Picking up a mooring

Guest · Sep 19, 2009

Mooring ball

Hi Bob, I do not have tennis elbow, but our 30,000 pound P42 can be a challenge trying to pick up a mooring ball ring in a blow. One time in Echo Bay on Sucia Island as a gale was easing I made the mistake of placing the engine in neutral, boat heading into a strong wind, I grabbed the ring with the boat hook and foolishly tried to stop the boat from being blown backwards away from the ball. Well, I decided to let go of the hook rather than ending up in the water.

After retrieving the hook, the next try I left the boat in gear at idle, which worked, but I had to move fast because the wind force against the high freeboard wants to swing the bow one way or another away from the ball. If you have a step transom, try backing up to the mooring. The stern and rudder have less windage influence than the bow in a blow. Also, rig one end of a pendant with a steel hook and the other end tied off to a stern cleat such that you can use your boat hook to extend the steel hook to catch the ring, then once the boat is temporarily secured to the mooring with the steel hook finish up with a permanent pendant.

Rather than a stern cleat, or in the absence of a step transom, you could use the same technique with a mid ship cleat, a bit closer to the cockpit. Either way you want to use the pendant with a hook on the end to temporarily secure the boat to give you time to finish a permanent mooring.

I've not tried this technique, but as I get older I'm also looking for ways to make boating less difficult, especially in this type of situation. Now that you broached the topic, I'm going to rig and test it. I will let you know the outcome, but it should work. I just need a little think time to figure out a way to make a quick release mechanism for the steel hook on the end of the boat hook. It is amazing what you can do with wire coat hangers and duct tape.

Terry Cox

Stu Jackson · Sep 19, 2009

Terry, your ideas have great merit. Rather than the duct tape and hanger route on a line with a steel hook, why not just double the temporary line back to the boat and rearrange whatever you need, as you suggest, later on. Doubled back lines are easier to disengage and easy to originally reeve if you can reach the buoy to begin with. If not, then a Happy Hooker would do the job. If you want to continue with the steel hook with a single line, then try the C. S. Johnson hooker, which I find harder to grab for detachment than the doubled back line from the Happy Hooker method.

And if you hook from stern or midships, which puts you in a weird position temporarily, why not just run a line back from the bow while making the hookup from the cockpit?

timvg · Sep 19, 2009

We used to use the Happy Hooker all the time when we were in the NW. Now that we are in CA, all of our moorings are bow and stern, with a weighted line in between them.

We get (usually in a beam wind) to pick up the bow wand and attach it to the bow cleat. Now the fun part is working your weigh back to the stern mooring by way of the weighted line that connects the bow and stern mooring.

It's very entertaining watching boats try to keep themselves in between 2 other boats, with a beam wind, whilc coordinating the bow and stern hookup. All of us "experts" occassionally get to be part of the entertainment as even we once in a while get to enjoy the struggle that shows no mercy on experience.

I miss those "easy" single moorings, LOL

Guest · Sep 19, 2009

Mooring ball

Hi Stu, thank you for all the good ideas and suggestions. My difficulty, as I think Bob was referencing, is grabbing and lifting the ring high enough to run the pendant through. Often times the chain that runs through the mooring ball is so fouled with marine life the ring will not rise to toe rail level. I'll check into the devices you refer. I tried the Mooring Buddy that is made of nylon, but it broke the first time I used it when it would not release from the ring. The steel hook may not work, but it might lead to other alternatives.

Yikes! The Stearns SS Happy Hooker retails for $415. I'll pass on that one for now.

Terry Cox

timvg · Sep 19, 2009

West Marine has them for $59

Maine Sail · Sep 19, 2009

Few points

Inertia

Practice

Know your boat

Walk calmly to the bow

Always head straight into the wind

Pick up pendant with boat hook and quickly loop over the bow cleat

You can secure it once the boat settles

You can easily pick up your mooring in 30+ solo with only a boat hook but it takes knowing your vessel and how she moves in each wind circumstance. I pick up moorings 98% of the time solo and have been for over 20+ years. Occasionally I am not paying attention, talking to crew, and miss it, but it is rare..

Stu Jackson · Sep 19, 2009

Happy Hooker price

Guest said:
Yikes! The Stearns SS Happy Hooker retails for $415. I'll pass on that one for now.

Terry, not sure what you're looking at, but my 2009 WM catalog, page 182 has the HH at $59.99. I didn't even know they made a ss model, but it's totally unnecessary. Tim's right.

Maine Sail · Sep 19, 2009

Guest said:
Hi Stu, thank you for all the good ideas and suggestions. My difficulty, as I think Bob was referencing, is grabbing and lifting the ring high enough to run the pendant through. Often times the chain that runs through the mooring ball is so fouled with marine life the ring will not rise to toe rail level. I'll check into the devices you refer. I tried the Mooring Buddy that is made of nylon, but it broke the first time I used it when it would not release from the ring. The steel hook may not work, but it might lead to other alternatives.

Yikes! The Stearns SS Happy Hooker retails for $415. I'll pass on that one for now.

Terry Cox

Terry,

Why not use a standard permanently attached pendant? This is the way thousands and thousands of moorings are configured and it makes it much easier..

These are my pendants and they get attached below the ball. If you have an above ball set up this works too.. There's no need to lift all that chain to put a pendant through an eye. I simply reach out the boat hook and grab them, simple as pie..

John · Sep 19, 2009

Happy Hooker! Happy Hooker! The first time I ever tried to pick up a mooring, it worked. The greatest invention since gps.

Guest · Sep 19, 2009

Mooring ball

Most all (hundreds) Washington State Park and Department of Natural Resources mooring balls around these parts consist of a somewhat flat round float with a chain through the center and a round ring sitting on top of a small metal pyramid frame. The ring is about a foot off the water. Our boat is about five feet off the water at the bow toe rail. I too have moored to these devices 100s of times solo and almost every time on the first try. Easy peasy nice and easy.

You can raise most all of these rings up to toe rail level and thread the pendant through the ring with little difficulty. But there are those few times when the ring will not come up to toe rail level and/or the wind is blowing like stink. It is those times that as much as you have the boat dead into the wind (I know our boat's behavior well) and sprint (not walk) to the bow, that I am considering an alternative method or backup plan.

We purchased Belle-Vie in 2002 and since then we have had two incidents where an alternative plan would have helped. Earlier I mentioned the one in Echo Bay on Sucia Island. In that case I should have left the engine in gear to offset the force of the wind. It took a second try to capture and secure the pendant.

The second was in Spencer Spit where the wind was howling and gusting from varying directions. The boat just would not stay head into the wind. It took three tries to secure the pendant, breaking the boat hook tip in the process. However, I did get a free tip replacement (lifetime guarantee), which helped sooth the mental anguish that I suffered.

Bottom line, perhaps the Happy Hooker would help. I think the SS hook on the end of a pendant line will work just as well at a much lower cost. I'm going to give it a try because that is a large part of the fun I experience in boating. Finding solutions to those rare incidents'.

Terry Cox

Dalliance · Sep 20, 2009

I had my boat on a mooring for only one year before getting a slip assignment. I had been told to expect a 3 to 5 year wait, but as luck would have it, the recession and global economic meltdown shortened the waiting list.
Anyway, here in Chicago, permanent mooring pendants are required, and I think it makes life easier on a mooring. Just pick up the pendants, drop them on your bow cleats and you're done. Rather than picking the pendants up with a boat hook though, we used a mooring mast buoy ($43 to $48 at WM, depending on the length). Just reach out from the bow, grab the stick and pull the bouy and attached pendants onto the deck. Guests with no experience were able to do it and it was easly for me single handing, even in a blow.

Don12364 · Sep 20, 2009

Slow and Easy Buoy Pickup

I carry a couple of large sprung hooks which we call mooring hooks. They are stainless and have an opening about 2 1/2" wide. Each hook will slide onto the end of a boathook. They were once called 'Star Mooring Hooks' or 'Grabber Hooks' but the original maker is no longer in business.
They are no use unless really BIG and, of course, not made of plastic. Happy Hookers are too weak to take the weight of the boat and too slow whilst you pull the thin leader line and then loads of warp through the buoy ring. Also no use if there is no ring.

I take a long warp from a genoa winch, along the deck and out over the bow roller, then down one side of the boat outside everything and back into the cockpit. I then tie the hook on to the end, attach it to the extending boathook and have this ready in the cockpit.
I motor up to the buoy until it comes alongside the cockpit - best to come in a tiny bit to leeward so the bow does not pay off over the buoy. I just hook on to the ring on the buoy (or the pickup pennant if there is no ring) and pull the boathook off the mooring hook. Then pull on the warp from the winch until the buoy comes to under the bow roller.
This is a relatively easy job as pulling on the warp tows the buoy upwind (or up tide) rather than trying to drive the boat backwards. Also you never leave the cockpit so still have full control and you never loose sight of the buoy under the bow until you have grabbed it.
Once firmly attached there is plenty of time to go forward to make the proper connection to the buoy and remove the mooring hook.
I carry two hooks and two boathooks so I can first attach to the bow and then drop back to attach my stern to another buoy if mooring on a trot.
I have even been complemented by a Harbourmaster because it was all done quickly as he was motoring out to give me a hand.. I was single handed at the time.

Pic below, not mine, shows type of hook needed.
See Also http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/gene...moor-stainless-steel-grab-it-hook655721.bhtml
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]'Grab-it' Hook[/FONT]

Makes picking-up a buoy with a top ring a doddle!

Basically a very large stainless steel carbine hook with grooves machined into either side such that it fits (with the hook open) in a simple bracket screwed to the stave of the boathook.

A length of nylon warp, spliced to the hook, terminates in an eye splice, large enough to drop over a deck cleat.

Holding the warp against the boathook keeps the 'Grab-it'hook opeen. Just grab the buoy's ring with the hook and let go of the warp. The hook springs closed and you are safely attached to the buoy.

Replace with a 'permanent' line at your leisure.

[SIZE=-1]Chione T[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]London[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]O/ 9010553[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]R.T. 6 54/100[/SIZE]

dserrell · Sep 20, 2009

Quoddy · Sep 20, 2009

Easy mooring pickup

We have a light displacement high freeboard boat that blows off in an instant. I have devised a simple single-handed pickup method that works without leaving the cockpit.

A permanently mounted line starts at the cabin top winch and goes forward to a block attached at the gunnel near the bow cleat, then the line runs aft to the cockpit outside everything. The line has a stainless steel hook with a gate at the cockpit end.

Motor into the wind, up to the ball and pennant with whip. Keep them slightly to the lee until they are alongside the cockpit. Pickup the pennant with its whip or use a boat hook. Attach the stainless hook to the loop in the pennant and drop it back into the water. You are now attached and the rest is easy. Pull in on the line at the winch as the wind carries you back until you are lying to the wind. At your leisure go forward to finish the job.

If it is blowing hard you can snub the pennant on the stern cleat while you are attaching the ss hook.

Maine Sail · Sep 20, 2009

Guest said:
Most all (hundreds) Washington State Park and Department of Natural Resources mooring balls around these parts consist of a somewhat flat round float with a chain through the center and a round ring sitting on top of a small metal pyramid frame. The ring is about a foot off the water. Our boat is about five feet off the water at the bow toe rail. I too have moored to these devices 100s of times solo and almost every time on the first try. Easy peasy nice and easy.

I've seen these moorings in the San Juan Islands and they are a pain. I don't understand why they don't use fixed pendants? My comments above were more directed at one's own private mooring.

Stu Jackson · Sep 20, 2009

Throttle adjustment

BobM said:
...pull my compass and adjust the throttle. ...I think it threw off the return spring. It won't stay in place, so I have a bungee cord wrapped around it to hold it in place, unfortunately fine adjustment is rough.

Bob, I understand your situation and have seen many a bungeed throttle. The idle adjustment is at the engine end. There is no spring inside the binnacle. It's at the engine end of the throttle cable.