Mooring single-handed?

[Crimea Cruiser]

Originally Posted by OldFrog75

Agreed but I think the van service is about $80 RT per person.

Unfortunately just one of many "over the barrel" monopolies!

[OldFrog75]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Walk the sand line back to the stern on the down (current/wind) side of the boat (this allows you to be ready to fend off, and also allows you to use the sand line in your hand to keep from drifting too far down) and make that loosely fast.

When you say make the sand line "loosely fast" do you mean just loop it over the stern cleat or something else?

[Wozza]

Originally Posted by DWJ

I have a large carabiner attached to a line that is twice the length of th boat. I run the line through the center of one of the bow cleats an run the carabiner side of the line on the outside of the lifelines. Now I have both ends in the cockpit. I pull up to the mooring ball so that it is parallel to the cockpit, reach over and attach the carabiner to the mooring pennant.. Boats in neutral and as I falloff the ball I bring in the carabiner line until the mooring pennant is near the bow. I cleat it off then and walk to the bow and make everything nice.

We've got a reasonably high freeboard (Northshore 27) so I didn't like the idea of leaning over and trying to clip a carabiner onto the mooring so I tried something on the weekend that I'd read about in a forum some time back.

I spliced a loop in the end of a line and split a metre length of garden hose and fixed that into the loop. That held it open and gave it some negative buoyancy.

I had the loop in the cockpit, ran the line outside the lifelines and under the lifeline at the bow, through a block (attached to a loop of rope that just fits over a cleat at that end), then back inboard to the cockpit.

We motored slowly upwind to the mooring until the buoy was next to the cockpit and simply dropped the loop over it. Pulling on the free end 'captures' the buoy and you just reel in as the boat drifts back until the buoy is at the bow and you cleat off.

You then have all the time in the world to finish your beer and then wander up the pointy end and make it all ship-shape. No more prancing up and down from end to end like a mad man waving a boat hook about.

And if you've tied a dingy off onto the buoy, it helps if you tie it off to the underside of the buoy rather than the top. I'm thinking that if there's a stiff breeze and the painter is pulled tight, it might prevent the loop dropping down over the buoy.

[rebel heart]

Just hooked our mooring ball the other day here by myself, Hans Christian 36.

Get the can on the side, go through the eyelet at the top, and hop in the dinghy to grab the pendant. Some times it's floating for you, sometimes it isn't.

[rebel heart]

Oh, in Catalina? Those things are cake, they have the little wand you can grab.

Hail the harbor master guys guys to escort you. It's really easy to get crossed up in those tight confines and having one of those dudes to act as a fender/tug or pull your stern around is super helpful.