Anyone Come Up With A Clever Way To Pick Up A Mooring Rope On A Rough Day?

[charliehows]

'cos I'm sick of mashing my fingers and breaking boathooks - oops, maybe its just me...

[Richard5]

Get off the foredeck. Run the mooring line on your boat back to the cockpit. When picking up the mooring, whether at speed or in irons, clip onto the slimy mooring. Barely spill yer coffee. If missed, run up and try again. What am I missing?

Oh, you may have to lean over the coaming and into the chop in lieu of hook...what am I missing? I have found dangling from the bootstraps is preferable to using a hook.

[Richard5]

The center of effort is more near the cockpit than the peaked foredeck. The foredeck represents a single chance of picking up the mooring whereas aft allows a wider margin of error. It is relatively easy, even in a crowded mooring field, to do it from the cockpit. Of course that means advanced planning to make right to run everything from the cockpit.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by charliehows

'cos I'm sick of mashing my fingers and breaking boathooks - oops, maybe its just me...

Hi been there done that!! I now have a pickup line on a pole ( actually a 12mm line through a conduit weighted at one end, a foam buoy, and a spliced loop on the the other end. ) Loop is at the right height, pick up, hook loop over cleat wait for boat to settle then retrieve mooring line leaving pole on deck. Works a treat. There is a buisness that sells a more professional version in Sydney. I think they are Trehearns or a name similiar, mooring contractors.
Cheers

[JPA Cate]

Approach as slowly as possible consistent with maintaining headway; Person on foredeck nominates which side s/he prefers to pick it up on. Do it, just keep the boat slow as possible, and stable, use boat hook to snag it, person on foredeck signals (by hand signal, agreed upon beforehand) to stop the boat. ...And Bob's your uncle, and Penny, your aunt.

Ann Cate, s/v Insatiable II, Hobart town, TAS

[daddle]

If the sea is not too rough, and I am not sailing, I back up to the mooring. On my boat it's the only way to easily see the mooring. Good for singlehanders.

Bringing the mooring abreast the cockpit works well too.

[klem]

Why are you mashing your fingers and breaking boathooks? I would guess that you are managing to grab the mooring pendant but that it is loading up by the time you go to put it on a cleat. If this is the case, the answer lies either in boat control or finding a different way to temporarily make it off.

My mooring is in an area exposed to northeast winds which are our prevailing storm winds here. When it is really bad, backing up to the mooring is simply not an option as I don't have the power to do it. I power ahead and the person on the foredeck uses a gaff instead of a boathook (much bigger target) and I keep going ahead to keep the bow into the wind once they have picked it up. We rig a biner that clips onto the pendant so that they can get it on really fast. Once we have sagged back, then we can work on properly securing ourselves by winching in the mooring pendants.

[Hydra]

Another possibility is to select a long line (2 boat lengths) made of sinking material (polyamide), make it fast at a primary winch and tie a very large bowline at the other end. Approach the mooring buoy as if it were a MOB, close and slow, and drop the bowline over it. The loop will sink under the buoy, effectively "capturing" it. Then, you have all the time you want to winch yourself to the buoy and catch the real mooring rope.

Even if this technique isn't elegant, it works under sail and under power, with a crew or solo. It works best if the line is dry because it is less "sticky" and easier to deploy.

Alain

[barnakiel]

Seen a similar technique to the one by Alain above.

One can make a wire (soft wire) loop and lasso the mooring buoy with it. Make the loop open'able so that you can remove it from over your mooring line afterwards.

Soft wire keeps the shape pretty well and is not blown away by the wind.

b.

[charliehows]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Hi been there done that!! I now have a pickup line on a pole ( actually a 12mm line through a conduit weighted at one end, a foam buoy, and a spliced loop on the the other end. ) Loop is at the right height, pick up, hook loop over cleat wait for boat to settle then retrieve mooring line leaving pole on deck. Works a treat. There is a buisness that sells a more professional version in Sydney. I think they are Trehearns or a name similiar, mooring contractors.
Cheers

thanks rob, I'll look into that - I've seen a few of those around mainly for the big mt boats with high decks, should work for my boat...might even make one meself...how hard can it be?(as they say on Top Gear - usu. before f..king it up good and proper...)

[delmarrey]

The Mooring Mate® works real good for just getting hooked up. Later you can run an extra line or re-route.



Or the HandyDuck........

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by klem

Why are you mashing your fingers and breaking boathooks?

That's what I was wondering. Are you sailing right on past the mooring? The only "trick" is to stop the boat at the mooring.

If you're sailing you have to develop a feel for how far your boat will coast, so you know when to let go of the sails and head into the wind. If you're motoring you have to develop a feel for when to kick it into reverse, how far, and for how long so that it comes to a nice stop. Either way, this may take a bit of practice, but really is not difficult to master.

Once you are able to stop at the mooring, picking it up is dead easy.

So if you're having some other problem, some details about just how you're mashing your fingers and/or breaking boathooks would help.

[charliehows]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

That's what I was wondering. Are you sailing right on past the mooring? The only "trick" is to stop the boat at the mooring.

If you're sailing you have to develop a feel for how far your boat will coast, so you know when to let go of the sails and head into the wind. If you're motoring you have to develop a feel for when to kick it into reverse, how far, and for how long so that it comes to a nice stop. Either way, this may take a bit of practice, but really is not difficult to master.

Once you are able to stop at the mooring, picking it up is dead easy.

So if you're having some other problem, some details about just how you're mashing your fingers and/or breaking boathooks would help.

"on a rough day" - I guess 2 bloody sentences is beyond some peoples attention span.

[starchaser 2011]

I do it single handed all the time. The key is to motor SLOWLY upwind or upcurrent which ever is stronger. A mooring mast is helpful, but really not needed. The key is your speed.If you are destroying fingers and boat hooks you have way too much way on. I rarely use any reverse no mater how ratty the conditions.

[zeehag]

i used a pick up buoy---with a long pick up--i didnt have to wrestle with a boat hook in choppy waterz. very simple.