Mooring With a Carabiner

[Rapanui]

For getting temporarily attached to a mooring buoy, something like a Happy Hooker or similar mooring hook on a pole are very useful, particularly for boats with high freeboard. However, in nearly all cases the top ring on a mooring buoy does not look up to the admittedly rare possibility of high wind and sea, so it is pretty normal, and in many places in Europe, mandatory to thread the load bearing line(s) through the loop or shackle under the buoy. I think it is good practice to use 2 load bearing lines in case one chafes. Yes, it can be a bit of a fiddle to do but does enable you sleep a little more soundly so worth it.Given that, and as others have said about releasing the buoy under load, I see no place for a carabiner even if it is compatible with salt water.

Of course, you may be strongly attached to the buoy, but is the buoy strongly attached to the ground? Some are not with worn chain, loose shackles and chafed rope. If you cannot visually inspect the whole mooring you at least need to do a pull test by backing down and treat the mooring as suspect and take precautions.

[hlev00]

Some rings on top of mooring balls are not built for attaching the boat to. Instead the pendant is attached below the waterline. I think the ring is simply something to grab onto, perhaps for maintenance. Obviously if there are pendants coming off the ring might be able to attach safely. At least that was my conclusion when encountering such an arrangement in the Bahamas.

[1HappySailor]

The Robship boathook concept on the surface seems nice.
BUT
While the video shows many methods of utilization all the scenes are done from a stationery perspective. Even with practice, I would find it difficult to 'thread the needle' from a moving vessel in any type of seas.

I wouldn't recommend this hook , leastwise not for me.

[capt-couillon]

Good that in Boot Key, we have a separate pennant (1" with a float) 8' long with a plastic thimble in the eye. No metal allowed, and no running single line. It will saw back and forth and damage the eye and/or chafe through the boats mooring whip quick like.

Recommended is single line fastened to the thimble with a cowhitch run back to your bits. Now that the hurricane season approaches I am using 2 3/4" double braid whips with eye splices at each end and about 6' long. One eye is cowhitched to the mooring pennant and the other run through the fairlead to the Sampson post Second line is run the same way through the opposite fairlead. 3rd line will be added to center with cowhitch and run back to primary winches if storm approaches. The 1" pennant is 3 strand so not worried about low stretch in whips.

Bit of a PITA but ya get used to it and its not as much of a pain as waking up on the beach

[muttskie]

[QUOTE=a64pilot;2124264]I just ordered one of these things
[url=http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|2276155|2276123&id=2207048]Robship Hook & Moor Boat Hook - Telescopic: 3.7 to 9.8 Feet/QUOTE]

Just a note of caution: I purchased one of these a couple of years ago at a boat show, and stowed it in a cockpit locker. Never used it during that time. Corrosion between the aluminum shafts rendered it useless as it seized together and no amount of lube, tapping or other attempts allowed it to extend.
I suggest it be properly lubed/protected or it becomes a 4-5 foot tool. The vendors at the show never mentioned the potential, though in retrospect, I should have known.

[Slainte1]

By all means use the method you suggested but I would also rig a couple of lines left slack. If the first system fails you have a backup and there is no chance of chafe on the lines until they have to come under load. Its a better system than simply passing a line thro the eye and back to a cleat. If bad weather comes, lines chafe and boats have been lost

[tpkas]

I use a snap shackle for my mooring buoy bridle. I have made a loop (out of 3mm vb cord) attached to the release pin which is big enough for the mooring pole hook to pass through but not too big as to foul on anything. When it comes time to release simply put the pole hook into the loop on the shackle and push ... it releases the shackle and off you go.... simple. The bridle is in addition to the single mooring line already attached to the mooring which is still connected loosely to another cleat in case the bridle and shackle arrangement fails (although it never has).

[SailFastTri]

To answer the OP -- yes a stainless snap hook of high quality (I trust Wichard model #2327 or #2328, 1440 Kg SWL) can be used for that. However I would rig the bridle to use 2 snap hooks for redundancy, one on each leg with the mooring at the apex.


I've used such a setup since 2001 full-time (6 months per year). No issues.


However, my mooring is the type that has the chain running through a pipe with a large galvanized shackle at the top. I would not use a mooring ball of the type that has a rod running inside and ring on top. Those rods are never disassembled after manufacture, and are subject to rust inside the passageway through the ball. I have seen several of them rust through, leaving a boat to go adrift.


One other tip -- make sure you have floats on your bridle lines. (I use sections of closed-cell foam slit pipe insulation and tie wraps). If the lines can sink, they will wrap beneath the ball when the wind goes slack and chafe against the chain when the wind comes up again.

[barnakiel]

We used an oversize snap carabiner as our first line on the mooring. Because it is often the easiest and fastest way to hook into the eye in adverse conditions.

There are special boat hooks that fit a carabiner for this purpose.

Once connected and settled, I always run another line in a loop thru the eye on the mooring.

b.

[knockabout]

a mooring is an anchor too heavy to pick up. so it is left in place and buoyed off.
we have a mono-hull with all chain and swivel at the anchor end
on the odd occasion minding friends boats with training wheels on them
( multi-hulls) trying to get them to stay put in moving sand in a no fixed mooring area using the owners varied contraptions some of who used a carabiner on the snubber line yoke. the size of the carabiner was restricted to the size necessary to clip through the anchor chain. on your swing mooring a large size carabiner with strong spring clip or locking type should work o.k. a safety rope from anchor bollard to mooring rope is an extra hassle but provides peace of mind in strong winds
in our small keel boat the three metre snubber rope attaches with a 6mm stainless carabiner linking through 6mm short link stainless anchor chain. works alright for quite a few years sometimes burrs on the carabiner requires massage with a flat file to unhook from the chain. we now carry a couple of spares (snubber line clip)

[Ian Johnstone]

Sorry for being a pain again but why would you trust your vessel and all others moored around it to a piece of equipment that was not designed to be used in such a way?

[svGenesis]

When i'm in heavy chop i have some 1/2" polyester in the anchor locker that i lasso around the pendant then just pull her up. if i'm blown or drift off i just swing back to pick up the poly. I started doing this after i lost a dockline pole trying to bring up a pendant in heavy chop.

[thinwater]

Has anyone ever had a carabiner come open in a mooring situation or hear of it first hand? Yes, a cababiner can be unhooked in a u-bolt situation and in certain dynamic falls if the rope is backclipped and connection is very short, but clipped to a pendant more than a few inches long?

This is more than a little unlikely. While I would prefer the rope-through-the-eye method, I feel funny discussing a risk where, to my knowledge, there is no data and none of the risk factors are present.

More to the point, is there a stainless locking biner that will accommodate a typical large mooring eye? Not that I am aware of.

---

I always use the rope-through-eye method. Ease in the morning. However, with a bridle it requires a little thought. I use twin docklines.

[Cotemar]

Why not just use a Soft Shackle to attach to a mooring. They are much stronger than a Carabineer and will not chafe up the mooring.

The breaking strength of these Amsteel / Dyneema 12-strand Soft Shackles is equal to their advertised tensile strength.Strong as steel yet floats on water.

1/8" is 2,500 lbs
5/32" is 4,000 lbs
3/16" is 5,400 lbs
1/4" is 8,600 lbs
5/16" is 13,700 lbs
3/8" is 19,600 lbs
7/16" is 23,900 lbs
1/2" is 34,000 lbs
5/8" is 40,700 lbs

[rajsach]

Originally Posted by Ian Johnstone

Sorry for being a pain again but why would you trust your vessel and all others moored around it to a piece of equipment that was not designed to be used in such a way?

Please reread the Original post


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