Picking Up A Mooring

Picking up a mooring is the easiest method to secure your boat, far simpler than docking or anchoring. But many boaters never learn this simple technique and are intimidated to try in close-packed mooring fields under the watchful eyes of other boaters. Adding this skill will make weekend jaunts more enjoyable and increase your flexibility when choosing an anchorage.

First, you need to understand what you're seeing as you approach a mooring. In any commercially maintained mooring field, and even on most private moorings, a large, round buoy will be the most visible part of the mooring. (See the box below for more details.)

The bottom of the buoy, under the water, is attached to the mooring anchor by some combination of chain, line, and fasteners. The line meant to secure the mooring to the boat, called the pennant, may be attached to the top of the mooring buoy, to the bottom, or to the chain beneath the mooring buoy. (The pennant should not be attached to the top of the mooring buoy unless the buoy is robust enough to carry the load or unless there is a secure piece of heavy pipe or rod running through the buoy connecting the mooring chain to the pennant. Many mooring buoys are just plastic balls.) Unless the pennant is made using floating line, it will be below the water's surface and invisible as you approach the mooring.

To make that line easier to retrieve, there will usually be a much smaller "pickup buoy" near the larger mooring buoy. This can range from a small, round float to a cylinder with a long antenna-like wand protruding from the top, tall enough to be reached from the bow of the boat. All you have to do is retrieve that mooring pennant and attach it to a strong point on the bow of your boat. To secure your boat to the mooring, follow these steps:

Step 1. Get ready. As you enter the harbor, and while you're trying to identify the mooring you need to pick up, a crew member should take a boat hook and a short (6 to 10 feet) length of line to the bow. The line should be the size and strength of your docklines, large enough to hold the boat but small enough that you can double it on a bow cleat. Secure one end to a bow cleat and run the other end through a fairlead, if your boat has one.

Be sure to plan out your strategy and walk the crew through it beforehand, ensuring everyone knows their role and that "the plan" addresses special circumstances to the extent possible (e.g., opposing winds and current, proximity of other vessels). If you have two crew members who could be on the foredeck, that's even better — one to pick up the mooring pennant with the boat hook and another to take the boat hook (once the pennant is onboard), place it safely out of the way, then assist as needed. Additional crewmembers will likely just be in the way.

Step 2. Get positioned. Once you've identified the mooring you want to pick up, determine which direction the wind is blowing. Approach the mooring from the dead-downwind side, which means your bow is pointing directly into the wind. This will give you the most control as you approach, unless a current stronger than the wind affects your boat more than the wind. In this case, you may have to modify your approach to obtain the most control. Watching the swing of other similar boats can help you.

Do a dry run prior to picking up the mooring ball. This lets you see the type and condition of the mooring ball and pennants and provides insight on how existing winds and current will affect your approach. For example, if the pennant isn't floating in the lee of the mooring ball, you'll likely have current to deal with.

Step 3. Approach the mooring. Head toward the mooring slowly, with just enough throttle to keep the boat moving into the wind or current, if that is predominating. The crewmember on the bow should continually point at the mooring with the boat hook. The movement of the boat hook and its angle will give you a very good idea of how quickly you're approaching. At the same time, the crewmember on the bow should indicate the distance to the mooring in boat lengths, not in feet. It's much easier to estimate one or two boat lengths than it is 30 or 60 feet. On smaller boats, the crew can call out the number; on larger boats, hand signals work better.

Beforehand, establish those hand signals or review existing ones used between helmsman and crew to convey information such as distance and direction of the mooring ball, speed of approach, and so on. Two-way (FRS) radios or wireless headsets are also good options to consider, especially on larger boats.

Step 4. Stop the boat at the mooring. Before the bow comes to the mooring, put the boat in neutral. Unless the wind or current is strong, the boat's momentum will carry it forward a bit farther before the wind starts pushing it back, giving the crewmember on the bow plenty of time to retrieve the pickup buoy. The skill is in stopping the boat right at the mooring buoy. Practice any place you can anchor a fender to the bottom using a rock or dinghy anchor. It is very important to not run over the mooring buoy or line.

Step 5. Retrieve the pickup buoy. If the buoy has a long "antenna" on it, one that the crewmember can reach from the bow, perfect. He or she should just grab that and pull it aboard. It will be attached to the pennant, which usually will have a loop in it that can be secured to your bow cleat. If the buoy doesn't have an antenna, or if the bow is too high to reach the antenna, use the boat hook to grab the line attached to the pickup buoy. Better yet, if you can see the line attached to it, hook that anywhere along its length, and the boat hook will slide to the pickup buoy and stop. If you miss, no worries. Just let the wind or current back you away so you don't foul your prop in any submerged line, do a big slow circle, round up, and try the maneuver again.

If the mooring buoy has no pennant or antenna, you'll likely have to use the ring or eye atop the buoy, in which case it may be easier to pick up the mooring ball using your dinghy or from the cockpit. For a cockpit pickup, first cleat a long line at the bow, then take the free end of it back to the cockpit, being sure to route the line outside of everything (bow railings, stanchions, shrouds). Approach the buoy slowly from downwind and go past until it is beside the cockpit, then place the engine into neutral.

Reach over and bring the buoy close to the cockpit (you may need to snag it with a boat hook) and pass the line through the ring. Once the line is through the ring, walk forward as the boat drops back (taking up slack in the free end of the line as you go forward) then quickly cleat off the free end at the bow. Another option includes using a boat hook-like product, such as the "Happy Hooker", which allows you to pass a line through the eye via a toggling link.

6. Secure the boat. As the pickup buoy is pulled aboard, the crewmember will be able to see the size and the condition of the line attached to it. Most mooring pennants have a loop (called an "eye") spliced into the end for putting over a cleat on the boat. But mooring lines are often oversize and may be too big to fit on the cleats of smaller boats. They can also be covered with mud, seaweed, or slime that you'd rather not get all over the boat.

So, upon seeing the end of the mooring pennant, your crewmember can quickly decide if it will fit through your fairlead, in which case he/she can just do so and then secure it over the cleat. Or if it's too big, dirty, or fouled with barnacles, take that extra line that was secured to the bow cleat, run it through the eye of the mooring pennant, and take that line back through the fairlead and to the opposite cleat. That way, you secure the boat without covering the bow in green goo. You are ultimately responsible for your vessel. So it's always a good idea to inspect the pennants and hardware of the mooring buoy you're using to the extent possible. Every mooring buoy should have dual pennants, one primary and one back-up or safety pennant. If the one you're using doesn't, install a temporary one after mooring.

Mooring balls typically have a galvanized rod that transits the ball with eyes at each end — the bottom eyelet attaches to the ground tackle rode, while the top one is normally used as an attachment point for the pennants. This rod can suffer from corrosion (often out of sight inside the ball) and eventually break, so some boaters attach a back-up pennant to the lower eye as an extra precaution.

Public moorings are normally professionally maintained, although that's not always the case with those owned by clubs or private individuals. Mooring balls are often considered to be more secure and less hassle than anchoring, however they can and do fail if routine maintenance is lacking. For this reason (and to avoid interaction with an angry owner who returns to find his ball occupied), avoid picking up private mooring balls or those that appear poorly maintained.