On Tue, Feb 01, 2011 at 09:42:52PM -0500, Jim Lynch wrote:
> I'm about to venture off into an area I'm not familiar with. I'm going
> to single hand the boat down to mid-florida and probably have to pick up
> a mooring without benefit of a first mate. I've done it before alone
> but that was with a much smaller boat a lot closer to the water and I
> was considerably quicker in my youth. Any suggestions as to how to
> pickup a mooring from 4' above the water single handed? I'm thinking
> about bringing the mooring along side with a long line from the bow, but
> it's tricky getting a knot in the line or a line through the loop and
> then getting back to the bow. How does anyone do that?
Jim, seems like you keep calling my name tonight. :)
I've always found it crucially important to be able to judge my boat's
carry in different current and wind situations. The more finely you can
judge it, the lazier you can be as you amble up to the foredeck with
your boathook (assuming that the wind and the current aren't too strong,
that is.) The general way it goes is that I aim the boat at the mooring
ball, get to the point where I'm going to just let it go, drop the
engine into neutral, and twitch the wheel just a hair to port and right
back again - I usually pick up the ball on the starboard side. Then, I
make my way to the bow, hook in hand. Incidentally, in my opinion, it's
a lot easier to learn the carry relative to some fixed RPM from which
you shut down dead than try to "sneak up" on the mooring at minimum
speed and then run up to the bow before the boat falls off. That latter
is likely to be an exercise in frustration.
My bow is not quite 4' above the water, and I have long arms; I realize
that this makes my job easier than it would be otherwise. Also, I'm
pretty strong, so I can generally haul up even a fairly large mooring
with quite serious chain on it. For those few times when I can't, I've
got a rather large chain hook on a shortish tether that I can fix to the
end of my boathook and thus snag the mooring loop. I think I've used it
all of twice - although, come to think of it, using it as a default
mooring technique would make my life easier overall. Hmm.
Anyway... I don't pick up moorings all that often, but when I do, I've
never found it to be all that tough; they just take a tiny bit more
forethought than anchoring, and a little more concentration on the final
approach. Do be sure to put enough tension on the tether so that the
hook doesn't fall out before you can hoist the ball, or pass a line
through the loop, or whatever.
Ben
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