New to mooring- do I have a problem?

[CascoBay]

I just had my mooring set last weekend and put my boat on it yesterday. Today we had some strong winds and I went down to the beach to see how my boat was doing.

I found a couple problems, the first being that my pendant is getting hung up on my anchor occasionally, so that needs to be addressed. Do you guys typically remove your anchors to solve this problem?

The next problem is what really bothers me.

I have a mooring ball nearby with no boat on it, and my boat is running into it about mid-ship. I called the guy who set my mooring and he told me it was not a big deal because once there is a boat on the other mooring it will drag the chain out both boats will be apart.

In the mean time I want to know if this sounds correct? Also my concern is that I may wrap my pendant around this other ball and nothing good comes of that- a co-worker lost his boat last year due to this in Yarmouth.

Thanks for any input.

[sailingdog]

First, if you could post photos of your bow and how the mooring pendant leads off it, that would really help. My boat is a bit different and the anchor is on a bow roller that is off to starboard a bit and I lead the mooring pendant off the port bow chocks, so I don't have this issue.

You may have to remove the anchor and stow it while you're on the mooring, as this is fairly common for a lot of boats.

As for the mooring ball hitting your boat, he's probably right, because the mooring ball by itself doesn't have enough resistance to drag the chain very far when compared to the windage a boat has. I doubt you'll wrap your pendant around it if you're hitting it amidships.

[JimsCAL]

You'll really have to wait and see how the boats sit once they are on their moorings. Depending on what the wind was when the other mooring was set, the ball could be sitting over a pile of chain almost anywhere in relation to the mushroom.

[CascoBay]

Thank you for the input, I really appreciate it.

Here are some pictures of the boat on the mooring, be warned, it is not a sailboat, hope that doesn't stop the wealth of info here!



Here it is caught by the anchor:



Here is my neighbors ball that I keep running into:

[klem]

You are wise to be worried about the mooring pendant contacting your anchor. This will definitely lead to chafe and could lead to other problems if the anchor isn't very secure. The easiest thing to do would be to remove the anchor when on the mooring. There may be another creative solution that will keep you from having to do this permanently.

Mooring fields are quite packed these days and often boats are inside other boat's swing radius'. This is fine for the most part when all of the boats have similar hull shape and windage and there isn't much current. You can get into trouble when one boat swings to the wind and another swings to the current. You can also get in trouble if one boat moves around more quickly in a wind shift and hits another boat that has a deep keel which hasn't moved yet. Is your neighbor's boat similar to yours? If you know who the ball belongs to and you are comfortable doing this, you could hook onto it and drag the chain out away form your mooring until a boat is on it. This will help you make sure that the chain is indeed laid out towards your mooring and it will keep your boat from damaging itself on the mooring ball.

[CascoBay]

I am not sure who is on the mooring next to me, but my mooring guy said he did drag the chain out to make sure it would work out okay with a boat hooked to it, but it still makes me nervous.

He said he would check up on my boat next time he was in the field.

I am new to this mooring deal, but when I pulled my boat into the field I could not locate the mooring buoy, I found the pendant float and ended up pulling up my ball, I guess the chain wrapped up and sucked the ball under? Seems okay now but the ball seems to be riding low.

As far as the anchor goes, would a chock help matters? I really don't look forward to muscling the anchor around as it is 20 lbs.

[sailingdog]

If you have problems muscling a 20 lb. anchor around, are you sure you should be boating??? A 20 lb. anchor is pretty light as things go. I have a 33 lb. anchor with 60' of chain on my boat.

[CrazyRu]

Are you using one pendant only? I’d advise to get a second one.
I had same problem with pendant rubbing on an anchor. I solved it with rubber hose. I just treaded the line trough the hose and secured the hose with a few stitches of twine.
I’m not sure about empty buoy next to you. I normally ride very close to vacant buoy; however I have never hit it.

[sailingdog]

Don't recommend using rubber hose as chafe protection on a mooring pendant. The two most common modes of failure for anchor rodes, mooring pendants and dock lines are: 1) chafe and 2) failing due to overheating internally.

If you use rubber or plastic hose as your chafe protection, it promotes the second cause... since it prevents water from getting to the line and traps the heat. I recommend using webbing or other woven chafe protection, since they will generally let water through to cool and lubricate the fibers in the line.

Also, removing the source of the chafe, whenever possible, makes far more sense.

[Maine Sail]

Remove the anchor they can cause MAJOR chafe issues. My anchor never resides on the roller when I am not on my boat unless I am going back and forth and I know it will be calm weather...

When the boat gets yawing up and down the anchor can slice right through the pendant or get the pendant caught over the top of it and then chafe right through the pendant. These photos are less than 30 knots..

UP

DOWN


UP

DOWN


And this is without any wind..


This one did tangle..

Now picture this bow in 4-6 footers..