there's

Adam,

If you just pass the line through the eye and bring it back to the boat (a
"turn"), you would be allowing a large wear point to develop - as you
surmised.

If you instead took a "round turn" (run it around the eye twice, or even
better, two round turns), you have now spread the load from one point to
four points as the line wraps around the ring.

Now, assuming the working end and the bitter end of the line are equal
length, as you stream to the mooring in the wind, and strain comes on the
line, it is the two parts of the line that are stretching, and not the turns
around ring.

Kevin

Joe, what sort of anti-chafe do you use in this application? A leather wrap?
Fire hose? Self-amalgamating silicone tape?

Thanks!

On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 6:12 PM, Joseph Pica joseph.pica@gmail.com wrote:

--

/afb

On 8/14/2010 8:31 PM, Adam Block wrote:

We frequently pick up a mooring ball, most have pennants that we haul up
to the deck and rig there, but our foredeck is 10 ft above the water
line, so it can be tricky in winds and when a quick connect is needed.
In those conditions, I'll come along side the pennant, downwind so the
pennant can be picked up from amidships where it's much closer to the
water, or even use the boarding gate to get closer yet. The drill is to
pick up the pennant with a line in hand, loop the bitter end through the
pennant, while walking the line forward, run both ends of the line in
through the hawse pipe and cleat off with the pennant within reach. At
that point, we're secured and the pressure is off. Then pass a second
line through the pennant. One line is already through one hawse pipe,
the second line goes to the opposite side, then make both fast, about
equidistant. This eliminates the chafe/sawing problem and makes a bridle
to the pennant to keep it off the hull (to some degree). When we're
ready to leave, release the bitter ends and pull the lines through the
pennant as the boat drifts downwind.

If you're working with a more permanent connection, I suppose the round
turn may be better, but you're going to have to get up close and
personal with the ball, and you'll probably be using a dinghy for that,
at which point you can pretty much do whatever you need to make a
suitable connection. An anchor bend would probably eliminate any chafe,
but would probably be a bugger to undo. Perhaps a cow hitch if you do a
single line. I like the security of two lines, and the bridle seems to
reduce the sailing around on a single line.

Still haven't figured how to keep the boat from riding up over the ball
when the winds & current conspire to make her do the St. Vitas dance
with the mooring ball as a partner. Things that go bump in the night.....

Steve Sipe
Solo 4303 /"Maerin"/
On the "Down East Loop"
Little Harbor & Smokehouse Restaurant - Bras d'Or Lake

A carabiner takes a fairly long time to secure properly, and if you don't
get the screw threads all the way tightened, there is a risk of premature
failure. In addition, carabiners have only 20% of the working load of a
quality snap hook.

West Marine has a good snap hook for this purpose. Look at their 4" or 6"
hooks at http://tinyurl.com/22lqlku

Kevin

In the

Hi Adam

This started out as a quick response, but I got carried away. Hope I'm not going to test your patience, or insult your intelligence. Besides, I was having fun writing it.

A couple of thoughts. 3-strand resists chafe better than does braided rope, and 3-strand, dacron (polyester) resists chafe even better than 3-strand nylon.

Bigger diameter rope resists chafe better than thinner rope, so big, 3-strand, nylon stands well up on my list, and big, 3-strand Dacron is even higher if resisting chafe was the goal.

Of coarse, chain or wire rope resists chafe even better than fiber ropes, but at risk of scraping the hull when the wind and current are contrary.

Keep in mind that getting the mooring ball and boat attached together is only the first step. Securely keeping the boat attached, often requires a second step, which may need to consist of more than just running a line through the ring and doubling it back to the boat.

After all, picking up a mooring, whether for one night, or for longer, is another activity in boating that often proves not to be a speed contest. So we don't assume it will be a quick and easy job to begin with and readily accept that a second step will be needed, even requiring the assistance of the dinghy.

You could install anti-chafing gear on the rope, but then you'd also have to secure it in place to keep it from being dislodged. And in prolonged or rough conditions, it too will chafe through, exposing the rope. Rather difficult to replace also, should it chafe through, more so if you're not there to do it.

What about simply tying the pennant, or an additional pennant, to the mooring ball. Chafe occurs from movement. If a knot is used, there will be very little, if any, movement of the knot on the ring, and if "big" rope was used too, there would be essentially no movement from stretch in the knot. What kind of knot? Any that won't come undone on its own.

But if I wanted more assurance than any of the above ideas would give, here is what I'd probably do. Once the mooring is captured and secured to, I'd attach another rope pennant to the mooring ball, one that had a shackle installed in its end.

The shackle will need to be big enough to go over the ball's ring, but that is easy to plan for. I would suspect (easy enough to check on) that most balls of the size that we would be mooring to, would have rings made from steel that is from 5/8" to 3/4" in diameter, so just about any 1/2" shackle (.81" opening) should work.

If still not sure as to whether a 1/2" shackle's opening would be big enough, or if you find out that they use larger diameter steel rings, a 3/4" shackle, which has an opening of 1.25" would work on probably any mooring you'd ever have the pleasure to tie to; and, as a plus, it is quite a manly thing to have onboard anyways.

Me, I would have fun splicing the rope to the shackle, but many knots would also work. Whether you would use a thimble or not, to my way of thinking, since you ought to be using hefty rope to begin with, is a moot point. Also, while you are down there screwing the shackle's pin back in, might as well also secure the pin from backing out in some manner.

If chafe is an issue with whatever method you choose to use, a second, maybe even a third, back-up pennant might also be a good idea.

I'm not mentioning storm conditions, because then my concern would be with if the mooring was sized for my size boat at 60 knots, plus how well the mooring is maintained. For storms, we treat moorings as we would a slip, and if any doubt arises as to their safety, we'd go anchor.

Rudy
Briney Bug, Panama City, Fl