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I keep my M on a mooring buoy just off shore from a friends place. I have been having a difficult time trying to hook the buoy and get a rope around the mooring chain. Once hooked it is really hard to hang on to the telescoping boat hook as there is a lot of weight to contend with - especially in windy conditions which we get quite often at that site. I just about get pulled off sometimes and today I couldn't hang on and lost the boat hook. Had to utilize the tender to try and get moored. Not mention the M is really high off the water and adds to the difficulty. Crossed my mind if it might be a good idea to dump the ballast before coming in. Was wondering if other folks moor on buoys like this and have any suggestions re hooking, attaching ( I use the good ole bowline with thick rope) or any other advice on this topic.
Thx,
RE

Put a tag lIne on the mooring line and buoy. Make it 20 feet long. Place a smaller buoy on the end of that. When you come back, grab the lighter line with the hook and use it to pull the boat up. The tag line should be at least 3/8 nylon. Once you have the tag line, cleat it off, put the hook away, relax, catch your breath, no hurry now the boats parked.
I use the dinghy and it's bow line for this.

Ixneigh

Also it is a lot easier to pick up mooring lines from the stern on our high windage, light boats......

Something like this. Grab the taller buoy with the flag and pull it onboard.

Catigale wrote:Also it is a lot easier to pick up mooring lines from the stern on our high windage, light boats......

Concur--much easier to hook a mooring ball from the cockpit and can be done single-handed. Also, if your boat hook is telescoping on you and you have a hard time locking it, consider getting an 8' fixed additional pole. Always good to have a spare.

RussMT wrote:Something like this. Grab the taller buoy with the flag and pull it onboard.

Often the pendant line is hanging directly from the anchor buoy and there is no 'flagged' buoy. You need to simply grab the line with a boat hook and hook up. Agree with others, on our boats it's easier from aft.

Just to clarify this aft pickup, once you have the pendant line off the buoy on board from the cockpit, do you just walk it to the bow and cleat off in the normal way? If you are mooring in a strong river current, as I do, surely it is quite a struggle to hold the boat whilst walking the line forward and around the shrouds, or are you talking about a long line, already made fast at the bow and taken back around the shrouds which is then tied onto the buoy from the stern and then shortened from the bow when already fixed?

Paul.

Thanks for the ideas! I will try the tag line first I think. I've tried to grad the buoy from the cockpit before and that didn't work out for me. I think the main thing is to get a line secured before the big pull comes and with a tag line, that makes it more possible. Yeah, the light gauge telescoping boat hook is really not meant to handle the 100's of lbs pull that the boat exerts when the wind gets a hold of it!