Our first day on swinging mooring left us dizzy.The light wind at 90 deg to tide kept winning until head to wind then the tide brought us back in line with the other boats.
Dropped the dagger board but the cycle was much the same .Can we use a drogue whilst on swinging moorings and would it help ?
Tue, 03/05/2022 - 12:25pm
#1
Swinging mooring
It's a bit like "how long is a bit of string". If the tide isn't sufficient to beat a light wind will a drogue just hang down. I suppose anything dangling in the water will help a bit. If you have a flat bottom and tiny foils the tide has little to work on to defeat high sides!
Jonathan
We kept our X on a swinging mooring for two years before bringing it into a marina. The Macgregor "dance" constantly swung the boat from side to side no matter what the conditions were and we tried any number of solutions, rigging up a bridle, foils down, partly down, moving weight around the boat, securing the boat by a line through the pushpit and securing it to the mast etc. but nothing worked. They just do it.
I would add a couple of notes of caution: we broke the bow roller because the constant toing and froing eventually weakened the metal through metal fatigue. This we solved by clipping a carabina through the towing eye and running the securing line through that so that the "pull" was on the hull and not the bow roller. We also had our engine stolen (Yamaha 50HP). They must have had a boat with a crane so suggests a professional job. We replaced the engine and secured it with coach bolts (dome heads) so it could only be unbolted from inside. We also used a long hefty cable around the outboard leg and secured it with a big padlock to the pickup chain of the mooring.
Didn't want to alarm you but better to be informed.
An informative post david.pennington. I am on a swinging mooring and during last years storms many boats were parted from their moorings. With that in mind I now use 2 mooring ropes and take them over the bow roller to avoid the lines rubbing as they go to the mooring. Quentin had new lines on his swinging mooring last ywar and they wore away during the storms, photos were posted on here. I am concerned now that it may be too much for the roller now so running one or both mooring lines through a carabina attached to the tow hook seems a good idea. My concern, is that Macgregor say that the breaking strength of the cleats is 2385lb and lines and chains should not exceed 80% of this. So how do I find out the breaking strength of the bow roller and just as important the towing hook/eye as Macgregor do not mention this in the 26m handbook.
Wow David that was unfortunate to have your outboard stolen on the water! Fortunately my 2005 M and i suspect later models have locking bolts that can't be undone . I agree they dance about on swinging moorings . No easy solution . I had a swing mooring on Southampton Water my first year and it swung and rocked like pendulum. I couldn't wait to move it .
As we are new to boating and she is our first vessel this is an unexpected issue.I guess catamarans also suffer this and attempt various fixes.A retreat in to the marina is a costly option but may have no choice if it is too uncomfortable.I will run a second line through the tow hook and luckily the engine has a theft device already installed.
Shame ,we had visions of leisurely evenings spent onboard in pleasant surroundings rather than the marina "car park" 😟
If its just the time you are on the boat you are bothered about then maybe just dont worry too much about the swingging arround or , if its not too deep just put out a kedge anchor. I have certainly done that in anchorages with limited space and found it countered the wayward stern . Otherwise , with extra lines as advised and everything battenned down inside you should be ok , if not ideal.
Roly
Hi Roly. Having never anchored yet does the kedge just lower over the stern using a warp.With other boats on their moorings I have to be mindful of causing obstructions.A small bouy indicating the anchor I guess would be sensible.
P.s It's about 9 mtr depth at HT.
Sorry for my fatuous response, I must curb that. The kedge can be laid at a slightly sharper angle to your usual anchor (between 3 and 5 to 1 dependent on the rode, rope or chain) if you aren't relying on it for your main hold but it will need to dig into the sea bed to work. You therefore have to consider the risk to other boats and the risk of getting entangled.
An alternative use of the kedge is to lay it forward but spaced away from the main anchor to hold the boat at an angle to the wind by tying off on a side cleat, also difficult when amongst other boats. Here you have a risk of winding the two rodes together should the boat rotate, not something you want and a pain to set up.
A bridle between bow, swinging mooring and a side cleat, to achieve a slight angle to the wind is worth trying as a temporary expedient as it is easy to set up and disentangle, playing with the angle by adjusting the length of the side rope. By taking advantage of the windage to one side can steady the boat.
Brian I haven't seen that spec from Macgregor about the strength of the cleat. I wonder if he is just quoting the manufacturers cleat strength or the strength of its mounting. When towing at sea they advise that in addition to bow cleats, bollards or towing eye, a bridle is used going to stern cleats or sheet winches, to spread the load. In addition there are tales (not in relation to Macgregors) of towing eyes being pulled out of the hull when relying too heavily on one when winching onto trailer's!
With the experiences people have had it is clear when leaving the boat for any length of time you need to use more than one line and fitting on the boat and the adage drummed into me, that you use one line for one job when mooring applies, I.e. 4 lines on a pontoon.
Jonathan
Gary, don't get me wrong, we had many really lovely times when we had the swinging mooring. Quiet evenings watching the setting sun, bright crisp mornings, watching the occasional seal. Even the loss of the motor didn't put us off the swinging mooring.
It was the effort of packing and unpacking everything into the dinghy each time we used the boat which made us decide to splash out for the marina. Yes it's an expensive way to use a trailer sailer but the convenience of arriving late on Friday night, spending the night on board, using the shower block early on Saturday and getting out early to enjoy a full weekend on board is hard to beat. Then at the end the tanks can be topped up, toilet emptied, batteries on charge, and everything loaded into the car including the fuel tank so it's ready for next time.
Pages