One of these came with my boat when I bought it and I love it:
http://www.moorfast.com/ They don't appear to be available in the USA... mine is a variation of this that fits into the end of my boat hook so you might check for boat hook ends or accessories at your local marine store and see what they have. I like this type because it passes a pilot line through the eye of the mooring bouy and the pilot line is tied to a larger mooring line. When you get ready to leave, all you have to do is untie one side of the bridle and then pull the line through, as opposed to laying on the deck, bruising your ribs and unhooking a carabiner. I have a bridle line with heavy vinyl tubing in the middle acting as anti-chafe. I like to approach the bouy from downwind so that the boat is pretty much stopped when I head forward to grab the bouy. If you're not close enough or can't get a good shot at it, go around again, be patient. Lots of bad things can happen when trying to pick up a bouy in windy or high-current conditions, ESPECIALLY when you're by yourself. Now this may sound overly cautious, but I speak from experience (self taught), depending on conditions, consider tethering yourself to the boat so you can't fall overboard or be dragged overboard thinking you have the bouy and can hold the boats momentum. Boats are heavy! Give yourself a way to get back onboard the boat if you do fall overboard, like putting down your boarding ladder. :) Other things I've experienced when using a mooring bouy... A bridle line that is too long can (and usually will) get itself tangled under the bouy and then the razor sharp barnacles will try to saw the line in half. Once the wind dies down in the evening, the bouy will float next to the boat and the big metal ring will tap tap tap against the bow and sound like a drum in the v-berth. I take a small line from the ring on on the bouy to the end of my bowsprit and prevent that from happening in advance. And the final piece of sage advice is of course, never trust your vessel's safety to a mooring bouy during a blow. Who knows how the bouy is attached, and to what?? I feel a bit better using a bouy that I know is maintained by a State Park system, but always keep that in mind when conditions get nasty. Fairwinds, Ken Pearce Bellingham, WA s/v Gryphon, Fisher 37
_______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
