleat, you can tie your pendant line to either one of those two cleats and not worry about chafe.
If you have a spliced eye on your mooring pendant line, I suggest that you also use a short length of 3/16" braid line to close up the eye after you put it over your bow cleat. Then tie a cleat hitch over the spliced eye of your pendant line. This is what I've been doing. The 3/16" braid line will keep that eye splice nice and snug on that bow cleat.
I used a 1/2" mooring pendant line on my boat for years and I would tie it to my bow cleat with a cleat hitch. Then I decided to go to a 5/8" mooring pendant line with an eye splice. 5/8" three strand nylon rope is really too big to tie a cleat hitch on my cleats and this is why I choose to use an extra 3/16" braid line to secure the eye splice to my bow cleat.
Joe

ruidh · Apr 29, 2011

Birdseye said:
I was hoping someone here could give me some pointers about installing the bow chocks. Where should they be placed? The pictures I've seen show some pretty small screws and I'm wondering how well they will hold if the boat is tugging and pullingon the pendants.

I had the painters come loose on my 23 last season after a week of particularly nasty weather. (I moor in a bay on the north shore of Long Island.) The screws are smallish, but I bolted mine along the edge of the deck and bedded them in 3M 4200. I might use nylon lock nuts this year to avoid them working loose again.

Sunbird22358 · Apr 29, 2011

There is no need, nor is there room to add bow chocks to a 192. I have basically the same setup of 2 bow cleats on my DS II and have used a bridle on the mooring line since I bought the boat in 1996. I'll post a pic of the mooring below. I tie the line from the pick-up buoy around both cleats to prevent the eye-splices on the bridle from popping off the cleats.

I took a couple of more close-up pictures of my bridle (I've actually changed its design recently) and posted the pics when I got home.

Joe11688 · Apr 30, 2011

Birdseye said:
Thanks Indy,
With your set up, do you have any problems with chaffing? What are the lengths of your pendants?

There's a rule of thumb for the minimum lenght of a mooring pendant line:

The distance from the bow chock in inches down to the waterline X 3.5, and whatever is needed to go to the cleat is added to that.
In our case, whereas our O'Days don't have chocks, it's the distance to the waterline x 3.5. Of course, the longer the pendant line, the better because of more horrizontal pull on the ground tackle or mooring block, and less vertical pull. If you can get away with more lenght it will be great. Our mooring field has a certain amount of swing room depending on the size of the boats moored. For my boat, it's 40' and for the larger boats, it's 60' swinging room at our club on the Taunton River.

www.shawometyachtclub.com

Joe11688 · May 11, 2011

Birdseye said:
Thanks everyone for your replies. I forgot to subscribe to this thread so didn't know anyone else responded.

I had my mooring guy come by and take a look at my boat. He agreed there really isn't much room for chocks and that my cleats are pretty small. He suggested that I secure one pendant to one of the cleats and use the smaller line to keep it secured to the cleat. The other (looser) pendant line will hook to the bow eye which will provide secondary support if needed and help keep the boat from swinging as much.

Does anyone see any problem with this?

Thanks,
Nelson

I don't use a secondary line on my bow eye, but I have been doing basically what he told you to do. I just spliced up a new three strand Nylon 5/8'' pendant line with an eye splice large enough to fit over my bow cleat and I keep a small 3/16" braid line about 3' long on tied to my bow pulpit. I put a small Bowline on one end and when I put my pendant line eye splice over my cleat, I use this thin braid line to close the eye up tight by running the other end through the bowline. Then I tie a cleat hitch over it to lock it in and keep it from turning on the cleat.
My friend Walter bought a large stainless steel snap hook at Suncor in Plimouth and spliced it to a 1/2" X 8' Nylon line. On the other end he made an eye splice. When he moored his boat, he'd run the eye splice loop through the bow eye and take the other end with the snap hook and run it through the eye splice. Then he would connect the snap hook to the ground tackle chain on the mooring ball. I really don't think that a secondary line is necessary myself.

Joe11688 · May 11, 2011

Birdseye said:
Thanks Joe,
It's a little hard to visualize. If you ever have your camera handy when this is in place, I wouldn't mind seeing a picture.

OK. I have my boat on the mooring behind the club and I'll take a picture of the cleat with the pendant line attached to it the next time I go down there. The weather has been crumby lately. This has to be the worse month of May in years. It's more like March than May.
Joe

Joe11688 · May 11, 2011

Birdseye said:
Thanks Joe, you are a major asset to this community.

Most of the O'Days are set up without chocks and I think you'll find it a more favorable set up once you get used to it. With just a cleat on the bow close to the gunwale, you have no need for chafing gear providing that you secure the pendant line well to the cleat either by making a cleat hitch or looping the pendant line eye splice over the cleat and closing it up tight with a thinner diameter line and tying a cleat hitch over it. There's just no way the eye splice is going to pop off that horn cleat.
If you are mooring your boat on a river with tidal currents coming in and going out as I've been doing, the pendant line has a tendency to sink and wrap around the mooring chain and it's hard to grab with your boat pole when you're shooting your mooring under sail. What I've been doing is inserting about four or five Styrofoam fish trap floats over my pendant line before I make the splices. I used to use a 1/2" pendant line without the eye splice and I'd use a figure eight knot to keep the float on the line and I'd tie the pendant line to my Starboard cleat. I do a lot of beach combing and I find these floats almost everywhere on the shoreline. I've never had to buy these floats. I find pick up sticks and I remove the float off it and bring it to the club and give them out to anyone who is in need of them.
The floats are great because they keep the pendant line afloat and I can always pick up my pendant line with my 12' telescopic boat hook.
I don't like pick up sticks and I won't use one.
Most of the time I'm able to sail right up to my mooring ball with just the mainsail and pick up my pendant line about nine out of ten times, and it's fun to do. These boats are as easy to maneuver under the Mainsail, as a daysailer.

Joe11688 · May 13, 2011

Birdseye said:
More good info Joe.
I'm not making my own pendants and will have a pick up buoy this year anyway. I'll see how it goes. A friend of mine with an O'Day 22 has been mooring in Duxbury for the past 3 years and has not had any major problems with his set up. I may need to make some adjustments next year but I guess that's expected.

I took some pics of how I secure my pendant line eye splice to my bow cleat. I usually keep the 3/16" x 3' braid line tied to my bow pulpit when it's not in use. This line serves two purposes; It closes the eye splice up and secures it to the cleat so that it doesn't move. After closing the loop of the eye splice, I draw the loop up tight against the cleat and take a couple of turns around the cleat to hold it there. Then I tie a cleat hitch over the eye to hold it in.
With no movement, there will be no wear of the pendant line at the eye splice. For the sake of clarity, I'm using my braid bow line to demonstrate how I tie the hitch. The last two pics are of my mooring pendant line when I leave the boat at the mooring.

Joe11688 · May 14, 2011

Birdseye said:
Thanks Again Joe,
This is very clear and I should be able to do the same thing. Do you only use the one cleat to tie up? How bad does the weather get on the river, do you think you are more protected than I will be in Duxbury Bay?

I have some bottom paint blister questions coming soon...

Nelson

Nelson,
Yes, I always use that Starboard cleat on my bow to moor my boat because my anchor roller is angled to Port and I think that my pendant line would catch on my anchor.
It can really kick up on the river at times, but my boat being shoal draft, is moored closer to shore which isn't too bad during storms.
Last year when we had that hurricane headed up this way, I took my Gennie off my furler and removed my boom with the mainsail and cover still on it, and stowed it inside the cabin. Then, I came back the next day and pulled my boat out and brought it home for the weekend. I brought it back the following week. As long as you have a good mooring with good ground tackle, you should be OK. If you have the swing room at the mooring, you could add on to your pendant line to make it a Little longer. The more horizontal your chain is, the better. I think that my mooring weighs about 630 lbs and it's buried in the mud, which is good for holding your boat. If your mooring line and chain is too short, the pull on the block will be too vertical and cause it to come up and drag in a big storm.
When we pull our mooring blocks at the club with our raft to check the chains, swivels and shackles, we put a good strain on the chain and wait several minutes for the block to come up out of the mud. Then we're able to hoist it right up and out of the water to check it.
The other day I was anchored for a couple of hours in a shallow muddy cove with a strong North wind and when I tried to pull my Fortress FX-11 anchor, it wouldn't budge so I pulled all the slack that I could out of my anchor line until the line was vertical and cleated it off. I had to wait over 5 minutes for the anchor to free itself from the mud. The stronger the wind, the deeper the anchor will dig itself into the mud.

Installing Bow Chocks - O'Day 192

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