Mooring a BRE on a buoy

[Gavin Y]

Hi All, I've trawled through a lot of the threads on mooring, but can't seem to find a definitive view on the best set up to moor to a standing mooring in a harbour. Would really appreciate some advice on the bridle set up that people have used on a BRE and whether a secondary attachment from the trailer eye is a good idea and any photographs.  An opinion on the best way of picking up, noting that movement around the foredeck for crew is a bit limited would also be really useful. My working assumption is that the bridle would need to be rigged and de-rigged on each trip from the buoy. Thanks in advance.

[Sea Simon]

Do you mean mooring a BRe to a single swinging buoy, in the middle of a harbour?

Mine is moored like that, in a very tidal river, drying over low water springs. Exposed to N. winds SW Ok.

Two seasons now and no issues using an equal leg bridle over both the original bow fairleads P and S, then led back to the original cleats, near the shrouds.

I too struggled to find much info on this problem, so here we go!

I enquired with the yard about a centre fore deck cleat, but was advised that reinforcement of the deck area would be required to fit a cleat. Did not fit. Didn't want the work/weight/cost.

I've had to tinker a bit, and my current set up now does not tangle or twist up. Works well.

Chafe was the main issue, and my nylon rope bridle is double sheathed with woven polyester sleeving over its full length. Anti-chafe Hose will not fit thru the slightly undersize, imo, bow fairleads. Not, without requiring the mooring bridle ropes to become undersized.
I added another S/steel chafe bar on the port side deck wood strip, as my boat had only one fitted stbd.

In way of the wire Bob stay, the rope bridle is fully oversheathed with heavy, soft wall, fire hose.
Now no chafe issues at all.

What with today's forecast, I now need to go out and do a pre-storm check!
Will try to get photos for you.

It is possible to reach the cleats from the open companionway, but to get the bridles into the fairleads, you need to go onto the fore deck (fair weather only for me!) or do from dinghy.
 I motor up, get the rope eyes on the cleats (fish with a boat hook), then mess about with fairleads etc, once the boat has settled.
Can do all this alone, easily enough.

And finally... I have an 8mm  stainless storm chain from the mooring swivel, clipped to the trailer eye/bob stay eye. Will be going on today! This is set as a last resort, and will not come under weight while the ropes are effective. Consequently the chain is rather long, and so has the double benefit as a surge damper.

[Sea Simon]

Trolley tyres are to protect hull from cheap and nasty yellow mooring buoys as provided by Fowey Harbour Co.
They have an angry shackle protruding from the top, and this will badly damage your topsides if contact is made. This can easily happen in strong wind over tide conditions. I have had other boats damaged in this way.

Random cable ties are an attempt to keep birds off. Not too many problems with this boat (lots of rope everywhere?) less so than my past D Lugger or Orkney Fast Liner.

The erect loop  is formed from a1T - 2m soft strop threaded thru plastic hose. This seems to keep the two bridle legs from tangling with the BRe moored.
They will tangle when left in the water, unattached to a boat, for several hours. I try to keep them aboard my tender. Temporarily attaching the second "free" leg to the pick up buoy helps prevent this.

The two eyes of the strop loop are shackled to a large S steel swivel, in turn shackled to the chain riser BELOW the buoy. This eliminates hull damages.
Long link chain used only because it was what I had in the shed. Same for the carbine clip. I'm sure they are plenty strong enough, with a swl of 200kg ish.

[Sea Simon]

Blimey....this is a bit of a work up!
Need better photo compression software.
Or maybe easier to alter my phone to shoot at lower res?

Second pic shows loop in port bridle leg, looped back thru the side deck cleat "on the bight".
The size of these cleats, and that of the fairleads, limits the mooring bridle legs to about 13mm D. At this size, it all JUST fits the boat.
Imo, this is just big enough for a long term seasonal mooring. This magnifies my preoccupation with preventing chafe.

Pleasantly surprised by the lack of chafe, the two layers of woven poly sleeving working well. Also provides UV protection for the ropes, which is increasingly becoming an issue here in SW UK.

[TimLM]

Nothing to do with mooring (nowt to add to Simons thorough post) but a free and very useful compression program - Faststone. I've used it for years building websites, fast effective a d easy to use.

[Sea Simon]

Thanks for that Tim.
Had a look...
Sadly, no use to me as I abandoned Windows for Chromebook/Android several years ago now!
Maybe that's the price I'm paying?

[Gavin Y]

Sea Simon,

Apologies for the delayed response - I got sidetracked by another project and decided to keep my boat on its trailer this year. Thank you for your very useful photographs and I think they will really enable my winter project. A couple of queries - how long are your 2 bridles and did you apply the polyester sleeving yourself or get it all made up? Thanks. 

[Sea Simon]

No problems.

Not sure of actual numbers as I "made to fit", with the boat on the trailer.
  I managed to "find" most of my materials.

However, Jimmy Green sells chafe/UV sleeves.
The really heavy stuff, iwo the bobstay, is layflat fire hose. Damaged short lengths may be available from tool hire places? We had miles of the stuff going in skips at a previous job. Wish I had more....

As a General principle, mooring bridles are usually (here) at about a 45 deg angle, so a bit longer than the   leg length from the deck at fairleads, to the water. This minimises swinging room needed.
Depends to some degree on the type of mooring buoy used. Ours are horrible cheap n nasty things, with angry exposed top shackles. Hence the tyres.
I remove mine from the mooring for winter, so will try to remember to measure. Ask me in December!

This is my third season, and still working well. Has survived a few gales. No issues/tangles.
I'm just starting to see the first signs of UV damage on the root of the eye splices that lace thru the deck cleats. No sleeves fitted there, rope too big.
Thinking about some sort of small elasticated covers to eke it out a bit longer? Not that a remake is expensive, just time consuming.