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Creaking ropes on a pontoon mooring


jetzi

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I've never moored perpendicularly to the bank before so I don't know if I'm doing it wrong. No one next to me. The pontoon is only about 30' long so I'm moored to a cleat at the stern, but I obviously can't use the bow rope (since my boat is 65').

I have two midlines, which are affixed to each hand rail on my boat, rather than a centre ring.

 

I tied the port midline to the cleat at the end of the pontoon as tightly as reasonable, but there's a bit of a breeze and the boat swayed around causing the rope to creak against the handrail. So, I tied the starboard midline to the pontoon on the OTHER side (across the gap wehere another boat could wedge me in nicely).

 

This helped but the creaking is still happening and on both sides now. It's keeping me awake.

 

What's the correct way to moor to a short pontoon? And is there anything I can do to stop creaks? I'm about to douse the ropes in WD40...

  • Greenie 1
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Washing up liquid, long term I'd be wary of cutting through the the ropes and would bind with plastic piping. I prefer a little bit of slack in my springs. Depends on wind, but you need more than one attachment point to the pontoon. 

  • Greenie 1
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I think the creaking is caused by the boat rolling as you move about. I am not sure what you can do about it save threading the line through a length of plastic pipe (as per the good Lady) with the pipe over whatever the rope is rubbing on. The washing up liquid sounds a good idea as would be rubbing the rope with a bar of soap.

 

I hate short pontoon moorings and suspect in the event of  a death from fire the mooring owners may have questions to answer.

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17 minutes ago, jetzi said:

Will try washing up liquid, thanks!

 

When you say you need more than one attachment point to the pontoon, do you mean more than my stern rope and my midline?

I mean more than one cleat on the pontoon.

I've not worked with such a relatively short pontoon, but I'd try a rope from the bow T, maybe to the far side of your pontoon to open  the angle.  My boat has attachment eyes  for fenders on the gunwales, which can also be used in such a situation, but not designed to take the boat in a strong breeze.

Edited by LadyG
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 Some people use a mudweight (not an anchor!) from the bow to reduce the movement a bit.  It wont stop the creaking, but it should help reduce it as the front of the boat can't move as far.

 

Is your bowline long enough to tie to the last cleat on the opposite side of the pontoon to your boat?  Again, it won't stop all the movement but can help.

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1 hour ago, jetzi said:

This helped but the creaking is still happening and on both sides now. It's keeping me awake.

 

What's the correct way to moor to a short pontoon? And is there anything I can do to stop creaks? I'm about to douse the ropes in WD40...

Short pontoons are hard to moor to. Ideally, you need another boat of similar length moored on the other side of the jetty, then a rope between the boats at the furthest end can clamp you both against the walk way, while being proof against rises and falls in water level.

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From my experience many years ago -

Mudweight at the bow

Proper sea / rag and stick (large fender) against the short pontoon at the stern.

Where we first moored, the marina placed scaffolding poles about midships of each bat and we use to tie the centre line to that, again with a suitable large fender against the pole.

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A small folded towel wedged between the rope and whatever bit of the boat it's rubbing on might help. Unfortunately in windy weather creaking noises are part of the experience, whether that's from ropes or the boat rubbing against wood, tyres, etc at the mooring.

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If the rope is essentially running vertically down from handrail to the pontoon then the boat is guaranteed to move about, so anything you can do to change that situation will help. Definitely  if possible tie to the cleat on the opposite side of the pontoon. Is there any way you can get the centre-line down to gunwale level, for example by using a fender attachment point?

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1 hour ago, jetzi said:

I have two midlines, which are affixed to each hand rail on my boat, rather than a centre ring.

 

I tied the port midline to the cleat at the end of the pontoon as tightly as reasonable, but there's a bit of a breeze and the boat swayed around causing the rope to creak against the handrail. So, I tied the starboard midline to the pontoon on the OTHER side (across the gap wehere another boat could wedge me in nicely).

 

Just a warning, for waters that can rise/fall and if you are on non-floating pontoons doing this is the way to sink your boat.

 

It has happened at Sawley marina on a number of occasions.

The Pontoons are 'fixed', the water level rises, the boat rises but all that happens is that due to the lines being attached to the hand-rails the boat tilts at an ever increasing angle, until it starts taking water.

 

It has even happened with folks on-board.

 

Worries over river marina with solid berths (narrowboatworld.com)

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I quite like the sound of creaking ropes. It's a "boat" sound peculiar to our environment and quite soothing especially when lying awake in the wee small hours as us older people tend to do.

  • Happy 1
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Depending on the design of the pontoon this is a possibility :

 

If the pontoon has gaps in the walkway you can feed a length of chain thru and then 'lock it' with a shackle of carabiner, this then gives you another (or several) mooring point(s) along the 'pontoon finger' to enable you to get some proper spring lines out from both bow and stern.

 

Ignore line No1.

Run a line from your bow to the end of the finger (2)

Run a line from your stern to the end of the finger (3)

Run a line from your offside stern to the rearmost cleat.

 

If cleats/bollards are not in the correct place, make then where you want them (as above)

 

 

Yacht_Mooring_Lines.jpg

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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The washing up liquid has reduced the creak to about 20% of what it was, so that's probably good enough for me! Thanks everyone. I do notice that my ropes (not just from this but from years of use) have worn through a couple of layers of paint. I think when I repaint and replace the ropes, I'll thread a bit of plastic pipe on each of them with a knot to keep it in place, apart from creaks, hopefully that will also protect the paintwork a bit?

 

  

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

I think the creaking is caused by the boat rolling as you move about.

Definitely part of it, but the main problem is that the pontoon is less than half the length of my boat. So although she's tied at the stern and around halfway, the lever arm means that the bow swings back and forth about a foot like a pendulum.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

Is your bowline long enough to tie to the last cleat on the opposite side of the pontoon to your boat?

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

I'd try a rope from the bow T, maybe to the far side of your pontoon to open  the angle.

This seems like a good idea, but I don't think any of my ropes are quite long enough (yeah, I need new ropes).

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Ideally, you need another boat of similar length moored on the other side of the jetty

The basin is nearly empty, I guess I could sidle up to another long boat but that would probably be kind of like using an adjacent urinal in an empty gents'!

 

 

 

1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

Some people use a mudweight (not an anchor!)

 

1 hour ago, Loddon said:

Drop your mudweight off the bow

 

1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

Mudweight at the bow

I'm not entirely sure what a mudweight is but I don't think I have one of these. I do have an anchor which I've never used. Would a small boulder tied to a rope count?

 

 

 

40 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

Definitely  if possible tie to the cleat on the opposite side of the pontoon. Is there any way you can get the centre-line down to gunwale level, for example by using a fender attachment point?

Good idea to tie to the opposite side to reduce the sharpness of the angle, I will do that. Unfortunately I have no attachments at gunwale level, all my fenders attach to the hand rail at roof height.

 

 

 

40 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

for waters that can rise/fall and if you are on non-floating pontoons doing this is the way to sink your boat.

What is the way to sink it, attaching on both port and starboard? If the water rises enough to duck the boat under, surely attaching to just one side would also sink the boat by rolling it over? Or am I misunderstanding you?

 

 

 

33 minutes ago, colmac said:

I quite like the sound of creaking ropes. It's a "boat" sound peculiar to our environment and quite soothing especially when lying awake in the wee small hours as us older people tend to do.

I also kind of like it, or rather, I want to like it, but I had a poor night's sleep last night because the creaks would rouse me. Other than that the sounds don't bother me, I am a light sleeper I guess.

 

 

40 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Depending on the design of the pontoon this is a possibility :

 

If the pontoon has gaps in the walkway you can feed a length of chain thru and then 'lock it' with a shackle of carabiner, this then gives you another (or several) mooring point(s) along the 'pontoon finger' to enable you to get some proper spring lines out from both bow and stern.

 

Ignore line No1.

Run a line from your bow to the end of the finger (2)

Run a line from your stern to the end of the finger (3)

Run a line from your offside stern to the rearmost cleat.

 

If cleats/bollards are not in the correct place, make then where you want them (as above)

 

 

Yacht_Mooring_Lines.jpg

@Alan de Enfield The diagram below shows what I'm currently doing (in red) and what I think you're suggesting (in dashed blue). Is this correct?
image.png.e569aa2e8909f76b52b686bda5afa959.png
 

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14 minutes ago, jetzi said:

I do notice that my ropes (not just from this but from years of use) have worn through a couple of layers of paint. I think when I repaint and replace the ropes, I'll thread a bit of plastic pipe on each of them with a knot to keep it in place, apart from creaks, hopefully that will also protect the paintwork a bit?

 

The plastic pipe will just wear the paint instead. What you need are fairleads.

 

 

Edited by blackrose
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1 hour ago, colmac said:

I quite like the sound of creaking ropes. It's a "boat" sound peculiar to our environment and quite soothing especially when lying awake in the wee small hours as us older people tend to do.

I too love the sound.

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16 minutes ago, jetzi said:

'm not entirely sure what a mudweight is but I don't think I have one of these. I do have an anchor which I've never used. Would a small boulder tied to a rope count?

 

I would suggest a stout cardboard box or plastic crate with a long length of bent metal rod like an omega in it to form a loop at the top and filled with concrete. Any container large enough to hold about 10 to 20 Kg of concrete would do. It will probably be cheap enough to buoy the rope  when you leave the mooring so you don't have to retrieve the messy weight. Mind you if someone gets the buoyed rope around their prop your name will be mud.

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A lot of folks use a 56lb weight, I considered buyiing a bit of short anchor chain (may be sold cheap in chandlers) tying it in a bundle and attaching a rope,. Honestly, I could not have a lump of concrete on board, you'll be suggesting blue polyprop rope soon, lol! 

Edited by LadyG
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hmmmm, maybe a flowerpot mould and a bag of postcrete might work.. 

PS I'd avoid putting knots in ropes, use cable ties to secure your hose pipe guards. One day you may need an extraa length of rope. 

Edited by LadyG
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34 minutes ago, jetzi said:

The diagram below shows what I'm currently doing (in red) and what I think you're suggesting (in dashed blue). Is this correct?

 

Yes, use the 'blue' system.

You could even run another blue to the opp[osit pontoon where you currently have a 'red'.

The 'red' is what you could use if you had centre cleats (at gunwale height) but you should not (ideally) be using a high point such as the handrails.

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