When moored using mooring pins, people speeding past too quickly do more than just spill your wine by causing the boat to rock - they are also capable of tearing your mooring pins from the ground, which was exactly what had happened to Muddy Waters yeterday. I returned home from work to discover my boat floating around by the bank, with both mooring ropes hanging down into the water. Two of my mooring pins were missing, but retrieved after a few minutes "fishing" with my sea-searcher magnet. Those things are worth every penny.
Once the boat was safely moored, I took advantage of the relatively nice evening and decided that a spot of magnet fishing was in order. An hour later, I had retrieved a rather impressive haul from the bottom of the canal: 4 mooring pins, 1.5 lump hammers, a fishing rod rest, and what I *think* was once the arm of someone's tiller!
3 comments:
You can shout till your throat is sore you will never get the buggers to slow down. Two tips. Get some good heavy duty moorings pins, not the silly little knitting needles they call mooring pins in Chandlery shops. I saw one that had come off a lock gate it was the one that ran top to bottom, which was chopped up. Also the other thing you can do is spring the boat, both ends. This reduces movement and so you are less likely to pull your pins out.
I don't even bother shouting, but boats have been flying past at break-neck speed for the last week or so. My mooring pins have been ripped out a few times, but I've discovered that 3 in each end seems to be keeping her in place nicely now.
The tiller-bar that I found on the magnet also seems to make quite a decent mooring pin ;)
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