Mooring a dinghy

[Joe Morrison]

I've been trying to remember the name of the continuous line system that is often used to moor small boats & tenders. It's the system that allows the boat to be moored in deeper water but pulled back closer to shore when it's needed. Can anyone assist?

I seem to recall that WoodenBoat published an article on the subject a few years ago.

[Ian McColgin]

The system I use for my dory. The beach at Hyannisport is a gentle sand slope and where the dory is can get very rough in a southeaster. The dory is a bit much to haul up on the beach.

Anchor in the water and ashore is a bit of concrete with a pipe in it buried in the sand above high water - a hitching post.

A bit of chain for the anchor and a nice fender or bouy to keep it out of the mud.

The line goes through the shackle that attaches bouy to chain and around to shore and back. I join the line with a sheet bend with the plain bight end whipped in place and the other end long enough to serve as the dory mooring pendant. That end has a small float.

I alway cast a clove hitch around the pipe in the same way so that I can pull in using the part of line at my right hand when facing the sea.

Sometimes wave action will cause the lines to cross but they always untangle with a snap. Some times the grass/weed really packs in and I have to lift,snap and untangle before hauling the boat in.

I bring the boat in enough that I can get aboard the stern if the wind is strongly onshore and the waves are at all high. This is when it's very nice to be able to hold the bow out with the mooring line.

I leave the mooring line just around, not tied to, the pipe. Once aboard, I can take the part that comes to my left hand when facing the sea and haul my way out to the bouy. I set up for rowing and cast off from there.

This way, no matter what the tide, I can return to my bouy, moor the dory, and haul myself in.

Safe. Easy - once you get your kinks worked out. Been doing it in all weather for 12 years now.

I have a bit of plastic tubing fitted over the mooring line that goes out about 8' from the knot. As I'm hauling the dory out I can feel when the plastic bumps into the shackle. I pull the dory tightly so the knot at the shackle, thus ensuring that even if the dory circles the bouy with the tides and such, it's unlikely to be such a schmezzole that I can't just pull it free. There has been just one time I had to swim out.

G'luck

[Bruce Hooke]

Seems to me that we always called it an "outhaul". A lot of the time it could also have been called, quite accurately, an excess floating seaweed harvesting system!

[paladin]

itza VIKING moor......in case ya gotta get away fast......

[Gary E]

WHat happens when a boat runs between the little dink and the shoreline?..
Dose the line get's cut or is it resting on the bottom?

G

[Ian McColgin]

Mine rests on the bottom in all but the strongest blows. Haven't had a power boat go in their yet, but there are other obstructions that make it unlikely that one would.

[rbgarr]

Gary-

Some people use floating polypropylene line for this type of mooring (haul-off is the name I learned for it). That can sometimes help it be more visible especially if the line is yellow. It does catch more stray weed that way, though.

[Joe Morrison]

I'm sure that the article that I once read had a French name for it. Maybe like the Vikings they needed a quick getaway too...

Thanks for the replies. At least you know what I'm talking about.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

Aileen Louisa's outhaul is set up as a (long-spliced) endless loop between the shore post and the "anchor" -- a buried pipe cross. On each fixture there is a rubber roller fitted, round which the bridle passes.

Two short "risers" (pennants) with stainless snap-shackles are spliced into one leg of the bridle, slightly further apart than AL's length. Each pennant is buoyed with a large fishing-line float.

When mooring, the pennants are fastened to bow and stern fittings, the boat is run ashore till I can get out dry-footed, and then she's hauled back to the anchor.

The outhaul doesn't float, so it stays down near the bottom out of the way, and the two pennants mean that AL stays aligned with the outhaul, facing the shore. (And if I wanted to, I could then padlock the outhaul to the shore-post so AL couldn't be brought ashore without some major surgery to the lines.)

[Ian McColgin]

Were I in an area where there was no chance of an on-shore breeze and attendent waves I might or might not continue with the float at the anchor end. Even without wind and wave, the float has the advantage of keeping the line out of the mud at the point where it goes around something.

I don't bother with a block as there is little enough friction and wear on the line where it's used - in fact that side has the seaweed scraped off twice daily - and the chafe guard protects the line at the terminus.

The float is absolutly lovely in high wind and waves. I can ease the boat in, hold her bow off while loading, and pull out to a nice depth to row away. And I can catch the mooring coming to shore and set myself in with comfort, little splashing, and no broaching.

Another approach, if you can afford the bother and get permits, is to have a piling off shore and maybe a bit of one on shore so's the line can be overhead. Eliminates chafe, weed and tangles. This is more common where you have the dinks coming in to a dock.

[paladin]

at the dock or shore end all you need izz a round hole in something...in the dock or in the ground (drill a hole in a large rock) or similar. The shore line is then spliced onto an eye bolt, the bolt is then dropped into the hole........horizontal pull will keep the boat anchored...then if you gots to get away fast a quick snap of the line will cause the eyebolt to jump outta the hole freeing the boat and you still have your anchor line for the next invasion.

[Mike Field]

.
And speaking of dinghy moorings, how's this for a snug one? It's on Barra, in the Hebrides.
.

.

[Joe Morrison]

Looks more like a cat's cradle than a mooring. Too bad if anyone else wants to use the beach....

[Joe Morrison]

Finally found it. It's a frape. At least that's what they call it in Devon, UK. After trolling through a hundred or so magazines I found the original article in Practical Boat Owner, March 1999. Frape may be a made up word rather than French as originally suspected. In the diagram, the author shows his dinghy tethered fore and aft. I think I'd prefer to let it swing from the bow and face the wind.

[Donn]

[Donn]

Apparently it's a Newfie word:

frape: a rope with blocks to moor a boat

link

[Phil Young]

I always called it a running mooring

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

Half a century ago, Eric Hiscock was calling it an outhaul --

". . . at the home port, if there is space, it may be preferable to use an outhaul. This may consist of a post driven into the ground a little beyond low-water mark; a block through which a rope is rove is secured to the top of the post, the ends of the rope being knotted together and made fast ashore. To use the outhaul, the painter is secured to the rope near the knot with a rolling hitch and the dinghy is hauled out beyond low-water mark.... This kind of outhaul has the advantage that the block cannot get foul with weed, and anyone else who may use it may see at a glance to which part of the rope his painter should be secured. But if the outhaul is rigged where theree is much traffic, it is better to use an anchor instead of a post so as to offer no obstruction. The block should be attached to the anchor by means of a piece of chain of such a length that the block can be lifted occasionally to clear it of weed without disturbing the anchor. If the painter is hitched direct to the rope it will become dirty; a short rope with a buoy can be used instead.... the dinghy being made fast to the buoy. The two parts of an outhaul rope should not be spliced together for they will have to be separated occasionally to remove kinks. [Not in my experience, but EH probably used his mooring more than I do mine.] By using the dinghy's own anchor a temporary outhaul can be rigged in any place in a few minutes.

-- from "Cruising Under Sail"

Mike.

[ 01-30-2004, 07:07 AM: Message edited by: Wooden Boat Fittings ]

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I'm planning to make one in the next couple of months; thanks for the Hiscock reference.

[huisjen]

My in-laws call it an Offhaul, rather than an outhaul. Local usages may vary....

Dan