Rented a beach house for the week later this summer and have a mooring available to keep my hobie 18 for the week. How would you recommend tying up to it? My 18 is an 80' so it's built like a brick shithouse...
I was thinking use a 20' length of rope from mooring to center of front cross bar. The only issue is i'm afraid it wont point into wind/waves tied this close to center of boat.
Mooring Hobie 18 for a week?
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Normally not recommended to leave a beachcat on the water, but I guess a week wouldn't hurt.
So describe the mooring situation, is this calm water that you can wade out to?
You want your cat to behave and clock into the wind. On catamarans you usually need to use a bridal rope attached to both bows, otherwise the boat will want to constantly sail around instead of sitting calmly.
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
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I agree, you would need a bridle for the bows. Maybe replace the clevis pins at the bow tangs for the bridle wires with bow shackles and then tie/clip your mooring bridle to the shaclkes (the pin of the shackle would go through the bridle wire fittings just like the clevis pin does now). I would also make the shrouds good and tight so the rig doesn't bang around. You can use the mainsheet purchase to tension the shrouds. I'd also snug up the rotator line to hold the mast steady. Last, i would probably pull up the rudders and daggerboards so the boat can pivot freely.
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Make sure to tie the rope to a clean part. I attached it once to the shackle that connects the bridles to the forestay and during the night the bridles thimbles cut the rope.
You could also attach the rope to the center of the front beam and run it through a metal loop or carabiner at the forestay/bridle connection. This way the rope can also be your righting line while sailing.
Mooring on a beach is fine if weather is reasonably predictable and you can take the boat out easily when necessary. On a lake through the waves can be short and steep and shake the boat quite a bit. I had a side stay cut like that, because of constant and rather violent mast rotation. The weather changed during the night and it wasn't so much the wind speed but more the new direction, in which waves had all the length of the lake to grow up to that shape.