Moorings

[Warren Kaplan]

Henry,

Go if you can!! Macht Nichts is a wonderful boat and its worth suffering the command of Capt Bligh just to be aboard her.

[Maine Sail]

Not to rain on the parade... but be sure to have a heavy duty mooring... nothing is fail safe. I was renting a mooring for three weeks that was supposed to be rock solid and just a few years old. I had 3 pennants as well as a chain attached to the mooring at the bow. During a storm with 60mph winds, the chain broke toward the base of the weight at the bottom and sent my boat flying into the docks. Two other boats ended up on the beach and a few others also had close calls... Ugh... Luckily the boat didn't sink though... And another smaller sailboat I had on a different mooring rode the storm fine.

Otherwise, I love moorings

See the damage here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpetajan/s ... 2612/show/

Kevin,

It looks to me as if you had a shackle fail not a chain link. The chain looks nearly new.

When buying shackles NEVER buy Chinese made cast shackles. Always buy them from the likes of Campbell or Crosby/CM. I have seen numerous failures of these cheap knock off shackles one of them by another boater who's boat hit mine and caused 25k in damage from a failed cast Chinese shackle. Proper shackles are FORGED then heat treated. A real shackle will deform before failing. A Cheap "cast" shackle will simply snap and fail because they are made of cheap cast iron not closed died drop forged..

Please this is a serious issue that every boat owner should take not of. It is no joke as there are literally millions of these inferior look-a-like shackles flooding the US. Some unscrupulous mooring guys even buy them to save a buck or two... This is flat out dangerous..

If you find your mooring guy NOT using proper load rated shackles from a reputable manufacturer do you self a favor and FIRE him as he has NO clue and does NOT belong in the mooring business.

This may not be what happened to Kevin but beware it DOES happen and I was on the receiving end of it...

[Jay B.]

There is alot of great feedback here. I talked with the Maryland DNR guy yesterday and he had alot of similar advice. I am thinking that putting my own mooring down with known good stuff is the way to go. In Maryland, anyone can put a mooring down for recreational use as long as you follow the guidlines (which are posted on the DNR website).

I'll update everyone as to how things turn out.

Thanks,
Jay

[Kevin_P]

Just an FYI on mooring weights, in our parts, a harbor on Lake Michigan, the minimum weight for any mooring is 600-750lbs. The mooring that my damaged 10,000lb Cape Dory was on had about 1500lbs on it. Our harbor is generally well-protected, but has vulnerability when the winds are coming from the S-SE, as they were during the night of our calamity.

Yeah, we were also thinking the shackle might have been the culprit. Our mooring guy insists that there was another 10-15 ft of chain on that mooring... I'll be interested to see if any more information is uncovered after he goes down to dive for the weight.

With regards to the kind of shackle, I have no idea and I'll bring that up with the mooring guy and see what he says. Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback,
Kevin

[Steve Laume]

This is an eye opening thread. The parted mooring is so sad.

Serious damage is not limited to a mooring field. I have retied a number of boats in our marina who's lines had chafed through. This was mostly on boats left in the water for the winter. We really are all in this together.

Raven has been on a 500LB mushroom for the passed five years. Weight is not the only factor in mooring anchors. Pound for pound a mushroom anchor will hold far better than a block of granite or concrete.

Even a really quality mooring set up can have problems. One year we were swinging oddly in the mooring field. I dove down to discover that when the yard had set the mushroom the shank did not lay down properly and the chain had wrapped around it. At that point a hard blow could have dragged the thing. This would have be made easier by the reduced scope on the heavy mooring chain.

Micheal's comments about socializing with folks on the docks and bringing people aboard have a lot to do with how you use your boat. We do not tend to spend too much time at our own marina. We might find it more enjoyable if we did have a slip and spent more time with our fellow boaters.

If I had to haul a dinghy back and forth every time I wanted to use my boat I would have to rethink the situation.

We have never been troubled by birds at all. It seems they tend to single out certain boats and or certain harbors. I hope we are as lucky in Mattapoiset next year as we have been in Noank.

It appears as if the mooring vs slip is indeed a personal choice, not quite as controversial as the anchor or prop debates, Steve.

[bottomscraper]

When buying shackles NEVER buy Chinese made cast shackles. Always buy them from the likes of Campbell or Crosby/CM.

Even some of the Campbell shackles are now imported buyer beware!


http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/c ... /index.cfm

[seajunkie]

My mooring in Mission Bay San Diego was anchored with two V8 engine blocks for what that's worth. I have no idea how much they weighed.

[Maine Sail]

When buying shackles NEVER buy Chinese made cast shackles. Always buy them from the likes of Campbell or Crosby/CM.

Even some of the Campbell shackles are now imported buyer beware!


http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/c ... /index.cfm

Sorry Rich, my bad. That sentence should have read Columbus Mckinnon (CM) or Crosby. It was early in the morning and I did not mean to type Campbell..