Lost Our Boat Due To A Bad Mooring Swivel...

[Paul L]

Backing down as if you were hard setting the anchor is a good thing to do. It might not have made any difference in this case.

Sounds like you and the family have a good perspective on life.

[travellerw]

I don't think we ever got to meet, but you cruised with lots of our friends (Trismic, Peirina, Flip Flops). Everyone thinks the world of you guys. I'm so sorry this happened to you.

I really hope you do find another boat and we get a chance to meet you.

[NYSail]

I have a back up pendant that I attach to every mooring I use be it for one night or 2 weeks.. I attach directly to the main chain...... takes about 5 minutes. highly recommend. Sorry to hear.

Greg

[Methersgate]

Thank you for posting this sad story. I hope you soon get going again.

[DEAN2140]

Backing down on a mooring is an excellent idea, even if not foolproof. One evening I tied up to a mooring without realizing it was designed for a light fishing sciff. We woke up some distance away (fortunately not on the beach) with some very unhappy local fisherman. With much embarrassment and apologies, we compensated them for their trouble. A lesson we learned on the cheap.

[SV Bacchus]

I must be a slow learner, I never would have thought of backing down on a mooring. What a great idea and will be on our 'mooring list" from this point forward.

[Lihuedooley77]

Wow ! And we thought we were pretty safe using double bridles to the mooring pendant.

I like the idea of a personal back up pendant and hardware to the chain. my tiny pea brain never thought of that although we do carry a good sized length of line with a snap shackle for a back up reefing line, or what ever .

We could probably use that with a double sheet bend to a dock line and double cleat it to the bow cleats. Thanks for the idea.

We also snorkel our mooring and the actual depth under the keel, but a hardware failure.....

our hearts go out to you, and after all of the situation with your boat is resolved, and the determination is there, may you continue to live your dream.

The positive aspect is that you and your family had 40,000 miles of the cruising life, and that is a heck of a lot more than most boaters .

Hang in there.

[Nicholson58]

Yes, check moorings. We all know that swivel. I won’t have one on our boat. Surprising that there was one as part of the mooring. Moorings are typically very uncomplicated and plain. I have never seen one with a swivel.

So sorry for your loss.

[Benz]

This is why I'm terrified of swivels. My own mooring had a chinese swivel among all the US made tackle. A spring inspection showed the swivel badly rusted and worn, while all else (including a second Crosby swivel) was in perfect order. Needless to say, two days later there was a new Crosby swivel where the chinese one had been.
I wonder if the people who rent the moorings have any liability if the mooring fails? It seems like if you're renting something you have a responsibility to maintain it.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by NYSail

I have a back up pendant that I attach to every mooring I use be it for one night or 2 weeks.. I attach directly to the main chain...... takes about 5 minutes. highly recommend. Sorry to hear.

Greg

That's a good tactic, but it still leaves me preferring an anchor as the pendant is only as big enough as the mooring hardware will allow.


A 30 kg. SPADE and 3/8" G40 chain just seems more reliable and, in my case, swivel-free.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by DEAN2140

Backing down on a mooring is an excellent idea, even if not foolproof. One evening I tied up to a mooring without realizing it was designed for a light fishing sciff. We woke up some distance away (fortunately not on the beach) with some very unhappy local fisherman. With much embarrassment and apologies, we compensated them for their trouble. A lesson we learned on the cheap.

I have found (in retrospect) that lessons are cheap in proportion to the alternative of not learning at all!

[MJH]

I take it that was not your mooring...so you don't know how long that swivel had been in the water. I have used a 1/2" galvanized eye & eye swivel on my Northwest mooring over the last 23 years and never had a problem BUT I REPLACE IT EVERY THREE YEARS along with other galvanized shackles and parts.

My condolences on your loss.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[txg]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

That's a good tactic, but it still leaves me preferring an anchor as the pendant is only as big enough as the mooring hardware will allow.

We do use Dyneema for a back-up safety line for our anchor chain in case the snubber (hook, line or cleat) would fail. It's a big loop made of 6mm Dyneema with a breaking strength of 3 tons. We form an eye out of it, put it through our 10mm chain, pull the rest of the loop through the eye and then put it on a cleat. As it is doubled it has a breaking strength of about 6 tons, that should be more than sufficient and is more than most 10mm chains.



Could be done the same way for moorings, just use a longer loop.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by Lihuedooley77

.....
The positive aspect is that you and your family had 40,000 miles of the cruising life, and that is a heck of a lot more than most boaters .

Hang in there.

We feel very fortunate to have had that time.
Our situation was also put into perspective when talking to the people who were assisting us in St.Croix. Almost everyone there had been adversely affected by the hurricanes last year, loosing homes, roofs, cars, boats, jobs... They were still struggling to recover. We were able to clean up our mess pay our bills and fly back to our life in Canada.

[sailorboy1]

Before everyone condemns moorings over anchoring; I’ve hear and read quite a few stories where you those on anchor ended up on the rocks and those on moorings didn’t.