Mooring (chain)
A mooring (also: Muring ) is a chain for mooring boats and ships in a harbor , a marina , on a pier or buoy .
The mooring is usually attached at one end to a concrete block, also known as a mooring stone, an anchor or a stronger chain (mooring chain) running across the harbor basin, which is spanned at the bottom of the harbor basin. At the other end of the mooring there is a mooring line for mooring on the watercraft. In turn, a so-called pilot line is attached to the document line as a forerunner. The pilot line is occupied on land so that it can be picked up from the watercraft. Alternatively, the pilot line can also be attached to a mooring buoy that floats in the harbor or a bay .
When mooring , a member of the crew picks up the pilot line with a boat hook, uses it to pull the mooring line out of the water and goes with it to the foredeck. After the line on a cleat on the forecastle is occupied, it is tensioned by driving backwards, only then are the stern lines of the ship finally occupied. When handling the line, there is a risk of injury from sharp-edged shells that can stick to the line, so it is advisable to use the boat hook to guide the line or at least to use sturdy gloves.
In common parlance, the combination of a pilot line and a mooring line is called a mooring line.
A mooring buoy holds a loop or ring at the end of the mooring line afloat. The mooring line runs through the buoy.
The world's largest mooring system was built with over 1200 mooring buoys by the Egyptian environmental protection organization HEPCA in the Red Sea .
Benefits of a mooring
Especially in the Mediterranean, pleasure craft usually dock backwards, ie with the stern facing the jetty or the pier. If no moorings are available, a bow anchor must be used. If several pleasure craft are moored next to each other, their bow anchors or anchor chains can inadvertently be placed on top of each other, so that they get caught when the anchor is hauled in. If moorings are provided, no bow anchors are required, so that moorings can effectively prevent the so-called "anchor salad".
Disadvantages of mooring
When casting off, there is a risk that the pilot line will be sucked into the drive shaft of the ship by the rotating propeller , so that the drive shaft is blocked. The pilot line is usually wrapped around the drive shaft so tightly that a diver needs a longer time to remove the pilot line from the drive shaft again. Furthermore, there is a risk that the fastening of the propeller on the drive shaft will be damaged, so that the propeller is sheared off immediately or a short time later.
If the propeller attachment on the drive shaft does not have a predetermined breaking point or if the motor does not have an emergency shutdown if the drive shaft is blocked, the motor mounting can be damaged. In the case of a saildrive drive , the rubber sleeve can be destroyed in this case, so that water penetrates the ship.
When casting off, it must therefore be ensured that the mooring is released early before the drive shaft is engaged so that the pilot line has already sunk sufficiently deep.
literature
- Ramon Gliewe (ed.): Seamanship . 26th edition. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2003, ISBN 3-7688-0523-9 , page 201
- Joachim Schult: Segler-Lexikon , 12th edition Delius Klasing Verlag 2001, ISBN 3-7688-1041-0 , pages 397-398
