450: Swinging on a mooring buoy - how to use bridle?

[anthonyp0808]

Yesterday for the first time in strong winds, I had my 450 on a swing mooring buoy. I ran a mooring line through the buoy then over the failead on the central cleat.

The pressure on the fairlead was so great it was bending. I would have liked to use the bridle but was unsure the best way to secure it to the buoy. Ended up anchoring elsewhere.

A makeshift bridle with twin mooring lines lead to the forward cleats won't work as the cleats are outboard and would chafe the deck, and wreck the furling block.

What are others doing to use bridles on mooring bouys?

Thanks

[GGT]

I don't like the setup on the 450. We run the lines from the bow cleats on each side. I charter 450s so this is ok, but chafe would be a problem long term on both lines and hull.

The other option would be to do as you have done and keep the mooring up close taking the load while you hook up the bridle. Then let the center line out with slack while moored. You have it as a safety and a retrieval line when ready to go.

FYI typing this while anchored on a Lagoon 450 in White Bay Jost Van Dyke BVI

[tdetten]

Get two 30 (or so) foot lines with a loop in one end. Place the loop around each of the outboard cleats at the bow. Feed the line through the bow pulpit, through the pad-eye of the mooring ball and back through the bow pulpit to the same cleat. Repeat this on the other side. You will have a secure, redundant set. In addition the line won't cut through the pad eye by sliding on it. Set and lock the rudders amid ship and your vessel will ride steady.

I see many boats running only one line through the eye of the mooring ball. Eventually the line will cut through the eye not to mention the back and forth motion of the vessel.

Tim
S/V Pura Vida

[anthonyp0808]

Originally Posted by tdetten

... Place the loop around each of the outboard cleats at the bow. ....

I have heard if this technique and considered it. It would seem to me the starboard line would run over the furler turning block, and both lines over the fibreglass. Does 5his nit causr considerable wear to both?

[tdetten]

If my memory is correct it does not lay over the furling line or block. After 2.5 years of this method I don't have any chafing or rubbing issues.

[Catopia]

We lead our lines outboard from the cleat (not running under the pullpit) and down around the front of the bows. Not ideal but no chafe issues in 5+ years.

[Bean Counter]

We run mooring lines as Catopia does, no chafe either (pretty thick soft cased mooring lines). When there is a strong wind against tide the boat may move over the mooring ball and if the lines are too long the ball will bump each hull, so they need to be shortened up. Remember to only have shock cord hold the spinnaker pole up so it can flex down when the mooring lines pull against the support wires. To do this you can put one mooring line through the pendant loop and pull it tight, then feed the second line from the other hull through an eye at the ball itself. If you don't have a fancy mooring boat hook to pull through the eye you might have to get in the dinghy to do the second line. Tedious but in many tidal channels along US east coast and Bahamas it saves having the ball banging between the hulls all night,

[sv_itsallgood]

Originally Posted by Catopia

We lead our lines outboard from the cleat (not running under the pullpit) and down around the front of the bows. Not ideal but no chafe issues in 5+ years.

Doesn't this cause some wear on the hulls from the lines?

[bvisailing32]

We are in the OTHER category, since we sail monohulls, but we 100% agree with double bridles thru the eye of the mooring line .

We rig port and starboard individual bridles. The bitter ends we begin with proper cleat hitches to the individual port and starboard bow cleats. lines are ready to run clear.

One line each run thru the mooring line pendant eye and back to the port bow cleat, and then also a separate bridle to the starborrd bow cleat.

For the cats, I liked the poster's idea who added on a center bow line, to pull up the mooring eye, secure that, and then run each of the bridles thru the eye, and then ease off center line and adjust the port and starboard bridles.

We just use the dock lines . but if we owned a vessel, we would have dedicated mooring bridles and have them coiled, and stowed in the anchor locker ready to go.

Both bridles are run so that they cannot chafe against the bow anchor.
We have not had any chafing problems with either bridle since we run the lines thru dock line chocks.

We secure the bitter ends of the bridles with proper cleat hitches and then flemish out any access tails. Flat coil on the deck.

We feel much more confident in leaving the vessel to go ashore and when sleeping at night. We also, check the security and placement of the mooring lines every so often.

Also, after mooring, we take bearings with my hand bearing compass on land marks and eyeball it to make sure that the mooring itself is not dragging. The bearings are noted in the log. We also check out other near boats to make sure we have plenty of swing room due to slack tides, and wind shifts.

For us, the mooring fees are well worth the peace of mind.

An after mooring cold beer, or dark rum and ice, are welcome rewards for a passage well sailed, and job well done.

For the poster who is moored in White Bay, Jost Van Dyke....to you lad, your family. Have fun for all of us.

Denny

[Nani Kai]

This looks like a good set up. Embellie II: Air Conditioned Lagoon 450 - Bareboat Yacht - BVI Yacht Charters
I have found a couple of lengths of scrap fire hose are excellent temporary anti-chafing covers. They are cheap, extremely rugged, don't rot, and take up minimal locker space when stored. Run your line through a section of hose, secure the ends with zip ties. For a more permanent solution you can sew them on or put grommets in each corner of one end then secure them to whatever with a short piece of light line. https://www.firehosesupply.com/colle...crap-fire-hose

[doublewide]

The outboard bow cleat on your catamaran is designed for tying to a pier. You need to add a very strong inboard cleat and chock or fairlead with beefy backing plate to the inboard side of each bow for securing your anchoring or mooring bridle. The builder was trying to economize by installing only one cleat on each bow where two are needed.

[DotDun]

We installed a second shorter bridle on the same points as the anchor bridle, only we use it for mooring balls and stow over the front of the beam and clip it to the net. Works great!

[Whomda]

Originally Posted by DotDun

We installed a second shorter bridle on the same points as the anchor bridle, only we use it for mooring balls and stow over the front of the beam and clip it to the net. Works great!

And what attachment do you use to connect the short mooring bridle to the ball? A long shackle?

[UNCIVILIZED]

I don't know the exact configuration of everything which you have bolted to the bow, but there is a generic multihull fix for these types of issues. You bolt a thick, oversized plate onto each bow, which overhangs the bows on the inboard side. And you can mount another cleat to each plate in the most advantageous position, along with a set of chocks/fairleads, & a pair of high load blocks.
I've seen numerous setups like this. With them often being about 1'x1.5' (or more), & 1/2" - 3/4" thick.

This way, you've got room to mount all sorts of hardware. As well as to be able to route lines over the bows, sans chafing. Like bridles for instance. It also gives you a set of monster sized cleats mounted to your best advantage, who's load footprint is spread over pretty much the entire area of the plates which contacts the bows. And, you can drill & tap the plate for other hardware later on if you choose. That, or through bolt things to it, using it's below deck's backing plate to distribute the bolting loads.

Note that also, that if you have any super strong hardware up forward, you can attach blocks to it/them via Spectra lashings, or loops. Including by simply cow hitching the loop around the leg of a stout cleat. And said loop could even have a low friction ring spliced into one end, so that you could use it as a fairlead for other lines.

For a chafe free attachment of a bridle to the top bail of a mooring ball, you can simply splice, or luggage tag, both legs of a bridle to a Sparcraft or Tylaska, trigger shackle. This along with a 2ndary line attached to the ball via non-mechanical means, such as with a soft shackle. Specifically, one led through a stainless thimble spliced into the end of a "short" stout, line, that's run over the boat's bow roller, & back to a cleat, as your backup line.

Just keep a couple of fids handy for the trigger shackle. And buy quality shackles for this application, as I've never run into problems with the better ones "releasing" on their own, even when being flogged without mercy, on the clew of the spinnaker of a 50'er. That said, inspect them regularly.

Realistically though, you're not going to wear out any lines connecting you to the ball without some warning. Given that they bear regular checking, as much, or more than any other bits of running rigging that's in use. Albeit I can easily think up a dozen more ways to cut down on chafe on these lines. Most all of them being common sense "fixes".

[Two Drifters]

Agreed the setup on lagoon is not ideal. We take the ball using a line from each side cleat run under the front bow seats. Then once attached and relaxed we clip the bridal on using a big caribeaner. I leave the lines from the cleats on but loose in case the caribeaner fails