Mooring Gear vs Henri

[chris95040]

Wow - Learned some lessons this storm. Long story short: One of my mooring lines ended up snagged by the anchor roller AND my chafe gear moved way out of position.

I'll start with the bow roller. You can see the damage to both the roller and the line here:



The roller itself has those unfortunate "ears" at the end that presumably are there to stabilize the anchor shank a bit, at some point the line must have been held in the crotch formed by those ears, see this picture showing the chafe damage corresponding directly with that location:



Part of the problem is that all my cheesy chafe guards were just not up to the task. Here you can see that the chafe guard for the bow chock has just scrunchied itself back and out of the chock:



...and the chafe guard that that was _supposed_ to protect against bow-roller chafe just slid way down the line rendering itself out of harms way and useless. That one is one of those all-velcro, supposed-to-tenaciously-grip-when-you-put-it-on-tight style, but I always knew that was a little fishy...

So here's my plan:

1. Bend the bow roller assy back into service and hope it doesn't crack when I do that. (Anyone got any tips for that? Its a U-channel made of ~0.25" stainless)

2. Replace the ruined mooring line

3. Replace my hodge podge of anti-chafe with a single very long (6 feet?) length of firehose and secure it at the bow cleat so it can't wander away. This will protect the line at the chock and from any bow shenanigans. I've had great luck w/ firehose on the mooring side of the line after a friendly neighbor gave me some.

4. Fashion a block of wood with a rounded top to place in the bow roller during storm events like this that will prevent a mooring line from getting trapped in there.


What do you folks think?

[GreenWave]

Sounds reasonable. I have similar bow roller "ears" and once my chain got jammed in there. a Starboard shim may work.

[chris95040]

Anyone else have a novel solution for mooring lines getting snagged on the bow roller?

[JimsCAL]

This article has a lot of good advise about moorings. Worth reading.
https://marinehowto.com/mooring-pend...ughts-musings/

Are you sure the pennant got caught on top of the bow roller? These things typically have squared off edges that can chafe a pennant just by repeated rubbing as the boat pitches. Round off the edges with a file if that's the case.

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by JimsCAL

This article has a lot of good advise about moorings. Worth reading.
https://marinehowto.com/mooring-pend...ughts-musings/

Are you sure the pennant got caught on top of the bow roller? These things typically have squared off edges that can chafe a pennant just by repeated rubbing as the boat pitches. Round off the edges with a file if that's the case.

You must not be seeing the photos? The bow roller is nearly twisted off the boat, and I can see precisely where the dangerous chafing/cutting occurred.

Rounding the edges is a brilliant suggestion. Easy to do and certainly helps with the sawing action.

[Wallaby]

First, thank you very much for posting this, and the photos. My take is the boat was likely fairly close to a mooring ball, and bouncing up and down enough to catch the bow roller. Is this correct? If so, it was really bouncing given the exit position of the line. I also assume the mooring ball was at the length of its travel. The load of the vessel on the line in that position must've been enormous. Would it have happened had the vessel been able to lay back from the mooring ball?

[contrail]

I know this sounds strange, but years ago, I would route my lines through the roller and wrap with a thick towel, as chafe gear. I would bind the towel up with clothes pins and hold it in position. It would run from a foot or so in front of the roller to a bit more, aft of the roller, and the cleat was right there, limiting any stretch. This was my standard procedure, but before you laugh, understand that this always held up (and I was never at a dock), including going through the eye of a Cat 1/2 hurricane (Marty, 2003). I live aboard, so always kept a close eye on things, including during Marty, but it worked amazingly well. The clump of towel completely filled the roller trough and immediately outside, so the line never touched anything. Whenever I read of elaborate and highly technical solutions, I am always reminded of this one. Worked well for years.

[Wallaby]

Originally Posted by chris95040

Anyone else have a novel solution for mooring lines getting snagged on the bow roller?

I have a curved 1/4" s/s rod that goes over each of the bow rollers, keeping the anchor chain/rode in place and preventing other lines from going onto the roller. If a line got between the two curved rods, it would merely pull them down until the line slipped free.

[guyrj33]

Instead of fire hose, I suggest using fire hose cover. It's a woven Dacron material that will allow water to reach your mooring lines during a storm. It's important to keep them as cool as possible to prevent stretching related heat damage.

[C420sailor]

Originally Posted by guyrj33

Instead of fire hose, I suggest using fire hose cover. It's a woven Dacron material that will allow water to reach your mooring lines during a storm. It's important to keep them as cool as possible to prevent stretching related heat damage.

You mean the outer jacket of a double jacketed hose?

[guyrj33]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

You mean the outer jacket of a double jacketed hose?

Here's a link to one such product.
https://www.amazon.com/Amarine-Made-.../dp/B07MSGCCH3

Amarine Made FireHose Bulk Jacket,Chafe Guards Provides Effective Chafe Protection Fit Lines up to 1" (6.5 feet)

[Library70]

Home Depot
Exclusive
Everbilt
2-1/2 in. O.D. x 2 in. I.D. x 2 ft. PVC Braided Vinyl Tube
This is what I use for chafing gear on my one inch braided pennants. I thread some twine through it then pull the spliced eye through. You can drill a hole through the tube, run a length of 1/4" twine through it and tie it off to the eye splice to keep it in place. It's tuff stuff, after two seasons of rubbing on my cross beam brackets (catamaran) it shows no sign of wear.

[Jubilee39]

Originally Posted by contrail

I know this sounds strange, but years ago, I would route my lines through the roller and wrap with a thick towel, as chafe gear. I would bind the towel up with clothes pins and hold it in position. It would run from a foot or so in front of the roller to a bit more, aft of the roller, and the cleat was right there, limiting any stretch. This was my standard procedure, but before you laugh, understand that this always held up (and I was never at a dock), including going through the eye of a Cat 1/2 hurricane (Marty, 2003). I live aboard, so always kept a close eye on things, including during Marty, but it worked amazingly well. The clump of towel completely filled the roller trough and immediately outside, so the line never touched anything. Whenever I read of elaborate and highly technical solutions, I am always reminded of this one. Worked well for years.

During Luis in St Maarten I used all my dish towels for chafing, one at a time. Lot of work to change as they wore out but saved the boat

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by Library70

Home Depot
Exclusive
Everbilt
2-1/2 in. O.D. x 2 in. I.D. x 2 ft. PVC Braided Vinyl Tube
This is what I use for chafing gear on my one inch braided pennants. I thread some twine through it then pull the spliced eye through. You can drill a hole through the tube, run a length of 1/4" twine through it and tie it off to the eye splice to keep it in place. It's tuff stuff, after two seasons of rubbing on my cross beam brackets (catamaran) it shows no sign of wear.

I use 1" ID water hose for 3/4" pennants and dock lines when necessary. Indestructible. No eye splices need to pass through it because you probably have at least one end of your line with no eye splice. The 1" size will fit into your bow roller and it's small enough to wrap a half turn on most cleats as well.

I bet this kind of covering would have prevented the OP's pennant from jumping the bow roller sheave. Too large and a bit slippery, to prevent pennant from falling into the gap beside the roller.

Besides, you probably already have a short section of 1" hose that you saved when you installed your head inlet hose, right?

[deblen]

Originally Posted by chris95040

Anyone else have a novel solution for mooring lines getting snagged on the bow roller?

IMHO don't moor or anchor thru your bow roller.Use your chocks instead-especially if rough wx is possible.
Read these 2 links. https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ng-254175.html


https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...-a-252412.html

Cheers/Len