Bump in the night

[Bene505]

The problem is that your pennant lines sink. That little bit of weight is magnified by the obtuse angle of the line when the boat is farthest from the float. (Think small child at a pool, standing on the lap-lane floats. The small child exerts massive amounts of pull on the connection points.) Make it so the pennants float along a section of their length and you won't have the problem.

Ditto for the dinghy pennant.

Regards,
Brad

[HUGOSALT]

Have tried small 10 lb dinghy anchor set of the stern with a
good size elastic bungy tied into the anchor line (set up like
a snubber) works as long as things don't change much.
Have not tried following overnight...
if benign conditions expected to last the night moor to stern cleat with extended mooring line looped to mooring line and then
run dinghy painter through said loop and pull painter in and tie off.
Dinghy should stay off stern. Stern should provide enough surface resistance to stay off mooring ball...or not??

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by Bene505

The problem is that your pennant lines sink. That little bit of weight is magnified by the obtuse angle of the line when the boat is farthest from the float. (Think small child at a pool, standing on the lap-lane floats. The small child exerts massive amounts of pull on the connection points.) Make it so the pennants float along a section of their length and you won't have the problem.

Ditto for the dinghy pennant.

Regards,
Brad

Last weekend in the northwest corner of Port Jefferson harbor, I saw a mooring that had each pennant go through a "noodle" like kids use in pools. I thought of this thread but didn't get a picture. Some versions of those noodles have a hole down the length of it, just like the one's I saw.

This is great because 1) it floats (as I mentioned above) and 2) it's rigid enough to help keep the bow some distance away from the mooring ball.

Here you can see the type of noodle I mean:


Do not get this kind of noodle. Although it looks the same, it's different.


And of course, get an extra one for your dinghy painter.

If you don't want to thread your mooring line through -- perhaps because you have nice spliced loops on the ends and you forgot your fid at home -- you can split the noodle down the length and slide the morring line in place. Just use a few zipties to keep it in place afterward.


One downside is that you'll have to clear the young children off your mooring lines before you get underway. These things attract kids like barnacles to a new rudder.

Photo credit Sol Mate yacht charter - got it off their website, no other affiliation

Regards,
Brad

[hellosailor]

We've used the noodles. Not a 100% solution but they DO work a lot of the time. Put a zip-tie every 6" to hold them on.

[capta]

Gee, how about wrapping the mooring ball in an old life jacket?
Simple, cheap & easy.
Remember. it's banging the boat when you're not there too.

[SimonV]

What we do when picking up a mooring buoy is drop a small truck inner tube over the pennant and buoy. It is attached to the boat by a small line for easy retrieval when the mooring is dropped.