Quote:
| Originally Posted by yachtluver SO what happned here with the Amels GU lines in this photo here taken by fellow member Stroepel. The aft line from the Port side is taught but the line a beam on the Starboard side is Very slack and looks to be serving no purpose really?........ http://sports.webshots.com/photo/288...95209377AHlfFe |
That photo is typical of the philosophy that "the more lines you have out, the happier you'll feel..."?! You can't see what's going on with the lines leading out from the bow in the photo, but anyway, let's remind ourselves what a mooring line is supposed to do:
1) Limit forward movements of the yacht (ie. stern lines)
2) Limit astern movements of the yacht (ie. bow lines)
3) Limit sideways movements of the yacht (ie. breastlines)
4) Limit forward, astern or sideways movements of the yacht (ie. spring lines)
When alongside, ideally, you'd have mooring lines to limit movements in
all directions leading out from
both the bow and stern of the yacht. In
yachtluver's photo, that Amels appears to have just 1 spring line (to limit astern movement)
plus 3 breast lines (1 of which is so slack as to not be doing anything at all except to catch fishhooks from nearby fishermen...).
If I were the skipper, I might have preferred:
1) a stern line to limit forward movement from the innermost fairlead (ie. the 3rd or closest fairlead to the centre of the yacht on the port side) leading out to the mooring bollard farthest from the yacht's stern
2) a spring line to limit astern movement from the fairlead on the extreme corner on the port side leading out to the bollard on the quay / pier closest to the yacht's mid-section
3) a breast line to limit sideways movement from the fairlead on the extreme corner on the starboard side leading out to the same bollard as in 1)
In this particular situation, the extremely short breast line leading out from the middle fairlead on the port side may as well be a steel bar welded onto both the yacht and the quay...
By all means, "double-up on lines" if weather or tidal conditions demand, but at least ensure you arrange whatever lines you have out
purposefully...?!
Obviously, a mooring line is just
one part of a
complete mooring system...whose components consist of the mooring bollards / bitts / cleats, fairleads and rollers or whatever on the yacht, the mooring line itself and the bollards / bitts / cleats or rings on the quay etc.
Severe injuries and even fatalities have occurred to passengers / crew or those on the quay due to the
failure of one or more components,
on yachts as well as in commercial shipping...
Before moving on, I'd just like to address another observation / question from
yachtluver Quote:
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Anyhow, my next question.....or more out of curiosity. Seeing numerous pics of yachts berthed at the IYCA....marina in Antibes France with the yellow mooring buoys...I see the larger yachts such as Carinthia VII, Constellation(stargates' sister) and so on tied onto the buoys. Out of curiosity, they usually have to let out alot of rope from the midships rope eyes( dont no the correct term for them) to tie to a buoy that is off to the front. Is this as stable and secure as dropping anchor at the bow?..I dont know if i am getting what i want to ask come out...
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The whole
point of having these buoys at marinas like they do at the IYCA is
so that yachts do not have to drop their anchors...! Actually, the problem is not actually dropping the anchors, it's about
security and
convenience, whilst other yachts "over whom you've dropped your anchors and chains" attempt to leave their berths, possibly dislodging your anchors and then when you yourself wish to leave your berth, and have to call in a diver "to untangle the mess lying on the seabed"...?!
As for which particular fairlead the mooring lines lead out from the yacht to the buoys, well, it's all about
purpose...?!
Back to mooring lines in general, for superyachts...
They're made of polyamide (
nylon is the registered trademark of DuPont) or polyester, are of either double-braided or squareline (8 or 12 strand) construction and are usually spliced with a soft eye at one end. Rarely does one see 3 braided ropes used on yachts over about 25m (80ft).
Let's take a typical 50m (180ft) motoryacht's set of mooring lines:
Ø40mm double-braided or squareline, polyamide, with Ø75cm soft leather-protected eyes,
1) 4 x 20m
2) 2 x 30m
3) 2 x 40m
Depending on the classification society, you might also be required to carry a suitable tow-rope (a humongous coil of rope upto 200m. long and usually floating
polypropylene squareline usually stowed (and forgotten) in the forepeak...which I'd recommend being cut down into say 2 x 100m lengths and used as the bow lines for when you go into somewhere like the IYCA and are allocated a 100m berth (and charged for it)...
Why polyamide (nylon), polyester or polypropylene? Here's some typical comparisons:
(all Ø40mm - just over 1 1/2")
Polyamide double-braided or squareline construction: breaking load: 40,000 daN (40,000kg to you and me); weight: 99kg per 100m; elongation (stretch) about 15-20% at 50% load; "a finished 30m mooring line weighs about 33kg".
Polyester double-braided or squareline construction: breaking load: 32,600 daN (32,600kg to you and me); weight: 121kg per 100m; elongation (stretch) about 10% at 50% load; "a finished 30m mooring line weighs about 40kg" . Granted, polyester has
superior abrasion characteristics compared with polyamide, but is it really worth the additional initial cost for this and the fact that it has a lower breaking load...? I don't really think so all things considered, especially when your average superyacht owner likes to have "good-looking lines", replaced every 3-5 years...
Polypropylene squareline construction: breaking load: 26,500 daN (26,500kg to you and me); weight: 72kg per 100m; elongation (stretch) between 20-30% at 50% load; "a finished 30m mooring line weighs about 24kg". It also floats, compared to polyamide and polyester, which do not...!
So why polyamide?! Its' strength and weight advantages easily outweigh the
wear characteristics of polyester lines. Provided the eyes and other chaffing points are suitably protected, I'd plump for polyamide (nylon) lines all the time. However, polypropylene lines will float, which makes them a lot easier to handle in some situations like when you're trying to get a long line out onto a dead tree (?!) in a secluded anchorage without swinging room somewhere in Turkey for example. Or tying up to the buoys at the IYCA...?!
But what do you do if you own a 86m yacht?!
Well, it's worth bearing in mind that unless you have
multiple "California governors as deckies", it becomes impossible to correctly
manually handle anything over Ø44mm mooring lines. A 30m Ø48mm polyamide mooring line weighs about 47kg, a polyester one about 58kg. The lines would probably not go around the mooring bollards / bitts / cleats, fairleads and rollers or whatever on the yacht, let alone the mooring capstans...?! So ensure that your new yacht has
multiple over-engineered mooring bollards / bitts / cleats, fairleads and rollers so that you can satisfactorily double-up smaller lines...!
A short aside: commercial shipping nowadays is increasingly converting from use of steel-wire mooring lines to the use of synthetic alternatives like Spectra, Dyneema etc. which offer far greater breaking resistances for the same diameter. In fact, double-braided synthetic mooring lines are these days the
preferred method when tying up your average 250,000 ton oil-tanker to its' offshore berth.
Another aside: a few ex. sailboat skippers who've moved onto (better-paying with bigger cabins etc.) jobs on motoryachts have brought along a new phenomenon which entails using very small (but extremely strong though not stretchy) Spectra and Dyneema type lines when first tying up, to be replaced by the more traditional (and bigger) polyamide mooring lines afterwards because they're so easy to handle (even by Nicole Kidman-lookalike stewardesses)...?!
Lastly, all the "traditional-looking" ropes one comes across these days (ie. the ones that look like hemp) are more likely to be of polypropylene construction: apparently it's because cultivating the plant that produces the original raw hemp material has inexplicably become illegal...
So you think I appear to be quite knowlegeable on the subject of mooring lines huh? Well, that's because once upon a time (a long time ago and in a far off galaxy), I was on the foredeck of a 40m yacht, had sent out the heaving line and was watching the mooring line being retrieved through the fairlead from the dock, until the end ran out as well...it was a bit short one decided afterwards?!
Chocks and Fairleads 
Linear Mode
