380 S2: Catamaran mooring bridles and hardware

[datfoos]

I recently acquired a 2010 Lagoon 380 S2, and it is moored in a field that can be exposed to easterly winds. What hardware and length of mooring bridle is recommended to attach to the mooring pendant? Should I attach to bow cleats or to bridle attachment hardware lower on the hulls? What size (strength) hardware is needed to attach to the mooring pendant?

[Sid at SailAway]

Everything you need is right here in one package. Be sure to get the chain hook with the package. The only thing I would change is the length of the bridle legs. For your boat they should be about 18 feet long. It's simple to cut and eye splice them shorter. Give Mantus a call and they may shorten them for you. The long legs will cause too much swinging for your boat...

https://www.mantusmarine.com/mantus-bridle/

[Catapault]

Mantus Chain hooks are nice, Unfortunately they don't fit through the under-sluing bow-roller on our 450F. I'd check to make sure they fit through on a 380 before getting one. They are very chunky, and trying to hook one onto the chain after the roller is an exercise in dangling gymnastics over the front !.

For a mooring ball, you can use the anchor chain bridle, BUT, don't secure it long term with just a single shackle or clip. (As Mantus advises on their page). I'd use a shackle on each leg independently to the mooring. It is a bit of a hassle, but if it is long term mooring probably best. The Mantus gear is nice.

For Mooring ball's short term, we prefer to use a line off each bow cleat, through the ring on the mooring, and back to the cleat. Bridle length on each side should be at approx your beam at the attachment point, no shorter nor longer.

There is another thread here somewhere with an in-depth discussion on bridle lengths.

Regards

Mark.

[Catapault]

One additional point.

If you use mooring bridle via lines from the cleats, in slack water/light wind, you can easily shorten them up to effectively suspend the mooring between the hulls.

This stops you banging into the mooring with one hull or the other, which is a pain when trying to sleep.


Rgds

Mark.

[doublewide]

I must respond to the idea of a chain hook. Now that we have dyneema, chain hooks are no longer needed. Over the years, I have tried three different types of hooks, and they are all horrible. The above mentioned "M" hook won't go over your bow roller and you don't want to hang upside down over the crossbar to connect the hook to your chain. The "M" hook in particular is almost impossible to get on and off your chain even when you have the chain and hook on deck, much less whilst leaning over the bow.

Instead of a chain hook, make yourself a Prusik loop, bend that onto the chain, and attach the bridle to the Prusik with a soft shackle. It is easy to deploy and retrieve. Since it will go easily over your bow roller, all the work can be done on deck. Easy on and Easy off. Select dyneema with SWL greater than your chain. Learn to splice dyneema and you can make your own Prusik and soft shackle for very little money.

We like to connect our bridle to pad eyes just above the water line rather than to deck cleats, because it allows us to use less scope to obtain the same holding power. (Take your freeboard times your scope ratio; e.g., 6 feet of freeboard x 5:1 scope = 30 feet shorter rode for the same holding power.) Wouldn't you rather have a 30 foot shorter swinging radius?

Be aware, though, that attaching to pad eyes that low also makes it impossible to quickly slip your anchor chain in an emergency. So if severe weather is in the forecast we make the bridle fast to deck cleats, instead.

[Catapault]

Interesting idea to use a Prussik loop, I hadn't heard that one before. Will give it a try. I've done it with a rolling hitch before, but these days I use a Wichard Chain hook that does fit through my bow-roller, and is easy to get on and off.

Regarding Bridle on cleats, just to be clear, I'm only refering use cleats with the 2-lines to the mooring bouy method. I MUCH prefer this to using my anchor bridle, as I can slip quickly if needed by just dropping one end of each line and pulling it through. Where as if you attach the anchor-bridle to the bouy, its an evolution to get it up and off. No way thats happening in a hurry.

For Anchor chain I always use the fixed bridle that is attached to eye's on the inside of each hull, fed up through the bow roller and attached with a hook or a knot.

On retrieval, as it pulls up through the bow-roller, it is no time loss when pulling in the anchor. (Takes about 10 seconds to unclip it, then keep reeling the Anchor in).

So far it seems to work well. I am going to try the dyneema Prussik loop and soft shackle idea though. (For Anchor chain).

Regards

Mark.

[datfoos]

Originally Posted by Sid at SailAway

Everything you need is right here in one package. Be sure to get the chain hook with the package. The only thing I would change is the length of the bridle legs. For your boat they should be about 18 feet long. It's simple to cut and eye splice them shorter. Give Mantus a call and they may shorten them for you. The long legs will cause too much swinging for your boat...

https://www.mantusmarine.com/mantus-bridle/

Sid, Thank you for your reply. I checked the Mantus website, and I am concerned about long-term use of their bridle, as they say in bold font:

While using the carabiner provided is convenient to grab a mooring ball, the boat should not be left moored on a carabiner, and more secure connection should be established to connect the mooring bridle to the mooring line/ball.

What would be used for longer term?
Thanks

[datfoos]

Dear Catapult and Doublewide,
Please clarify how the Prusik loop would be used for a mooring when you leave the boat for the work week. The discussion seems to be in the context of an anchor bridle, not a mooring bridle, or did I miss something?
Thank you, both, for your thoughts.

[Dsanduril]

FWIW, if this is your 'permanent' mooring then rather than a bridle on the boat attach two pennants to the mooring and bring those up. Why? You can make the pennants just less than the beam of the boat, that way if you have light winds/tides the pennant won't be quite long enough to allow the mooring ball to bash into the boat. If you go with a bridle attached to a single pennant then by the time you get all the lengths right you run a greater risk of being able to run over the ball while drifting.

We also ditched the chain hook (as mentioned above) and use Dyneema soft shackles for attaching our bridle to just about anything.

[datfoos]

Thanks Dsanduril,
This is what we are currently using, although the pendants are longer (ball could come in contact with hulls). We are trying to optimize and/or make mooring easier, while remaining safe and secure.

[Bean Counter]

This is what we do. We do not have a specific bridle for mooring. If the ball has a pennant we attach the pennant to the starboard bow cleat (if not long enough run a mooring line through the pennant eye back to the starboard cleat. We then run a second mooring line from the port bow cleat to the ball eye at the mooring ball and back to the port bow cleat. If their is significant current against wind situations the two lines can be shortened so the ball does not hit either hull. You then have a back up security of two separate lines attached to the ball. We run the mooring lines outside the bows.



At times we have been distrusting of the ball and actually put a 14mm braided polyester line loosely run through the eye below the ball, and even in some places have dived and run the safety line through the eye on the mooring block.