Mooring Chain Alternatives, Nylon, Poly, Steel Cable?

[MelniK]

I am very curious to find out what alternatives to old school chain mooring do fellow boaters encounter or personally use.
Are there viable options to putting a boat on a mooring that is safe and reasonably priced in comparison to US made steel chain?

I am personally interested in trying out galvanized steel cable for mooring, has any one had any experience with such setup?

[skipmac]

Cable is stiff and non flexible so would be a bad choice I think. Chain works well so why reinvent the wheel. For a 22' boat unless you're in a really deep harbor should be more than $50-$100 worth of chain.

Rope of any kind tends to very quickly fill with seaweed, slime and barnacles so also not a good choice.

[Benz]

Chain can handle a lot of twist without damage--it just gets kinked up and has to be un-kinked. Gavi cable will not endure twist, and unless you're in an ideal spot, no amount of swivels will prevent twist.
Rope will quickly become impossible to inspect with all the growth, and who knows what damage those barnacle feet are doing as they anchor themselves in?
I agree with skipmac that there's nothing better here than chain.

[tamicatana]

This is a diagram of the moorings at City Marina, Marathon FL

This area is the highest fouling I have experienced from TX through the Bahamas. These moorings are cleaned and inspected 2x/year. Only three outright failed in IRMA; all 220 were occupied at the event.

You can sleeve the lines if you like to keep the fouling off; some in BKH are sleeved, but they don’t bother a lot with it

They also use textile moorings along the reefs in the managed zones.

PS: I think the down line is the same as the pennant.

[GordMay]

A couple of excellent resources:

Mooring Buoy Planning Guide
➥ https://www.coris.noaa.gov/activitie...ing_buoy_g.pdf

Overview of Eco-designed Mooring
➥ https://www.icriforum.org/wp-content...ng-light_0.pdf