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Mooring bouys

17K views 161 replies 33 participants last post by  rockDAWG 
#1 ·
I cruise BC waters. In southern waters mooring bouys are ever increasing. This is a "what if"... you enter an anchorage and your only option is a lone mooring bouy available and you take it. What happens if the owner of the bouy arrives 03:00 knocks on your hull and asks you to leave?

... thanks...
 
#99 ·
As someone who would NOT consider using someone's mooring because it is not my property and added that it is a complete unknown quantity, IMO, there ought to be legally specified, equally good, free anchorage areas available for people who want to set a hook. I would like to see some lawsuits over damage incurred to boats because they were denied access to a safe anchorage packed with pay-for moorings. There must be other sailors like me who simply can't afford $40/night to sleep somewhere safe. Add it up, that's $1200/mo. while cruising---simply absurd for all but sailors with deep pockets. Municipalities need to back off hogging every square inch of good anchorage areas. I'm really surprised the USCG has permitted so much room to be glommed in "special anchorage" areas.
 
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#100 ·
In Annapolis the holding ground is poor and the anchorage exposed. Prior to the municipal moorings any time a sudden wind or storm came up it was a Chinese fire drill of dragging boats hitting other boats and breaking them loose. Outside of Annapolis there is no place I can think of on the Bay without plenty of space to anchor for free. My mooring certainly does not block anyone from anchoring nearby.
 
#101 ·
Specific places may have limited anchorage locations. If one lives on their boat and has the freedom to move around, I find it hard to believe one couldn't find anyplace to anchor. I'm trying to think of a single mooring field in my sailing grounds, where I couldn't drop a hook just outside of it. For that matter, there are no fully safe anchorages, so I can't see how a law suit would have any merit.
 
#110 ·
For a named storm, many of the moorings will be empty in Wickford. The Southern inner cove is way too tight and the Northern inner cove is indeed shallow, but there is room back there. Even behind the breakwater in the main harbor is pretty good.

Anything out of the south and Bristol is a disaster. There is plenty of room to anchor just south of the mooring field there.
 
#114 ·
Do you really want to foul a mooring buoy with your rudder, prop shaft, ... ?
 
#117 ·
I understand that people are frustrated over moorings being in place where they would prefer to anchor, or perhaps used to anchor. I don't love the fact that there is a housing development in the woods I used to hike in as a kid. But I don't get to walk through their backyards, pitch a tent and stay the night any longer and I don't suggest that I should.

One of our neighbors owned thousands of acres of land that he knew was commonly used like public property, but we technically had no claim to it. He just permitted our use of it until he decided to develop it. I will bet that most often these coveted anchorages are actually owned by a municipality you don't live in and one could argue that anchoring should only be available to their residents?? It would be ironic if that was the outcome of pushing on this too hard, wouldn't it?
 
#118 · (Edited)
I'm not really clear about the laws concerning "ownership" of the seabed. Is it federal law? State law? Local law? Who actually has the legal right to claim bottom rights? To issue permits for things like fish farms, or weir nets, or docks that intrude on waterways?
 
#119 ·
This thread gives me the impression that venturing west of Portland, ME will include a contentious dimension I would rather not deal with. It can't be as big a problem as it seems from these replies? Can it? We plan our trips with care and don't find ourselves in difficulty when looking for a place to park. We haven't made it to the Jersey shore yet or into the Chesapeake Bay. Our anchors and gear are quite capable. We can't bring the space to deploy them along with us. The next trip we make to the Westerd may be inland to Lake Superior. Who needs a crowded anchorage full of ignorant, resentful boaters?

"Can't we all just get along?" RK

Down
 
#121 ·
Chesapeake has virtually no moorings except a few small creeks. Plenty of places to anchor all over the place with many small creeks and coves. It's unlike our northern neighbors in that regard.

Dave
 
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#122 ·
I'm not really buying that its a problem here either. Even Newport, the busiest tourist port around, has a designated anchorage. All others I can think of have plenty of room to anchor around or just outside the mooring fields.

Ironically, in several, the really big dogs have no choice but to drop the hook outside, because of their draft.
 
#128 ·
Well, I was going to river today to check on my mooring today. But the weather took a turn. I hate cold weaather.
Weather for Beaufort, SC

‎Clear 41°
‎Wind: NW at 13 mph
‎Humidity: 61% ‎high 52°
Well here we got 2 inches of snow...much more north of here. It's 28 with gusts to 35
 
#126 ·
Jon,

You are correct. "Summer moorings" are increasing. As the season gets busy the remaining spaces are coming under a proportionately increased amount of pressure as more transient boats show up. There are just more of us out there.

One of our rules of thumb is, "Sail to the Easterd after Memorial Day and to the Westerd after Labor Day."

Glad to learn things are not really that bleak West of Gloucester. Ha!

Down
 
#131 ·
One should be careful pushing for legislation to address this issue. Those "Faberge' daysailors" can make a safety argument and point to the investment they made in their property. They probably make an investment in their local government representatives campaign fund too. Next thing you know, you'll be prevented from anchoring within 500 yards of a mooring field, for fear of dragging into them.
 
#133 ·
On that notehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...eboats-increasingly-unwelcome/article1389116/.

Some of the houseboats' most vocal opponents live on Angus Drive, whose large million-dollar homes have unobstructed views of the bay. "I don't like looking down every day at that," said Angus Drive resident Steve Smith, adding that the effect of the houseboats on his view is driving down his property value. As far as he is concerned, the boat owners are essentially squatters who are taking away from other people's ability to enjoy the bay.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/b...ore-anchorages/article1714124/?service=mobile

Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk 2
 
#135 ·
Just to keep the analysis complete, its been proven throughout time that individual ownership of land has been better for sustainability. When you own it, you don't over harvest or pollute, because you want it to be there for your use again. In a communal environment, you are concerned that the next user will take everything, so you do so first. Or, polluting becomes less a concern, if you're never coming back.

I'm just adding to the discussion, I believe there could be some reasonable guidelines around this. These guidelines should be set by the locality.
 
#136 ·
Our biggest issue is abandoned moorings. You can't anchor near them, you can't put a mooring near them, and you can't use them because they are in crap condition at best. My mooring is one of 6 in front of our club and only ONE other one is safe to use. Like mine, it was put down last spring. I chase people off them on occasion - not for "ownership" reasons but because they are unsafe for anything bigger than an Opti.

We have a spring project planned to remove all the junk gear and put down one or two good ones for guests of the club. I would like to see a basic permit/sticker process where if the sticker is over X years out of date the gear is removed.
 
#137 · (Edited)
A possible solution is using private enterprise to maintain mooring areas. Thinking about Port Jefferson/Setauket Harbor on Long Island, NY, Brookhaven town gives permission for marinas to place and maintain moorings in the designated areas. With this setup, the mooring placer has incentive, both financial and legal, to keep them in good condition. IMO they do hog up too much space BUT at least they are kept in relatively good condition and will not foul the bottom with old junk (although in the thick mud most abandoned moorings will disappear in not too long a period of time). An old buddy of mine owns one of the marinas and I know for a fact that he keeps the moorings in good shape.
 
#138 ·
Marina and city owned moorings ARE maintained because they don't want to get sued if they break loose. I am talking about a guy that puts a mooring down on his own and has long since moved away, sold the boat, died, or otherwise couldn't care less about it now. Human nature being what it is, they generally don't remove them. Throwing a heavy anchor over the side is one thing, but prying it back up out of the mud is a very different thing!
 
#141 ·
san dkiegop moorings are maintained by a private company--after the p ort of sd decided they were not money makers, they were privatized in 2001. rates rose yearly until their contract said no mas..now they want to rid moorings of the older tenants--grandfathered in at a certain nice affordable rate monthly.

watch what you wish for...it will come back to bite ye...good luck.

dont anchor in any mooring fields too close to a buoy. you may be impounded, as in sd,and retrieving said boat from impound can be over 1800 dollars, us. good luck. have fun and be decent.

happy new year...
 
#145 · (Edited)
The fact that Newport has done such a good job of allocating space is proof that if thought out well, everyone can be accommodated. With all the sailing/yacht club, transient, tour boat, and power boat traffic it is really noteworthy that except during "event" times, you can still find a spot to anchor. Now if they could only find a way to solve the problem of the damned cable running across the anchorage...
 
#147 ·
Not to beat a dead horse - but (and here I beat it anyway) -

Parking your car in a public lot and putting a mooring ball down in public water is not the same.
Painting a public lot parking spot with a 'reserved by Chuckles' sign or leaving a orange cone in said spot is more akin to a mooring ball -
Putting a chain across the parking spot or chaining that orange cone down is closer to the real deal.
Same deal for bike racks etc.. no one is talking about using your car or your bike, we're talking about using the parking SPACE or the bike RACK that you left your property in.
 
#151 ·
I understand your point I think in that you are saying no one has the right to limit acccess to the water ( parking space) correct?

Do we agree that a government agency has the right to allocate use of that water (space). We are not talking about channel obstruction here. ?

If the answer is no, then it would mean the only rights a home owner would retain would be the riparian rights ( land visable at low tide). That would then mean all docks and piers which extend out into open water water technically would be the same as that illegal morring wouldnt it?

The property owners building piers which extend into water 6-8 foot depths are no different than the person putting a morring ball in the same space correct? And therefore someone else who wants to can use them correct?

Dave
 
#148 ·
I think we need to be careful of too vigorously proclaiming our property rights to our moorings. I have one. I paid for the tackle and inspections and such. I understand that I own my stuff. Remember that mooring permits in New England range between 30-200 dollars a year. The actual value of those mooring permits could legitimately be increased to the value of a Martha's Vineyard beach key for most southern New England harbors. A hundred dollar mooring permit in a desired Mass. harbor is probably worth in the tens of thousands of dollars to those that afford to pay it. Without courtesy and accommodation along the lines suggested by Rob Gallagher in his posts, there will be pressure and it seems to me that pressure will mean municipalities who are being asked to police people's moorings and hire staff to do it, will raise the cost of mooring permits to their true values. Once I've paid 20,000 for a mooring permit, then maybe I can understand the "it's my property" argument. Right now, we're being subsidized pretty heavily by the public, who expect us to be courteous about it, I think.
 
#152 ·
It's more like building a duck blind on federal land. Yea, OK, it's your wood and nails. But if someone is sitting in it when you come by, well, just ask them nicely to move. What's the big deal?

Are people really that worried that someone will, if I may quote Caddyshack, "scratch their anchor"?
 
#154 ·
Not a bit. Apparently we have on this thread people that think it is OK to grab my mooring and tell ME to find someplace else to go if I come back and/or anchor so close to it as to make it unusable and/or put ANOTHER mooring right next to it so as to make them both unusable just to prove they can.

*btw, if you ever do want to use my mooring, call the number I put on the ball and I'll tell you if it is OK or not ;)

It's more like building a duck blind on federal
land. Yea, OK, it's your wood and nails. But if someone is sitting in it when you come by, well, just ask them nicely to move. What's the big deal?

Are people really that worried that someone will, if I may quote Caddyshack, "scratch their anchor"?
 
#158 · (Edited)
The cost of your mooring does not represent the true value of the privilege. Whether we like it or not our waters (and the land below) are owned in unison with all of the other citizens in our respective states. Each state handles it differently and in most New England towns, the control or policing of the harbors is done by the municipalities. We are subsidized in the sense that the value of what we enjoy (the mooring) is permitted to us at an artificially low rate so that the most amount of people can use the water. If the states or towns wanted to generate more income and/or have less moorings, they could charge the real value of moorings. So for example in Vineyard Haven, they could deliberately reduce moorings by a hundred and instead of charging the hundred or so dollars for a mooring permit, they could charge what the market would bear, and I imagine they could charge in the tens of thousands for single moorings. This would make more room for anchoring and would provide a lot more income for many harbors to pay for harbor maintenance and services. It would open up room for anchoring. But, the counterweight against doing this is the general legal requirement that the "people's" property should be enjoyed (imperfectly) by the most amount of people and that the people should not be excluded from what they collectively own. So the subsidization is the fact that we mooring holders in most locations are not paying the full value of what we have and the resultant cost (harbor maintenance, policing, etc) is borne by the general public. Similar to using public lands. I am not saying this is right or wrong. It is just the way it has developed legally and in practice on our shores.
 
#159 ·
I'm not sure I was clear on Vineyard Haven example. People (like me) would go nuts if we knew we could not obtain a mooring permit in a harbor unless we could pay 15,000 dollars. If this system were in place, most of NE's harbors moorings would be closed to anyone but the wealthy. That is hard to take when you know it is public property. I think that is part of the reason we have the very limited, but very cheap mooring opportunities that we have.
 
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