Hard Mooring ball problems wacking hull
 

Appologetically, this is a mooring ball question,not a engine question.

I have a Taylor T3c hard mooring ball with a 500lb mushroom, 20 ft of
3/4 chain a swivel, 25 ft of 1/2 chain and a 1 1/2 inch nylon pennant
which is 15 feet long, followed by 2 6 ft long 3/4 inch hose covered
pennants to on deck cleats.

I more in a river near the channel. The problem I am having is that
due to current stronger than wind, the mooring ball often wacks against
the hull. I can't put shorter pennant because the water i am in can reach
over 30 ft in depth, and I don't have the room for more scope, or
shorter chain.

Does anyone know of a method for covering the hard ball to alleviate
the hull / paint damage caused by the ball wacking the hull?

Thanks

Much appreciated

1) Have you considered replacing the hard ball with a rubber one?

and

2) Does your boat get scratches in the hull from shackles? If you have a full
keel you could switch to rope for the piece that goes down to your heavy chain.
(A fin keel could get a wrap on this kind of setup and cut into the rope, it depends
on if you often have a wind against current scenario -- presumably in a river you do).

-jonathan

I have chain as I explained, right up to the ball. The pennant begins
at the top of the ball. I know about soft balls, but want to try to somehow
pad the hard ball first as it was expensive and also won't sink if punctured
which I believe the soft ball might do.

How about using two tethers, one to each bow chock, and installing PVC pipe on the tethers to make a rigid connection. I can imagine some problems with the PVC ends cutting the tether, but just thinking out loud.

Or how about a large foam disk fastened on top of the ball (larger in diameter than the ball).

River Balls
 

I have seen some balls that have been fashioned with those foam pool noodles: cut the noodle in half the entire length, and then 5 min epoxy half the noodle all the way around the ball where you presume it is making contact with the hull. Another thing you could try is pipe insulation, but the noodles are quite a bit bigger and would provide more protection.

Those pool noodles are great for lots of uses. I've seen them used for lifeline cushions. I use them, cut in pieces, to pad my spare anchor so it doesn't bang around in the locker. I've used them to pad the shank of an anchor hanging over the anchor roller, too.

I have seen a hard mooring ball with some dock edge chafe rubber guard put around
it vertically in about 6 pieces placed vertically. Not sure how it was attached
to the ball,maybe 5200? or west expoxy?

I assume the reason for vertical stripesto be that the ball probably cants

and a concentrate circle in one place wouldn't protect the hull in all cases
when the ball is tilted.

Could someon describe this pool guard stuff a little more please and a brand
name so I can look it up.

Thanks

All this talk about "balls" and "chafe guards" makes me wonder if you should perhaps be posting in the "male enhancement thread.":D

Pool noodles are just foam plastic (closed cell) tubes similar to pipe insulation. Kids play with them in the pool-- I think to hit each other or such. I don't know of any brand name but they're probably all made in China or wherever the cheapest labor source of the week happens to be. You can get them at any Walmart, at least during the summer, for about $4 each. They're about 4' long, 3" in diameter, and have about a 3/4" hole running lengthwise thru them, like pipe insulation but without the slit.
You could attach them to the ball by cutting them to the appropriate length then running rope thru them, tying them to the top and bottom of the mooring ball, like longitude lines. You could weave others in-and-out like latitude lines between the longitudinal ones, or just tie them where they cross-- wire ties might work well. I'm just imagining this, don't know if it would work in real life.

Have you considered just getting rid of the mooring ball and using a slightly longer pennant? My pennant is shackled directly to chain with a "lobster pot" type buoy before the braided loop and a pickup stick attached to the braided loop. This keeps the pennant out of the mud when I'm not using it but there is no mooring buoy to bang on my hull.

I'm in an area of heavy current so wind against current often results in boats being pushed forward on their moorings. I don't know how those with mooring balls can sleep at night with all that knocking...

This is an old thread but I'll add this: I am also in a high current mooring field. The Polyform (soft with thru-hole) works well. To make it last and not sink, run a piece of schedule 80 thru to insulate from the chain. Also it is critical to have a wide-based cap on top to actually carry the weight of the chain.

Oops, this a very old thread...
Not sure why, but it showed up on my "new threads area" :eek:

What i did with the hard mooring ball this spring was to purchase some
taylor 6 inch wide dock guard white rubber chafe and aluminun pop riveted 2 concentric
rings of it around the ball, about a foot apart one above the center and one
below.
I supplemented the aluminum pop rivets with a layer underneath of a couple of tubes of
4000uv series 3m caulking which the folks at 3m recommended using.
I didn't expect this to work as well as it has. I bought a soft ball just in
case, but thus far the modified hard ball is working well. I also shortened
the pennant from 20 ft to 10 ft which helped as well

Inflatable balls
 

Our club has used inflatable balls for decades and in my 17 years at the club I have only seen one ball deflate. The key is not to drop the mooring if the ball is defalted. The club often faces wind vs. current and the balls are against the hull often without damage.

Get a soft ball and sell the hard ball on ebay

Good luck.

Mooring in a tidal river
 

We also keep our boat in a river (lower Hudson) where the current runs both ways. Our mooring set up is nearly identical with yours ArtJ except we switched to an inflatable ball after we noticed our boat riding up against the ball in certain conditions.
Quite a number of sailors at our club bring their mooring ball up on deck for just this reason.