Mooring 26x on permant basis

[johnnymagic]

Im thinking of mooring my 26x about 6 months a year on a swing mooring in large bay area [SYDNEY AUST} Id be grateful for any tips re growth control in skeg board chamber etc and would front bollard be strong enough to secure boat during summer storms .PS did I read correctly that a couple of 26x had tipped with the loss of life in the US .

REGS ALL ---------JOHNNY

[Catigale]

Johnny - I think there are a fair number of people who moor Macs on this board and can respond.

Regarding loss of life, I know of only one case which happened on Lake Champlain, which was a heavily overloaded (10 people), unballasted boat, with a captain heavily under the influence of alcohol, under motor power. It was the first time he had used the boat (borrowed it from a family member)

Playing Russian roulette with a revolver with 5 chambers loaded may have been safer than this combination.

[Morimaro]

Johnny
For two seasons (approx 6 mths each) I used to moor my 26X on a mooring buoy in the Solent (Southampton UK) which is very tidal 3-5kts and open to heavy traffic (Heavy Shipping, lots of big motor cruisers at full speed etc lots of wave motion) as well as heavy weather.
I used two mooring rope strops between the forward cleats and through the buoy chain, each strop also went through a flexible plastic piping for additional protection.
The main challenge is the Mac's tendency to charge around like a mad thing under all these influences but there was no problem with security of mooring.
I also left the boat with rudders, centreboard and engine all raised to reduce fouling and banging of the rudders and CB against their mountings.
Before me there was another 26X on the mooring for three years no problem, though he as an extra belt & braces ran another mooring line from the buoy around the base of the mast.

[Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL]

Regarding loss of life, I know of only one case which happened on Lake Champlain, which was a heavily overloaded (10 people), unballasted boat,

Was it ever determined, for certain, that the boat was "unballasted"?
When I first heard of it, my guess was that the ballast tank was partially filled, and when someone moved to one side, the water ballast went to that side, causing it to tip.
In my opinion, a partially filled ballast tank is more dangerous, potentially, than an unballasted boat, regardless of the number of people aboard.

[Lease]

Oh dear - that makes me irresponsible.

We had nine fully grown men on MacMac last week and every one of them had been drinking!

We did have the ballast in, er, and we were securely tied in a slip at the time.

[Craig LaForce]

The 2 incidents I know of involving loss of life were
Lake champlain - small kids were trapped below and drowned when the boat fully capsized. Boat was overloaded and passengers were on top of the foredeck lighting bottle rockets at 4th of July, at night, with inecperienced captain. Alcohol may have been involved.


the other one was an elderly gentleman on Lake Erie I think it was. THe boat heeled (perhaps suddenly) and he simply fell overboard somehow and drowned. His wife or something may have been aboard at the time.

Both happened around the same year maybe 5 or 6 years ago.

The Boweye, which I assume you mean by bollard is too weak in my opinion for mooring attachment. I think at least 2 have broken off so far, when used as mooring attachment. I suppose you could try and install a stronger one. The trouble is the boat is always shearing back and forth, and the bending stresses would be excessive on that skinny bow eye.

[Catigale]

For the record the "Captain" of the boat on the Lake Champlain incident was convicted of Boating while intoxicated and is in jail

Story here

I cant find the link to his conviction (in the Burlington Free Press I believe) for completeness, but am positive I recall this outcome correctly

[Carl Noble]

It appears that he is serving his sentence in a medium security prison in Kentucky. It doesn't state how long his sentence is.

http://www.doc.state.vt.us/offender/pub ... ion=Search

[Catigale]

I dont think you can prove the boat was or was not ballasted at the time of the incident, but I believe the defense asserted it was not ballasted and that the stickers so advising to do this on the boat were missing.

10 people on board with many on top would make the boat unstable even if ballasted, so I dont see a huge point to be made either way

This was a clear case of operator error past the point of negligence, with additional culpability to the guy who loaned the boat to someone to take out 10 people for the first time, that last part my opinion.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

I remember when we discussed this incident some years back, we also speculated that the CB may have been down. This was because the boat apparently tipped right after the skipper applied full power. This of course was never proven, but a bunch of people partying on 4th of July could very well have uncleated the CB. Obviously, the real kicker is the number of people up on deck. I think if you have 10 people on a Mac and half are in the cockpit and half are down below, then it is pretty stable, but the Mac has a very high deck in proportion to the boat so once several people go up top, it wouldnt take much to tip it.

Another theory is that the helm was over when he gunned it. Applying full power in a turn could also have provided the necessary rolling moment to push an unstable boat over.

[Chip Hindes]

Another theory is that the helm was over when he gunned it. Applying full power in a turn could also have provided the necessary rolling moment to push an unstable boat over.

I followed this whole story to its conclusion pretty closely because I happened to be on Lake Champlain the week it happened. To the best of my knowledge, there was never any assertion in court about "full power" or "gunning it". The only place such speculation occured was on this website. In fact, I believe there was testimony that stated the whole thing occured as if in slow motion.

[Halcyon]

G'day Johnnymagic,

I'm also from Sydney and also thinking of mooring my 26x on a swing mooring and I'm also curious how reliable those cleats are on the bow. When I overnight on a mooring I usually loop a short rope between the two and through the mooring rope. I don't know if this is recommended or not but so far it has worked for me.

What do you plan to do the other six months when not on a mooring? Do you plan to anti-foul the bottom and if so, what are you planning to use?

I bought my X to learn to sail on and it has been great and this forum is the best !

brian,
Halcyon

[Craig LaForce]

I think I remember the reported story being that the "adults" were on the bow shooting bottle rockets, the munitions started to roll overboard. The heavy load of people on top , combined with possible movement of people or waves provided the slight impetus to let the boat capsize since it was already quite top heavy from the overloaded condition (the weight of people was probably more than the weight of ballast , and they were on the top of the cabin and over she goes.


Poor judgement, exacerbated by alcohol and boating inexperience, and the little kids paid the price. Watching fireworks from the boat is dangerous enough without these extra factors, since the other boaters are generally drunk and all hit those big engines in unison after the fireworks end. It is dark out, plus nobody will notice a flare gun as a distress signal on that evening.

I didn't read the final report though, so maybe other conclusions surfaced later.

[ALX357]

maybe repetitious, but it should be noted that partial ballast does not result in water going to the low side of the boat relative to gravity. It stays as much as it can directly below the center of the boat, and balances level to either side of the boat relative to the horizontal level.
Remember that when heeled over, the low side of the boat itself is now more or less under the center of gravity to the extent of the heeling. Ballast under the boat is not what pulls the boat over. It would be the high-riding deck and cabin "ballast" of humanity and load, now mostly past the vertical centerline of gravity and leveraging the boat over, on the low side of the center of gravity, forcing the boat over relative to the lack of ballast above water line on the high side.

[Ron]

I have my boat on a mooring for the second season now. The mooring pendant is attached to the bow cleat and the boat has been moored through some storms with no problems. The Mac swings more than other boats nearby, due to the high freeboard and shallow draft. I always debate whether I should keep the centerboard down or up. If it is down it reduces the swinging on the mooring (although not that much). However, when it is down then you are placing stress on the centerboard which bangs back and forth a little bit. So, I'm not sure which is better and have done both.

The water temperature here (Miami, FL) is warm and growth is a problem even with the bottom paint recommended for my location. I now have somebody on a monthly basis dive under the boat and scrape the bottom. This is common practice here. This has kept the bottom very clean of barnacles and other growth.