TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Grabbing a mooring ball

Hi everyone - my wife and I decided to do a whole day private sail with our old sailing school to freshen up our skills before we head back down to the BVIs in a few weeks. We practiced loads of stuff and learned a new trick I thought was worth sharing.

Quick temporary MB secure: head up slow as per usual, have one end of line cleated off on port side of bow, with line running outside the headstay and the hook to the other side, where someone is waiting with plenty of line. As boatr comes to a standstill with starboard side of bow v close to the ball, toss the belly of the line out and around the ball, then pull it in tight and cleat it off around the starboad bow cleat. Then with a decent temp secure you have pleny of time to use the hook to set up a bridle through the eye with zero sense of rush. It may not be new at all (but was to me). I was skeptical at first that we could get blown off the ball, but after several successful tries in decent winds (down at the chesapeake) we think this is a nice reduced-stress solution.

Interested to hear feedback from the seasoned veterans with loads more experience.

This works fine...each boat will be a little different and its sort of rare to have so much wind that its a huge issue...approach to the ball into the wind and stopping at it, is the most important step.

The key thing is not to grab the loop in the painter with the hook on the boat hook. Grab behind the loop.

If you grab the loop and tension comes onto the mooring line you will not be able to release the hook from the loop and it will 1) pull the boat hook into the water, or 2) pull the boat hook user into the water.

We have done this. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" />

Yep - seen both of those things happen. But, it is not near as dramatic as when some one tries to fill the wash bucket off the back of the boat while the boat is moving forward. "Heh, are we missing somebody?"

People that do stuff like that are the reason Clorox now has to put "not for human consumption" on their labels! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Or the tags on hair dryers that say "not for use in water" <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" />

If you are wondering how NOT to pick up a mooring ball, we have this old standby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxg30c6z00E

I have not heard this idea before, and I like it. Our hit rate at grabbing moorings has been pretty high, but this sounds like a good addition to the old bag of tricks. Thanks for sharing!

Dan <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />