Macgregors and Moorings

[robbocopa]

Hi,
Ive just put my X on a mooring for a few months. Ballest water in or out ?
Thanks in advance for anyones advice cheers Rob

[sunshinecoasting]

Hi Robbo,

I personally would never put mine on a mooring, too much can go wrong and considering its a trailer boat the logic doesn't stack up for me to take the risk, however I appreciate we are all individuals with our own ideas so more power to you. As for water in or out, good question, it will be more stable water in but heavier, water out you have 700 litres more buoyancy, like a life jacket for a boat really. For me the bigger questions are;

How is the marine growth in your area? It MUST have anti foul paint to even consider this. I left mine in the marina for 4 weeks in January here and had to spend 2 hours under the trailer scraping off barnacles, a disgusting job I might add. Luckily I do have ablative anti foul so no harm done.

Make sure you have good clearance between your mooring line and your rub rails, use a snubber.

Full sun exposure, be prepared to polish the heck out of it when you take it out of the water.

If you have a furler make sure you have covers on, if you leave the boom on then cover the main as well.

No, hang on, changed my mind on this advice, just don't do it.

[robbocopa]

thanks for the advice
what do you reckon about ballest water in or out ?
cheers robo

[NiceAft]

I understand Sunshine's thinking on ballasting or not to ballast, but I always ballasted when on a mooring ball.

Depending on your ecological thinking, you may wish to put a little bleach in the ballast also. That may be a touchy subject.

Ray

[cestlavie]

I've looked at this myself and couldn't honestly say if it had a positive impact to the bobbing and rolling we experienced on a mooring on a busy trafficable section that gets wash from the clowns who ignore speed limits. Some huge cruisers in and out past us really belted her around on the buffers within the morning lines, stringers scope etc. I also tried puttkng the dagger board and a rudder down but same as above, I just couldn't believe the 3" of growth (which I'm still yet to remove the final thin layer of calcification\shells) after only 2 weeks. Live aboard residents also complained the dagger board was banging in middle of night when down but I suspect that come from them overhearing me tell the crew we we're doing it and to remind to pull it up before motoring high speed) as I've never heard it make noise unless it was really rough,.

[Excatman]

Hi mate,

I don't think it would matter either way.
Only difference would be that with ballast in, it would sit lower in the water and possible growth would be a couple inches higher on the hull.
Unless it's antifouled, in which case, no problem
Other than that I cant see that it would make any difference.
Cheers
Glen

[The Mutt]

We left 'Imagine' on a dock at Wyee Point Marina Lake Macquarrie for 6 months (ballast in) I was more concerned with keeping the outboard motors out of the water, when we got her home it took 2 weekends to clean the marine life from the hull, the anti-fowled was getting near the end of it's usable life, what got me was the amount of growth on the swing keel and the keels case, neither had been anti-fowled, the empty ballast tank was surprisingly clean with a really bad smell, when we go home I filled the ballast with water and bleach and left it overnight then flushed the ballast out.

Wyee Point Marina is opposite Vales Point Power Station cooling tower outflow making the water a lot hotter that the rest of Lake Macquarrie, the marina owners told us it some of the problems some owners were having from marine growth.

We don't think we will be leaving 'Imagine' on a dock again for a long time so the anti-flowling is about to be removed instead of replaced.

Fair Winds
Glenn

[NiceAft]

I don’t know if this product is available in OZ, but when I kept Nice Aft in a slip, the green growth on her bottom at the end of season was horrific. I heard of Slimy Grimy. https://slimygrimy.com I used it, and I was amazed at the results. I used a gallon sprayer with hot water. Most of the growth melts away. The rest comes off with a slight rubbing with a sponge mop.

Ray