[Sonar] mooring systems

Thu May 4 12:48:45 CDT 2006

http://www.taylormadegroup.com/catfold/pdffiles/pg11_20.pdf

http://www.rolyanbuoys.com/BuoyCatalog03.pdf   - see page 15

http://www.vifishandwildlife.com/Education/TropicNews/Volume15/Vol15i1.p
df  - see page 3

I found 4 different manufacturers that all say the same thing:  The ring
on top of the buoy is only a place to attach the pennant while the boat
is not moored.  The above links have nice drawings that illustrate the
same.   I would hazard a guess that a large number of club members are
not aware of this (based on past observation). 

David Olson

Commercial Engineering

The Toro Company

952.887.8697 (Direct)

david.olson at toro.com

________________________________

From: sonar-bounces at lists.wyc.org [mailto:sonar-bounces at lists.wyc.org]
On Behalf Of Mark Kochendorfer
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 11:32 AM
To: Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com
Cc: sonar-bounces at lists.wyc.org; sonar at lists.wyc.org
Subject: Possible Spam?? Re: [Sonar] Thanks everyone who helped

This is a surprise to me too.  Maybe the club should buy the buoys that
let you carry the block chain up through a tube in the center.

Mark

On 5/4/06, Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com
<Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com> wrote:

I found a reference about the buoy ring....I was surprised.

If you look at the 2005 West Marine catalog,  page 750 it states about
the
ring buoy:

"The pennant from the boat attaches to the mooring chain under the buoy,

never to the top ring"

I interpret from this that not only should the pennant not be hooked to
the top of the buoy,   but also that the pennant should be attached
directly to the anchor chain and not to the buoy ring. 

On our buoy,    the anchor chain was attached to the lower buoy ring,
and
the pennant was also attached to the same ring.   The weak point of the
whole system then was the lower buoy ring.  I think that's what the West

warning is about.    If the West Marine statement is accurate  (and they
seem to be emphatic about it since it is right in the purchase blurb)
then
the pennant and anchor chain should be connected as one contiguous unit 
and the buoy should not be part of the energy transfer function at
all....just attached separately.

It seems subtle,  but all it takes is some adverse repeated movement to
cause chafing,   even of steel,  to cause a failure of the whole system 
over time.

I think its worth asking an expert from the buoy company.

Thomas Brown
"Maximizing Business by Minimizing Surprises"

"Mark Kochendorfer" < markoch at gmail.com <mailto:markoch at gmail.com> >
Sent by: sonar-bounces at lists.wyc.org
05/04/2006 09:51 AM

To
"Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com " <Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com>
cc
sonar at lists.wyc.org
Subject
Re: [Sonar] Thanks everyone who helped 

Glad to help and glad there was no major damage.

I am quite concerned about my boat as well.  I can inspect the visible
parts of the buoy system, but only the club staff can lift the mooring
up 
and verify that it all is sound down to the block.  When I spoke with
Steve Bren it sounded like my buoy at least had been inspected.  I
wonder
how this was missed on yours.  It seems like moorings break or move more

often than they should.  What is the maintenance program?

I had always understood that the top ring should be used to moor the
boats.  The reason for this is that under heavy load the buoy gets
submerged by the load pulling on the top ring down through the block.
This 
acts as another shock absorber and also kind of a reverse sentinel.  If
you moor to the bottom of the float you will not get this effect.

So my recommendation is to always moor to the top ring and run a safety 
line from the top ring down to the chain (or block if you can get
there).
There is less chafe and rot on your mooring line this way too.

Mark
Liberty

On 5/4/06, Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com <
Thomas_M_Brown at bluecrossmn.com
> wrote:
Thanks to everyone who helped get Tally Ho! off of the beach after
breaking from her mooring. 

The lower buoy ring gave way yesterday and the boat drifted to
essentially
the only sandy area in the whole bay.   We were lucky.   Very little and
superficial damage seems to be evident.   The funny thing is, is that I 
had checked the bouy ring the night before and was worried about it and
was on my way to the boat Wednesday with reinforcement when Ernie called
me and said that the boat had come loose.    Wouldn't you know,   it
gives 

way right at the time that we were thinking about it.

Those of you on moorings should really check the lower ring of the bouy
to
see how much it has worn.    Mine was almost paper thin when I checked
it
Tuesday night.    Its also can wear at the shackle to the weight itself
at

the lower end,  but more slowly.   Both should be checked.  Most of
these
shackles are made with hot dipped galvanized low carbon steel which
wears 
pretty quickly when compared to stainless.

The other thing that is important about bouys that I've seen at the club
is that its important to connect the pennant to the bottom ring of the
bouy...never the top.     The top ring is purely for pickup purposes.
Its 
my opinion that some of the increased wear on the lower ring on the bouy
I

was on was caused by the pivot tipping of the bouy caused by the pennant
attached at the top,  which slowly but surely wore away the bottom ring.

At Falmouth Forside (ME) we used a different bouy type that allowed the
chain to go completely through the bouy, had a large D ring at top (for
pickup only)  and had a special collar at both ends  that eliminated
this 
wear on the lower 'ring'.      The pennant was anchor shackled to the
chain underneath the mooring bouy and a pennant was fold over hitched to
give a double pennant which was then attached all the way to the mast 
(both of them).    If the harbor master didn't see that you had this
double pennant,  or if you had a pennant to the top part of the bouy,
you
usually got a little lecture on the trip in from the boat on the tender 
(we had ferry service tender there rather than canoes etc.).     There,
the bouy fields were so large that most of the $$ damage from a loose
boat
was not from the boat itself,   but all the boats that it hit  as it 
drifted out of the bouy field.   They were pretty sensitive to drifting
boats.   Marblehead (Eastern YC) has a really famous story about this
and
Courageous,  the old 12 meter.

I would just hate to see this happen to another boat when it could be 
prevented....and also we were VERY lucky...it wasn't in a bad storm with
a

lot of waves,  our mast didn't get damaged in any low hanging trees,
and
the wind direction was perfect to have the boat drift to the only sandy 
area in the whole bay.

Thomas Brown
"Maximizing Business by Minimizing Surprises"

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