The Low down of Mooring lines?

airship... That, my friend, is a very lengthy and informative post.

Twisted, tied, bound & braided! Excellent post Airship! Use all the emoticons you want...

I'm on an emoticon roll so I my as well finish...

One of the most distressing images I've come across in Mediterranean ports are those yachts which, instead of simply slipping their leather-protected soft-eyed mooring lines "into the eyes and over" other mooring lines ( ) on the relatively smooth cast-steel mooring bollards on the quay, prefer to use chain on the bollards before connecting this to the soft-eyed mooring line. It is not good practice putting chain through a soft eye. If you want to put chain on the end of your mooring line, then specify a solid thimble on the end, instead of a soft eye. It's understandable when you absolutely have to do something like that because there are no bollards, perhaps only rings on the quay (I once used 4 x 4 inch timber in French Polynesia on a 55m - we didn't have any spare chain - work that out). But it really does hurt rope being bent around such a tight radius...so have some extra large shackles and thimbles available on the hopefully rare occasions this sort of thing is required. If you regualarly have to use rings, then have thimbles permanently spliced into your mooring lines instead of soft eyes?!

Just to finish...please don't use solid anodes or lead-shot and suchlike as weights in your monkey's fists. A golf-ball will do. As any experienced deckie who's been on long passages will tell you, it's not the weight in the monkey's fist that sends the heaving line over efficiently...it's technique (think about wrist and arm action ). Plus it prevents unintended injuries to bystanders and port officials alike on the quay (you know how everyone likes to congregate when a superyacht ties up in a busy marina)...

I'm sure I've forgotten something but I'll have to get over a slight hangover first...?!

We use small sandbags, works well with no real harm if you hit somebody.

What you forgot may have been the groundtackle and how divers lift your anchor if you had to use it coming in. We have discussed this before but can´t find it now...

line to ancor chain

Why are lines used from the bow to the anchor chain when at anchor. See link for photo.
http://www.yacht-images.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Kogo-Alstom-Marine&id=MYKOGO049&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

stefan

Hi,

Thos lines are called "Snubbing LInes" and are used to prevent the contact between the stem or in the case of Kogo the Bulbous Bow which is just visible in that picture. The Chain rubbing over either the stem or bulb as the boat swings/sails around will cause damage to the paint/filler/both and cause noise.

thanks for your reaction k1w1.

As supplement to K1W1's comments:

Today, "properly-built" superyachts have well-designed and probably over-engineered anchor-handling systems. These tend to be very sturdy windlasses, often derived from those installed on merchant ships (but with a suitable "yacht finish"), combined with very heavy-duty "chain stopper" systems. On many earlier superyachts, the chain literally came out of the hawse-pipe directly onto the windlass with negligible angle-change or distance, which subjected the windlass to the full forces when the yacht was at anchor in sometimes extreme sea-conditions. Any "chain-stopper" was an after-thought. In the early '90s, I was called aboard an 80ft Dutch motor-sailer after they had problems, having been on an understandably short-scope in the crowded bay of Cannes one summer's day when there was a heavy swell running. The windlass casing had shattered, separating at the 4 feet through which solid bolts secured the windlass through the deckhead. All that had kept the windlass from going overboard were the (extremely-solid Dutch-built) foredeck railings...the windlass was an Italian-built Lofrans btw.

The "whole point" about putting a "snubbing line" on the anchor chain was (and still is IMHO) is not subjecting the windlass itself to the full stresses of a vessel whilst it's at anchor. Generally speaking, they're not designed for this. They're engineered to pick up a certain weight of anchor and chain. That's why, in all except the most benign conditions, a skipper would "motor upto the hook" whilst raising the anchor. In the very olden days, snubbing would have involved taking the chain off the windlass and securing it around a suitably strong bollard. These days, a properly-designed "chain-stopper" system avoids this. Otherwise, you're left with the only suitable alternative: using a synthetic mooring line made secure around a strong bollard or mooring bitts and attached to the chain with the proper hook.

My 2 cents worth...