picking up a mooring single handed

[jasonr575]

I have a 37 morgan. Want to learn to single handle the boat. the one thing i am having trouble arranging is the fact i am on a mooring and have an idea how to leave but picking up the mooring when i return seems tough. Anybody have experience and tips? There is a catch. my mooring is on a river and there is almost alwasy a current up or down the river and the mooring field is not overly crouded but fairly close. It is not as simple as bring the bow to the mooring and hit neutral and walk to the bow and pick it up. It has to be done from the cockpit. Any ideas are welcome.
Jason

[sailingdog]

Cheat.

Run the dockline that you're going to tie up to the mooring ball with through the bow chocks and lead it around the outside of the lifelines and back to the cockpit. Then when you come up to the mooring ball, bring the cockpit close to the ball and tie off the dockline to the mooring ball. Then, walk forward, leading the line and mooring ball around the boat, and snug it up when you get to the bow.

[TrueBlue]

I've been known to use that trick on a few occasions - when the wind is blowing like snot and I'm shorthanded.

Attach a pick-up buoy to the pick-up line - with a 48" fiberglass staff. This will make your life much simpler.

[sailingdog]

TB-

What I often do is even funnier... I just back up to the mooring ball, and then tie off via a stern line... But most sailors look at us multihullers as oddballs anyways...

[sailortjk1]

Originally Posted by TrueBlue

I've been known to use that trick on a few occasions - when the wind is blowing like snot and I'm shorthanded.

Attach a pick-up buoy to the pick-up line - with a 48" fiberglass staff. This will make your life much simpler.

Thanks Blue.
Simple and to the point.

[dohenyboy]

I routinely single hand a 54' sailboat and it can be a handfull when its windy or strong current to moor.
What I do, is I made up the docklines extra long, so that they can be tied together. When I leave for a day of sailing I tie the ends of the docklines together, but run them outside the lifelines, etc. so all I have to do is untie each at their cleats and the boat is loose. I bought some little fenders which I attach to these docklines to keep them afloat. So, when I leave I have a pickup line with floats along it.
When I come in at the end of the sailing day, I head into the wind aiming toward the forward mooring buoy, putting the engine in neutral so that I coast up to the forward buoy. I take my boat hook forward with me, pick up the line and wrap it around the bow cleat. Its not important that I get it perfectly in the right distance from the forward buoy, I just want to hold the bow pointing into the wind.
I take the line in my hands behind the cleat, and pull on the line as I walk astern. By the time I get all the way back I have pulled the stern close to the stern mooring buoy, wrap the line around the stern cleat, and then take my time to tie both lines off right.
I agree that a pickup buoy is easier to use, but I don't like my mooring lines to be in the water all the time because they get slimy, so if I used pickup buoys I would have to keep them on the deck when the boat is moored. My mooring lines look pretty all the time and I don't need to wash gunk off my hands or wear gloves.
Sometimes I have to make a second attempt if I don't gauge the wind right but this works for me.

[Mkfcdl]

I do what Sailingdog does when singlehanded--just back up to the mooring ball and grab the mooring line. Secure this to a line you've already run forward around one side of the stern. Then calmly walk up the deck while letting the boat spin around. Very easy, even in high winds. I figured out how to do this after 3 unsuccessful bow-first attempts in 25 kt winds. Stern to is sooooo much easier--you don't have to be a multihull to do this trick.

[Hampstead]

Originally Posted by jasonr575

I have a 37 morgan. Want to learn to single handle the boat. the one thing i am having trouble arranging is the fact i am on a mooring and have an idea how to leave but picking up the mooring when i return seems tough. Anybody have experience and tips? There is a catch. my mooring is on a river and there is almost alwasy a current up or down the river and the mooring field is not overly crouded but fairly close. It is not as simple as bring the bow to the mooring and hit neutral and walk to the bow and pick it up. It has to be done from the cockpit. Any ideas are welcome.
Jason

Why sure....It won't look terribly "nautical: but WTF... rig the mooring line in a way that you pick up the line, slip it over a sterncleat, lead a longer line forward, cleat that off, release the stern, allow boat to swing and then "shorten up" the bow line.....

[sailingdog]

Dave-

Your method complicates things... why use two lines when one will do? Why make it so you have to go forward and back again, if you can simplify it.

Just lead a long line from a bow cleat, through the bow chocks and then around the outside of the lifelines back to the cockpit and use that. As you bring the line forward you can guide it and control the boat dropping back fairly easily.

The more complicated you make something, and the more steps you add into it, the more chances you have for screwing it up IMHO.

[jasonr575]

thanks guys for all the advice, i had actually thought of the mooring line on the stern and a line from the bow cleat to the stern outside the lifelines but for some reason was reluctant to believe that if i thougt of it it could work. You guys reassured me. Thanks. i will give it a try when the time comes.
jason