Storm Mooring: One Mooring Pendant or Two?

[Carl Thunberg]

This weekend, I finally brought my boat from Portsmouth, NH to Poorhouse Cove ME, a trip of roughly 90 nm. Here's an admittedly small sample size of moorings and what I found. Portsmouth Harbor and Great Bay Marine. Every single mooring I saw had one pendant. Wood Island Harbor and Biddeford Pool: one mooring had two pendants, and they were not tied together. I have no idea why they weren't wrapped around each other. Boothbay: all moorings I saw had one pendant. I have a hard time saying all these moorings are wrong. Yale maxi-moor pendants are well worth their money.

Just curious, what's the distinction between a storm mooring and any other mooring? All moorings should be able to withstand storms. Don't get me wrong. If we were in a hurricane prone area, I may feel differently on the two vs. one. But I'm not. Context is everything.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Now that Fall is approaching it's time to start thinking about storm moorings again. ....

If you have a trailer for your Typhoon, get her on the trailer and get her to high ground (preferably outside of the path of the storm). If you can’t get the boat out of the storm’s path, both the boat and the trailer will need to be securely tied down. Get some big, strong tent stakes from a sporting goods store or you’ll have to make’em.

[MHBsailor]

Thanks Cathy! I currently don't have a trailer but am looking for one and I'll keep your recommendation in mind if I do get a trailer someday and can bring it home, as I'm still not far from the Bay. Do you mean using the same straps that normally tie the boat to the trailer, or different straps?

[Maine Sail]

Quote: "One mooring pendant or two?"

I don't know but I suspect the owner of the Island Packet below was pretty darn happy he had two pendants. The boat survived the storm on the second pendant..

You may want to peruse the article below, an article the town of Falmouth, ME sends out to every mooring holder before each storm:

Mooring Preparations & Precautions
https://pbase.com/mainecruising/mooring_prep

UP.....


DOWN......


UP.....SNAP!!


The second pendant saved the vessel...

[MHBsailor]

Looks like the same article that I referenced in my initial post.

[Maine Sail]

Looks like the same article that I referenced in my initial post.

Actually two different articles that share some of the same images..