Message 4 of 5
Posted by member Graham Clay on Saturday 18 March 2023

Would need to be retrofitted, but if you mean anchoring (as opposed to mooring to a buoy) these days you can get powered anchor winches, remote controlled via a Bluetooth gadget rather like your car key fob? So you can raise and lower the anchor from the comfort of the wheelhouse?!

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Message 2 of 5
Posted by member Colin on Thursday 9 February 2023

Probably not what you are looking for but I usually had my trusty ‘deck hand’ (long suffering Wife – snigger!) to go up for’ard to the bow (as we approached the mooring) with a boat hook to latch onto the swinging mooring buoy, then at my leisure, I go forward and attach the mooring chain etc to save her pinkies against the nasty and heavy rusty chain etc!

During pregnancy (hers!), I lost this ability, so had to come up with something else, usually on the boat alone to moor up, I wasn’t happy about approaching the mooring from downwind, then scuttling quickly up for’ard with a boat hook to catch the buoy etc, on a windy day (usually a day with a ‘Y’ in it on the exposed moorings at Keilder!), by the time I had made my way ‘carefully’ forward, the boat will have drifted far enough away from the buoy to require a second or even third attempt necessary, (overshooting the buoy didn’t always work neither) I knew I had to come up with something as there was a real risk of me falling overboard in the attempt to get there in time.

I purchased a high breaking strength polypropylene line onto which each end I fitted a large stainless carabineer clip, this was slightly longer than the length of the boat, one end was attached to the deck cleat and fed through the fairlead and run along the outside of the stainless pulpit stations etc, along the gunwale and back into the cockpit area. (a bit like a long ‘painter’ line)

So approaching the buoy alongside on the port side (port side helm) I simply had to step away from the helm position and reach the buoy with the boat hook and latch onto the buoy, remaining in the cockpit, and with the other end of my ‘mooring line’ attach the clip to the buoy – job done! The boat would then drift away from the buoy and I was able – at my leisure, to make my way for’ard, pull the line in and do the business with the mooring chain etc! ( the line was only in use for as long as it took and had the added bonus of being slightly elastic!)

Worked every time for me, even in the windiest conditions! Of course, the swinging moorings were far enough apart to allow our 20 foot boat to drift fully without any risk of encountering the next mooring buoy etc! All cost ‘pennies’ but was worth it’s weight in gold when having to moor up alone! Of course we had small buoys (floats) attached to the mooring warp and chain to make catching with the boat hook easier!

Well, it all worked well for me but I am not advocating anyone else do this as individual circumstances may differ!
(Just had a thought – in all the years and sometimes extreme weather conditions – I never, ever, managed to fall off the boat!!!)
Good luck with your problem solution!

Col.

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