Grabbing a Ball on Large Cat

[Mallardtool]

We are chartering a 46' cat in a few weeks and although we have many years in mono's and smaller cats I have a mooring ball question (pertaining to this lg cat). Would it be best to approach a mooring ball so that we come to rest with it just off the starboard haul? That way I will be able to see it from the helm the entire time as we come up on it and I don't have to worry about crew member hand signals etc...

[Boasun]

Set up your mooring bridle before hand. Ensure that the legs of the bridle are one point five times longer then the boat is wide. this will reduce the load on each leg.
Put a quick release hook or a pendent at the apex of that bridle.
With the legs of the bridle that long you can make your approach on the side you are most comfortable with and bring the boat up to the ball at bare steerage way and bring her to a stop with the bow just over lapping the ball. The person on the bow will then have an easy time picking up the mooring pendent hanging from the ball and hooking up to your bridle.
Back easy for a very short moment to move away from the ball.

[twinsdad]

Does anyone have a good pictorial representation to properly set up a bridle for anchoring and/or mooring on a cruising catamaran?

Thanks

[JSL3]

Originally Posted by Mallardtool

We are chartering a 46' cat in a few weeks and although we have many years in mono's and smaller cats I have a mooring ball question (pertaining to this lg cat). Would it be best to approach a mooring ball so that we come to rest with it just off the starboard haul? That way I will be able to see it from the helm the entire time as we come up on it and I don't have to worry about crew member hand signals etc...

I'm sure you could pick it up off the starboard hull but then you'd have to walk it around to the center of the two hulls to attach the second bridle. Not so easy on a large vessel. Really, the easisest thing to do is approach slowly into the wind. The use of the twin screws makes approaching the ball one of the easier manuvers in operating one of these big beasts.
The key is a dead on approach, slowly and into the wind. From the wheel you should be able to see it up until the last minute. Then have your bowman point and simply use the engines forward on one/reverse on the other. No need to use the wheel.
Have fun.

[JSL3]

Originally Posted by twinsdad

Does anyone have a good pictorial representation to properly set up a bridle for anchoring and/or mooring on a cruising catamaran?

Thanks

For mooring: No picture here but we always use two separate bridle lines. One bridle goes from the port bow cleat through the mooring pendant eye (or through the eye on the mooring ball if there is no pendant) back to the same port bow cleat and one bridle goes from the starboard bow cleat through the mooring pendant eye back to the same starboard bow cleat. The two lines are redundant and seem to work well to reduce the chafing you would find if you used a single bridle from one cleat to the other.

For anchoring: Generally large crusing cats have a pre-rigged chain bridle that attaches to the anchor chain so when anchored the load is transfered to both hulls. Are you trying to set one up or are you talking about chartering?

[FarCry]

I am fairly confident that most charter companies will cover mooring and anchoring procedures. Boasun's procedure will work great but may differ from what your charter company requires.

Another method that seems to be preferred by charter companies in the VI is to have a line with the bitter end on your starboard cleat (your choice), approach so the starboard hull is on line with the mooring, slow to a near stop right on the ball, pick up the mooring pennant, run your line through the eye and back to the same cleat making it as short as possible so that you can easily reach it from the boat. If you haven't already, you can leisurely run another line from your port cleat over in front of the boat to the starboard side and loop it through the mooring penant and then back to the port side. Now you can slowly let out some line from the starboard side until your two lines are about the same length creating a penant with two seperate lines.

You should have an anchor bridle already on the boat ready to go.

[JohnRPollard]

When I saw the title of this thread my initial thought was: "That doesn't sound like such a smart thing to do."

[Mallardtool]

I love the idea of a quick release shackle, but I can't imagine I will find one big enough to hold a boat this size. But if one exists it would make life really easy for my greenhorn crew. Not that it is such a difficult task to just run a line through the pendent anyway, but the concept of setting up a bridle for the week is an attractive one....

[bubb2]

Please, Let me know how things work out!

[pdqaltair]

Originally Posted by JSL3

For mooring: No picture here but we always use two separate bridle lines. One bridle goes from the port bow cleat through the mooring pendant eye (or through the eye on the mooring ball if there is no pendant) back to the same port bow cleat and one bridle goes from the starboard bow cleat through the mooring pendant eye back to the same starboard bow cleat. The two lines are redundant and seem to work well to reduce the chafing you would find if you used a single bridle from one cleat to the other.

For anchoring: Generally large crusing cats have a pre-rigged chain bridle that attaches to the anchor chain so when anchored the load is transfered to both hulls. Are you trying to set one up or are you talking about chartering?

and the ball will not bang against the hull (if the legs are shorter than the beam). Slack it off again when it pipes up (because the strain goes way up).