On Friday Oct 28, the winds in Northport blew steady 20 all day beginning at about 9 am or so ending at 6pm. There were gusts to gale force of over 35 at times.
I was at home 50 miles away working. On Saturday we drove out to check on the
boat. The season had pretty much ended for most and of the several hundred moored boats in the harbor there were perhaps 25 still moored. Saturday was a beautiful day in Northport and it began for me by pumping out 5 inches of
water in the dink!
The Yamaha was a bit stubborn in firing up, but it did and off we went for the 3/4 mile trip to our
mooring. YIKES there were several boats washed up on the Eastern shore, among them was a 35+'
ketch The Wanderer. There were several smaller
racing sloops on their sides on the beach north of Center Island Yacht Club.
Northport has a bit of a
mooring problem. There is an 8' tidal range and winds are of course variable coming mostly from the SW but frequently from the NW and Easterly especially in the Fall. The net effect of this is that boats are rotating around their mooring (balls) and their mooring lines become twisted... and never seem to untwist.
Shiva is restless at
anchor and on her mooring and has a
stainless steel trim screwed to the
teak rub strake. No problem for chafe of the mooring line unless she veers off quite a bit in strong winds... And she does. The result of this has been a lifted off ss trim at the bow on the rub strake and some chafe to the line...
To counter act this problem I installed a very stout bow eye which is attached with a backing plate inside the
anchor locker. Shiva has had this rig for about 6 years or so through several hurricanes and intense micro bursts and squalls. In all of those
weather events boats around Shiva were
lost and washed up on the shore... in Sag Harbor, Dering Harbor and now our home Northport. During one micro bust that came through Sag Harbor, one of our painters pulled the ss trim off and chaffed a bit as well but held the
boat. The bow eye is rated for 16,000# didn't do as well. The bow eye broke! And the Wichard Snap hook was worn and bent. WOW that must have been intense. The system I use has the line to the bow eye shorter and the *working* line, the second line is longer and secured to a bow cleat. It doesn't see any force unless the bow eye *breaks*. And in that micro burst it did, the second line then lifted the ss trim, chaffed a bit but held the boat. The
rudder was freed from it locked position and pushed side to side during the storm. The
steering quadrant had to be re centered as well. The boat survived.
Sandy was another test... and again there were a handful or yachts which were washed up onto the West shore. Not Shiva. This time she dragged her mooring 750 feet to the southwest through the largely at that time empty mooring field. When I got to the boat... the
wheel had fall off... probably again from the
rudder being pushed back and forth for hours stop to stop, loosening the nut. Again the
steering was fine, just bolted the
wheel back.
The bow eye this time was very worn, but held but the Wichard snap hook deformed and was pulled off the bow eye.
Security line held fine and had no chaffe. This was the 2nd time Shiva survived intense
weather on her mooring with the bow eye line which was sacrificed at some point. A small
price to pay to not lose the boat.
This past Friday the bow eye held perfectly.... a bit of worn metal, but the
security line chaffed off. It looked like a clean break almost as if it was sawn thru. When we arrived the loop end was dangling about 7 feet from the bow cleat and the part still obviously attached to the mooring.
The mooring lines had twisted several times and somehow managed to wrap themselves tightly around the mooring chain BELOW the ball. The only way I could undo this mess was to raise the chain using a
halyard couple of feet. The ball was "free enough" to
lift and allow me to untwist the lines which were detached from the boat. There were no winds and we were moored from the main halyard! I would not attempt this with any
wind. But there was damage to the security line and perhaps that was where it parted. The bow eye line was undamaged. The
helm was still locked as I have been applying a lot of pressure to the locking know post Sandy.
Chafe is the enemy of the sailor. If I could find stronger bow eye and Wichard snap I would upgrade. We can't do anything about the mooring twisting in that harbor.
Avoid chafe at all cost. Third close call. And it all starts again next Spring. On Wednesday I sail Shiva to protected in
water winter storage.
A word to the wise is sufficient.