BLUEMOMENT

The moorings promised for Carradale have finally been laid thanks to Lakeside Marine (fish farm). Four moorings have been put in place to the North of the harbour in Portnacoul. Overnight charge of £10 in a yellow honesty box located at foot of Quay Brae as you turn down to the carpark.

Old Troll wrote:The moorings promised for Carradale have finally been laid thanks to Lakeside Marine (fish farm). Four moorings have been put in place to the North of the harbour in Portnacoul. Overnight charge of £10 in a yellow honesty box located at foot of Quay Brae as you turn down to the carpark.

That's great to hear. If weather permits then we would like to visit Campbeltown but I didn't fancy having to commit to get from Lochranza in 1 hop, and not sure if I wanted to try the harbour.

Ash

Hi Ash

Enjoy your sail. The weather is looking good with West winds. Carradale now requires to push on with a wee landing slipway or steps and loos/showers. I find going into the bay at Portnacoul easier for getting ashore. Farther information can be obtained on their website moorings/carradale harbour. Afraid I am land bound this week, however off to Kintyre on holiday tommorrow for the week..

This is an extract from another post of mine

Left Lochranza fairly sharp (for us) on Monday morning, and after tacking out into the Sound, managed to hold a course to Carradale. Got there by early lunchtime, but I'm totally confused by the visitors buoys.
From what I could work out, there are between 4 and 6 moorings, all in a line, and to my eye – fairly close to each other. Each mooring has a ground anchor with a new looking, big, round, red buoy sitting directly above it tied by a lightish line. This line has something under the water – either spare line tied up or maybe a device to adjust the length of line. Also attached to the anchor is a large diameter (maybe 35mm dia) floating line which is about 60 feet long, doesn't have a spliced eye, but has another large, round, red, older looking buoy tied on to it. Most of the moorings had a large portion of this heavy line coiled up and secured by a large cable tie. I cut the cable tie, OX ed the line with difficulty on my big, old fashioned fore cleat then ran the spare back the length of the 27' boat and cleated it on a stern cleat! I wasn't happy with my lack of knowledge of the mooring and I wasn't convinced that the wind wouldn't have backed to the East by morning so decided to press on to Campbeltown. Recoiled the spare mooring line, used a spare line to tie it up, then cast it off.

These are my photos - can anyone shed any light / educate me?









Ash

Apologies all round from myself and Carradale Harbour/Moorings Group. I was informed that the moorings had been laid and ready for use, however this information was not correct. The moorings had been laid as promised by the fish farm sponsers but were not completed and as a result not ready for use at this time. When I visited Carradale and sighted the moorings I could not understand the lay out and on making enquiry was informed that farther work was required to make the moorings fit for purpose. The anchors are needing to be alligned and sunk in and then checked over, tested etc by divers from the fish farm. The extra buoys you see are markers to enable the divers to locate the anchors. All the anchors, chains and rope are substantial and of good quality and all should be fine once the job is completed. The fish farm people had promised to undertake the task on behalf of the community and then other work took preference leaving the mooring undertaking not very proffesional and taking too long in completion causing confusion. Personally I cannot understand why a bona fida mooring contractor was not brought in to do the business. Someone whose business it is to lay moorings. I have also pointed out to the Harbour Group that the description of "suitable for yachts up to 12 metres" is not the usual fashion of indicating mooring specifications. Mooring holding being best described in tonnage rather than length. Apologies again for informing that the mooring were available. Hopefully the work will be completed soon.

From my point of view, no harm done. It makes more sense to me now. I assume that the heavy floating line that I had on board will be the riser and mooring strop with a buoy tied in at an appropriate point.

I still feel that they seem close to each other but I'm a poor judge of distance. In general, if moorings are suitable for 12M boats, does this mean 2 boats could point stern to stern ( in the absence of wind or tide ) without touching each other?

Cheers

Ash

So can we take it that the honesty box was fully operational before the moorings? I think you should ask for your money back Ash.

Old Troll wrote:The fish farm people had promised to undertake the task on behalf of the community and then other work took preference leaving the mooring undertaking not very proffesional and taking too long in completion causing confusion. Personally I cannot understand why a bona fida mooring contractor was not brought in to do the business.

Because a bona fide mooring contractor would have charged big bucks for it and the fish farm were prepared to do it for nowt?

Yes I presume that the 12 metre length as suggested means swinging space and I also thought the moorings looked close together especially when there is no lack of sea room. Perhaps the moorings will be realligned when the divers complete the laying of the moorings. The honesty box has a cover over it and is not in operation. I am unsure about the fish farm companies contribution towards the costs of the moorings and who is paying for what. Their contribution I am sure will be gratefully acknowledged. However I know of a mooring contractor who does not cost the earth and I reserve the right to my opinion that public moorings are best laid and maintained by a professional contractor who has the knowledge and experience regarding tonnage and insurance requirements etc. If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well.

Old Troll wrote: I have also pointed out to the Harbour Group that the description of "suitable for yachts up to 12 metres" is not the usual fashion of indicating mooring specifications. Mooring holding being best described in tonnage rather than length.

When I was having a mooring laid, I got a quote for the ground tackle from Hendersons (Glasgow). They weren't interested in the weight of my boat but the length as they said that the windage is the most important aspect when sizing a mooring. I mentioned that most visitor moorings are sized by weight, they said that it was a constant argument with mooring associations when sizing visitor moorings, to get them sized by length as apposed to weight.

Silkie wrote:So can we take it that the honesty box was fully operational before the moorings? I think you should ask for your money back Ash.

I chickened out, and continued on to Campbeltown.

I was doubtful, and debating with myself what to do when another boat came in.

They initially tried to pick up the 'indicator' buoy, but found the long line on their second attempt. She were an Irish boat, and her crew was equally confused and decided to push on to Lochranza after their lunch.

The website, http://www.carradaleharbour.co.uk/?page_id=106 talks of the moorings being arranged in a single trot. Does this just mean a straight line? or does it mean that they are all anchored from a single long ground chain?

I called the number given in Welcome Anchorages 2012 for the pier operative, and Matt called me back and although he had some information about the moorings I got the impression that he didn't have anything to do with them.

Ash

sam wrote:

Old Troll wrote: I have also pointed out to the Harbour Group that the description of "suitable for yachts up to 12 metres" is not the usual fashion of indicating mooring specifications. Mooring holding being best described in tonnage rather than length.

They weren't interested in the weight of my boat but the length as they said that the windage is the most important aspect when sizing a mooring. .

Seemed sensible to me as the boat is afloat and under the command of Mr Archimedes, so weighs nothing.
However the "chug factor" once the mass is on the move is what counts surely. I recognise that windage will add to the motion the mooring is trying to arrest as the boat ranges, and waves don't help.
Once it starts moving it's a bundle of energy, and the heavier it is, the more it takes to stop.
Moorings don't have the catenary we enjoy at anchor in order to cram lots into a small area, so the underwater gear takes a direct pull on each snatch.

The latest on the Carradale moorings is that equipment required to complete the job was inadvertantly sent to a different location by the fish farm people. Perhaps next year. I find the comments about mooring calculations interesting. The tonnage weight indicated on a mooring is not the weight of the vessel but the bollard pull or windage effect on the mooring anchor. oldtroll:

Old Troll wrote:The latest on the Carradale moorings is that equipment required to complete the job was inadvertently sent to a different location by the fish farm people. Perhaps next year. oldtroll:

Thanks for the info.

Old Troll wrote: I find the comments about mooring calculations interesting. The tonnage weight indicated on a mooring is not the weight of the vessel but the bollard pull or windage effect on the mooring anchor. oldtroll:

How does a skipper relate that figure to his vessel when the only info that he has is her design weight?

Ash

Ash, he probably doesn't but it does go to show that you should have a stretchy junk rather than taking chain aboard, to alleviate shock loadings.
We've probably aired the argument (the worms have escaped...) which will lead to the global re-labelling of moorings. Let's hope the Euro-bureaus read this and take immediate action.

I think you'd need to know the maximum velocity achievable by an average boat moored and ranging, then multiply it by its mass probably with some logarithmic hocus-pocus and a mysterious constant. (Step forward Uber)
I'm not sure how we could relate that easily to our own boats individually, and suspect that they will all have to be measured by the goverment and given a specific value, which will be added to the profile on MARS, then the new labelling can refer to that. Mooring proprietors can then check the online database to identify rapscallions illegally using the lighter(cheaper) moorings and take appropriate punitive action.

I'm off to buy shares in CQR now.