sailing alone

[JOHN FERRIN]

best way to approch and tie up to your mooring when sailing alone

[kmacdonald]

Slowly. It's easy if it's not too windy. In strong beam winds, it's near impossible.

[CharlzO]

I would say, if you had to, pick it up off the stern from the cockpit, and then walk your lines back up to the bow to tie off? Never had to do it myself, so can't really say, but I would guess it might work?

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by kmacdonald

Slowly. It's easy if it's not too windy. In strong beam winds, it's near impossible.

If possible, approach from downwind like the start of a race where you can maneuver the boat with the sails.......and rudder

[tkeithlu]

I've done it; it's not fun. The best way on our boat is the same as the best way with two of us doing it with no one on the dock: Get a short midship line around a piling, and then adjust the bow and stern as needed. Actually, the most frequent failure is someone grabbing the bow line and giving it an almighty pull toward the dock before we have the midship line on. With a very round bow, that just pivots the stern away from the dock. I used our horn on one helpful person in that situation. We keep a midship line that is lighter than our 3/4" mooring lines rigged with a section of sewer hose holding open a spliced loop, so it's easy to drop the line over a piling and then pull in and cleat the slack.

[Mainebristol]

I do this all the time. Did it today. First, you have to know your boat. In particular, how much way does it carry? Look at the other boats in the mooring field. Are they all pointing the same direction, and is it from current, or from wind?
Once you figure this out, approach your mooring from either down wind or down current, turning it up to the mooring so that the boat runs out of way just at it reaches the mooring. This is easier with the headsail furled. Better a little too much way, rather than too little.
Once you have the boat heading toward the mooring, leave the helm and make your way up to the bow with that extra long boat hook that you have onboard just for the this reason. It's not so hard. Need an extra long boat hook? Order the head of the hook from Woodenboat or whoever, go to the lumber yard and buy a ten foot by 1" plank of your choice. I chose mahogeny (sp?) but whatever. Resaw a 1" square, plane and sand and varnish. Built properly, the hook will float upright, should you drop it.

There really is no great trick to this. Kinda fun, actually.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by tkeithlu

I've done it; it's not fun. The best way on our boat is the same as the best way with two of us doing it with no one on the dock: Get a short midship line around a piling, and then adjust the bow and stern as needed. ...

Guess it's a regional thing. Mooring and docking are two different things to me.

When I see the word mooring, I think of tying off to a permanent anchor connected to a mooring buoy.

[Mainebristol]

Yeah, I thought he was picking up a mooring under sail. Sorry if I misunderstood.

[FSMike]

Originally Posted by CharlzO

I would say, if you had to, pick it up off the stern from the cockpit, and then walk your lines back up to the bow to tie off? Never had to do it myself, so can't really say, but I would guess it might work?

Saw that done once in Miami area, captain of a day charter catamaran, outboard powered, backed up to his mooring, collected the line, walked it to the bow while the wind turned the cat around.
I was impressed. Forgotten it 'til now, may have to try it the next time I pick up a mooring.

[Uncle Bob]

Easy to do, I have a stand up mooring pickup buoy that enables me to go head to wind to the mooring and reach out, grab the line from the top of the buoy and pull in the pennant. Works well for me.

[tkeithlu]

I apologize. Yes, there is a faction that considers what a boat does to a dock as mooring, but I should have inferred the other possibility. The faction includes people mooring ships. At least we hope it's what a boat does to a dock; one of my high school masters confessed to having approached a dock in a WWII destroyer and sinking a duece and a half truck.

[sck5]

One thing that can help picking up a mooring is putting a big carabiner (BIG - the biggest they make) on the end of one of your lines. That makes it much easier to make the first attachment to the mooring pendant - Once you have that you can take your time and get it sorted out properly since a carabiner is not something to leave in place overnite. Works well for me and another vote for picking up the line aft near the cockpit and walking it forward. You just need to have a long enough line on your bow to reach that far back