how to connect to a mooring on a cat?

[jbinbi]

I know this seems like a silly question, and having picked up my mooring on my mono literally hundreds of times single handed, I am trying to figure out how to pick and stay on a mooring on my Lagoon 380.

I have the bridle for anchoring that came with the boat, that connects to the pad eyes underneath the bow crossbar. It has an S hook at the end to hook into the chain when anchoring.

I figure I need a bridle of sorts for a mooring.

Originally, I was going to have say 2 15' pennants coming from the mooring ball instead of 6' ones that I had with the mono, and hook one on to each cleat. My dealer said no, use the bridle from the eye hooks.

Issues are that at moorings other than my own, say with just a single pennant , or maybe no pennant and just the mooring ball, I need a way to attach a bridle to the mooring. The anchor bridle with the S hook isn't going to work either.

Do they make D snap hooks (like carabiners) that have enough strength to attach at the end of the bridle and to a mooring ball/pennant? If not, how to attach?

What is the best way to do this on the cat?

[44'cruisingcat]

W don't use a bridle on public moorings, because we don't stay there for longer than a night, usually. What we do is to take the mooring pennant over the forebeam and shorten up it just enough so the float can't bump into either bow.


If you were mooring long term a bridle would be desirable.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

I know this seems like a silly question, and having picked up my mooring on my mono literally hundreds of times single handed, I am trying to figure out how to pick and stay on a mooring on my Lagoon 380.

I have the bridle for anchoring that came with the boat, that connects to the pad eyes underneath the bow crossbar. It has an S hook at the end to hook into the chain when anchoring.

I figure I need a bridle of sorts for a mooring.

Originally, I was going to have say 2 15' pennants coming from the mooring ball instead of 6' ones that I had with the mono, and hook one on to each cleat. My dealer said no, use the bridle from the eye hooks.

Issues are that at moorings other than my own, say with just a single pennant , or maybe no pennant and just the mooring ball, I need a way to attach a bridle to the mooring. The anchor bridle with the S hook isn't going to work either.

Do they make D snap hooks (like carabiners) that have enough strength to attach at the end of the bridle and to a mooring ball/pennant? If not, how to attach?

What is the best way to do this on the cat?

Some marinas have rules specific to the marina detaining how to connect a boat to the mooring. If that is the case I would follow those rules.

Another consideration is how close the mooring balls are. you don't want your lines connecting to the ball so long the stern of your boat contacts the mooring ball behind you, or heaven forbid the boat on that ball.

I have two cleats on the bows of my hulls. I use two lines with an eye splice at one end which I hook over the cleat run through the eye splice on the line from the ball and then secure the bitter end on the cleat. Once I have done this on both hulls I stand behind the bow sprit and adjust one of the lines so the eye splice on the mooring ball line is hidden by the bow sprit.

[ZipTie]

Mooring Bridal,
For picking up a mooring ball, we have prepared 2 lines of (5/8 or 3/4 inch rope) that are 50’ long. We secure one 50’ line to port and the other to the starboard bow cleats.

The lines are 50' long so when I loop the rope back to the same cleat we have about 25' length of looped rope running from the mooring eye to the cleat, now I have one side secured to the ball, I pull that side up tight so I can reach the mooring eye with the other 50' rope and then loop it thru the mooring eye and back to the cleat it was tied to and secure it. I then adjust the 2 lines to center the mooring on the boat. Since you have 2 lines independently attached to the mooring eye then you will not have the mooring sliding along your bridal and you cut down on chafe a lot. You will sleep a lot better knowing if one line does come loose the other one is still attached.

[jbinbi]

Originally Posted by ZipTie

Mooring Bridal,
For picking up a mooring ball, we have prepared 2 lines of (5/8 or 3/4 inch rope) that are 50’ long. We secure one 50’ line to port and the other to the starboard bow cleats.

The lines are 50' long so when I loop the rope back to the same cleat we have about 25' length of looped rope running from the mooring eye to the cleat, now I have one side secured to the ball, I pull that side up tight so I can reach the mooring eye with the other 50' rope and then loop it thru the mooring eye and back to the cleat it was tied to and secure it. I then adjust the 2 lines to center the mooring on the boat. Since you have 2 lines independently attached to the mooring eye then you will not have the mooring sliding along your bridal and you cut down on chafe a lot. You will sleep a lot better knowing if one line does come loose the other one is still attached.

ziptie, interesting! works great on this setup.

What about if you have a mooring pennant you have to attach to. I know the same applies in principal, but now you have rope on rope, high chafe factor.

That is why I was asking about something that was metal at the end of each line, like a carabiner. see pic

[hurricanehole]

After eight months at the same mooring I didn't see any chafe using rope from the cleats on each hull to the eye at the top of the mooring ball. This was in a somewhat protected area. My next mooring ball was in the St Augustine, FL field, if you don't keep a very short connection to the ball, as already suggested, it will scratch up your hulls with opposing tides and winds.

[jbinbi]

That is good to know as I have cleats as well, but I was more worried about chafe from the method ziptie and possibly you used. That would be if the mooring has a rope pennant with a loop. So using ziptie's method, you would take a line from each cleat, go through the loop on the mooring's pennant (which is rope) and back to the cleat. In this case you have rope on rope, and I think big chance of bad chafe.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

That is good to know as I have cleats as well, but I was more worried about chafe from the method ziptie and possibly you used. That would be if the mooring has a rope pennant with a loop. So using ziptie's method, you would take a line from each cleat, go through the loop on the mooring's pennant (which is rope) and back to the cleat. In this case you have rope on rope, and I think big chance of bad chafe.

Run the lines through soft shackles on the pennant loop?
Or even low friction rings attached to soft shackles?

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

ziptie, interesting! works great on this setup.

What about if you have a mooring pennant you have to attach to. I know the same applies in principal, but now you have rope on rope, high chafe factor.

That is why I was asking about something that was metal at the end of each line, like a carabiner. see pic

This is why I posted some marinas have rules on how to attach to a mooring ball. It is somewhat common to have an eye splice with a hard plastic insert on a mooring ball. If this is the case you are usually prohibited from attaching with anything but line.

[clownfishsydney]

We had made up a bridle that has clips at either end. We put one end on the port side where the anchoring bridle is attached, run the other through the mooring eye and then take it to the starboard side. On our own mooring we have a backup that is simlar, but has loops at the end which go on the cleats.

[Rapanui]

Kept a cat on a swinging mooring for nearly 40 years, exposed with strong tide. For permament mooring had 2 pennants shackled to the buoy (centre through buoy attached directly to riser). One pennant had pickup buoy at soft splice loop. Moored with one pennant on each bow cleat. Loop round cleat and where pennant crossed cross beam had a length of flexible pvc water hose over to prevent chafe. Tied unbuoyed pennant to one with pickup buoy when leaving mooring otherwise horrendus tangles. Never had one part despite the best UK weather could deliver.
For strange buoys, most should not take load through the top ring. Where there is a pennant, pick up and secure temporarily on centre line cleat. You may find it will not be long enough so rig a short line attached to centre cleat. With no pennant attach to top buoy ring. Then heave up buoy as far as posible and run a second line from one bow cleat through the main shackle underneath the buoy and back to cleat. For overnight, rig asecond line to opposite bow, drop the buoy back so load is taken by main shackle.
This will stop buoy banging the hulls, but if the buoy pick up loop is tall, it can clonk the crossbeam in certain conditions. Still looking for solution to that one!

[rabbi]

@ziptie:
That is Catatude in the picture, isn't it?



If we have to use a mooring ball (in nature reserves and the like) we use our bridle. We have a strong snap shackle instead of a chain hook which works on both the chain and a mooring ball.

[jbinbi]

Originally Posted by rabbi

@ziptie:
That is Catatude in the picture, isn't it?

If we have to use a mooring ball (in nature reserves and the like) we use our bridle. We have a strong snap shackle instead of a chain hook which works on both the chain and a mooring ball.

I thought I had seen that picture before too

Rabbi, I am not sure I would trust any snap shackle to a)be strong enough to hold my boat, and b)not somehow open under load.

Is this different than snap shackles I am thinking of?

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by jbinbi

I thought I had seen that picture before too

Rabbi, I am not sure I would trust any snap shackle to a)be strong enough to hold my boat, and b)not somehow open under load.

Is this different than snap shackles I am thinking of?

this is a Wichard HR snap shackle and is rated at working 1280kg and breaking 3000kg. It has held the boat in solid 45kn with gusts in low 50s. never undid itself.
But i confess that i am a chicken: if exceptionally strong winds are expected I add a soft shackle made from 10mm dyneema. no clue of its breaking rate but certainly above that of the bridle legs.

previously I had a self-locking chain hook also made by Wichard, but it was a PITA as the locking pin bent all the time. this became dangerous as it was sometimes impossible to unhook without getting it straight first.

[Aqualibrium]

There are so many variables on this issue.
Displacement of cat
Windage
Tidal flows
Etc Etc Etc
In the Whitsundays there are many public Moorings which are provided and well maintained by the local authourities and are colour coded for different boat lengths.

No mention of displacement.

My cat is fairly light but with significant windage and if connected via bridle or even with the long pendant provided, will sail all over the place.
In one location with significant tidal flows on the full length mooring pendant my cat sailed to the full length available and the mooring line snagged around my sail drive leg and i had to dive to free it! After the second occasion in an hour of having to dive and free it, I shortened the pendant so the buoy is directly below the forebeam and unable to bang on the hulls.
This can cause issues in trade winds areas around high islands where bullets can be quite vicious and the cat sailing to the full extent of the Rode and then snatching, in extreme cases it could nearly throw you off your feet.

We renamed Butterfly Bay Bulletsfly By

The Big heavy Lagoons didnt seem to have any of these problems.