Mooring ball pickup - single handed

[ricksoth]

Hey all cruising experts, I need some guidance on technique or gadgets to help me secure my sailboat to the common mooring ball rings that are located in Puget Sound at various State marine parks, like Blake Island, etc. when sailing alone.

I see things like:

• Affordable
  • EZ Hooker Boat Hook | West Marine
• Middle range
  • Panther Marine 85-203MAR | Fisheries Supply
  • Simple Snap Mooring Hook
• High cost
  • Hook & Moor - Telescoping Boat Mooring Hook

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Get a SOLID non-extendable boat hook, and pick it up from the cockpit, not the bow. There was a long thread about just this subject just a few weeks ago. You could try a search for it, I will, too.

 

[MikeHoncho]

I have a 30ft 3/4 laid line I use for mooring buoys. I approach from down wind, dock hook out. I go abeam of the buoy from the cockpit and use the hook if necessary while carrying little to now speed. I try not to use the hook because that means you are pulling the buoy to you, not the boat to the buoy and when this is the case it will be battling the buoy all the way to the bow. From the point you loop the buoy to when you get it tied off the clock is clicking and this is why a longer line is necessary because from this point forward you are using its length or physically moving the boat via muscle power. I make my way to the bow as fast as I can safely and tie it off. If the weather is mild I will just leave it ran through the buoy eye and tie each end off so all I need to do is untie one end and pull it through. If weather isn't great or the moorage isn't sheltered Ill run another line through the buoy and have each line tied off on each side.

I learned to approach from the downwind side because when you approach on upwind you do great but then drag the encrusted bouy down your hull while walking it forward. Doing it downwind brings about the possibility of miss approaches or having the drop the buoy if needed but its worth it.

 

[rgranger]

The risk of dropping it overboard is directly proportional to the cost... So I'd get something sturdy and cheap. I don't pick up mooring balls but I do dock at a slip with a very fast 6-8kts current and I use my hook to snag a bow line off the dock.

I took some of that pipe insulation you can buy at Lowes and zip tied a few piecs around my boat hook. Did the same for my winch handle.... and it has already saved me one winch handle....

 

[Will Gilmore]

the common mooring ball rings that are located in Puget Sound at various State marine parks, like Blake Island, etc.

These mooring balls have no pendent?

-Will

 

[capta]

What? You pick up and attach your boat to a mooring? Unheard of!
We just pick one of the several "boat boys" hovering around in their perogues and for a couple of EC bucks, it's a done deal.

 

[MikeHoncho]

These mooring balls have no pendent?

-Will

I've never seen one with a pendent

 

[ricksoth]

Thanks Mike for your write-up, and the downwind and lee side approach makes sense to me.

I'm still confused about how you pass the line through the ring? Do you have one of the end-of-pole gadgets like the links show in my starting post? Or can you pull the ring and chain up thru the mooring float, so that passing the line through the ring only takes some muscle?

... From the point you loop the buoy .... I make my way to the bow as fast as I can safely and tie it off. If the weather is mild I will just leave it ran through the buoy eye and tie each end off so all I need to do is untie one end and pull it through. If weather isn't great or the moorage isn't sheltered Ill run another line through the buoy and have each line tied off on each side.
...

 

[Terry Cox]

Hi Rick, in our early cruising years I tried an assortment of tools and techniques, but have settled on one that works for us. I use a Garelick brand telescoping boat hook to grab the ring and lift it up to hand the line through. I stopped running the line from one cleat, through the ring to another cleat, after a blow cut through the line due to the boat sailing. I now always run the line from a bow cleat, through the ring and back to the same cleat; this to minimize sawing abrasion. I will also run a second mooring line as a back up, again to the same cleat.

All work is done at the bow in calm or light wind conditions. I apply a different procedure in strong winds due to our boat's high free board. In that case I have a long mooring line secured to a bow cleat with the working end run back to a mid ship cleat. I approach the mooring ball from the lee side as if I'm going to land at a dock. Once I touch the mooring ball mid ship I grab the ring, run the line through by hand and secure the working end to the mid ship cleat. Wind will push the boat to line up with the mooring ball and at that time I will move the working end to the bow cleat and secure.

It is almost impossible in a blow to point the bow next to the mooring ball, run forward to grab the ring and hand the line through and secure. Every time the wind will push the bow away before I can thread the ring. And no way can I hold a 35,000 pound boat with a boat hook on the ring in a blow. Believe me I've tried it.

I've been doing it this way for years and it works for me as a solo sailor. I'll let crew help in reasonable conditions, but regardless will apply the sample principles in a blow.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Do you have one of the end-of-pole gadgets like the links show in my starting post? Or can you pull the ring and chain up thru the mooring float, so that passing the line through the ring only takes some muscle?

I have a Happy Hooker that simply doesn't work on "floppy rings" found on mooring balls here.
I use a SOLID boat hook, from the cockpit, to lift the ring. Sometimes the chain doesn't come up through the ball, for whatever reason, but in that case, because I'm in the cockpit with lower freeboard than at the bow with the pulpit in the way, I can lift the ring high enough and hold it up with the boat hook to thread the long line I've already attached to the bow cleat, through the ring.
With your smaller 27 footer, you should have no trouble doing this.
I switched from a collapsing boat hook that I used for decades, and fit in my port cockpit locker, to a SOLID six foot long hook. It is more stable and can be both pushed and pulled without hassle. I used to live in San Francisco, where the few buoys there at Angel Island were solid, with no floppy rings and where my Happy Hooker worked. Not here. Solid boat hooks also work better on bull rails!!!