By now most of you who own a mooring in NSW will have received your letter requesting proof of service by the 22 May.
I have just been informed that this time it's for real !!!!
The fines they talk about will be applied if you do not send in proof of a service in the last 12 months by the 22 May.

In addition I believe that the 28 days away from your mooring rule without informing RMS will generate a letter which may mean you could loose your mooring!!!!

They are also moving, at long last, on unseaworthy vessels in Sydney.

So all that we have been complaining about with moorings is about to happen,

I don't know whether to cheer or shudder

Hmmm, nothing in the mail yet - just curious, when did you gets yours?

My mooring is serviced every year ,how ever my boat has not been on it for 2 years cause I'm cruising . I hope they are understanding

Nothing in my letter box.

I happened to be onboard when we got our mooring inspection, I told them that I had recently dived on it and was told "if" you get a letter from us all you need to do is send a stat dec stating you self inspected it. There was a couple of ugly minders moved on, after the inspection so I assume they got a nasty letter.

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MorningBird said..
Nothing in my letter box.

Me neither

Croudace Bay is having and audit on moorings being done now ? Maritime says they are weeding out mooring minders ,All this will mean mooring minders on inspected moorings ? I can not see Maritime losing revenue by removing these vessels when there is no waiting list in the area?
If you inspect / service your own, Ihave been told ,Maritime can have your mooring lifted and inspected and if it doesn't meet the license requirements a fine will be handed out ,and the cost of the lift and repairs recovered .
Bj

Locals at my homeport have received the letter. I did a dive and survey on mine on the 7th and took a few photos. Two others have done the same. Others I guess will be just getting a certificate from professional mooring contractors. I don't see it necessarily as a bad thing, it is part of the agreement we have with the RMS anyway. The timing is fine too. Just coming up to a period of gale force winds which at times against strong incoming tides put a lot of strain on moorings. Directly upwind of me is a concrete yacht which is on a mooring that has not been looked at for years. It's a liveaboard that does not meet the criteria of being capable of undertaking a voyage! I think we are about to see some action against several boats here. the RMS is just getting it's ducks in a row first. Visually suitable for the mooring area seems to be a bit subjective to me. Pensioners who own waterfront properties have been known to complain about the colours of some yachts!

Having just acquired a mooring which was done just before I bought it , What is the average cost of an inspection ?

i dont see it as a bad thing either. Sydney is full of boats that never get used that are obvious pieces of crap that cannot go anywhere. People keep these boats on moorings to save them for when/if they get a boat they want. its like germans that get up at 5am to reserve sun lounges. selfish.
In woodford bay i paid 160 per year. its pretty easy there to have your mooring serviced. Hes usually cruising around and you yell out " can you service my mooring" and he does. i either dropped cash off at his house or paid in account. cash was cheaper.
I always get a bit worried for the callala bay boats. todays forecast was about 40 knots from the south. something that happens a bit there. I dont think thats going to happen today though. im holding back going out til i install my masthead light. found a beautiful one with a remote. no wires. joy.

I spend my work days on Sydney harbour Middle harbour Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers including every bay and cove. It would surprise you how many vessels there are on moorings that have not been boarded for a very long time. There are prospective owners out there on waiting lists. Why not clean up the crap and make the sites available. I could show you vessels that are more pigeon roosts than someone's pride and joy.

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oldboyracer said..
My mooring is serviced every year ,how ever my boat has not been on it for 2 years cause I'm cruising . I hope they are understanding

Did you tell them you are away cruising?

Because if you didn't you may have to do some fast talking to hold onto your mooring when they get to you.

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MorningBird said..
Nothing in my letter box.

They are doing all areas one by one. They will get to you.

In Sydney they are at the stage of removing crappy mooring minders!

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nswsailor said..

MorningBird said..
Nothing in my letter box.

They are doing all areas one by one. They will get to you.

In Sydney they are at the stage of removing crappy mooring minders!

Maybe they are only sending letters to moorings that look uncared for. Mine looks like it was serviced in November, which it was.
I agree that unsafe moorings be called out and mooring minders be moved on.
If you can't afford to maintain the mooring yourself or get someone else to do it you can't afford a boat.

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jbear said..
Croudace Bay is having and audit on moorings being done now ? Maritime says they are weeding out mooring minders ,All this will mean mooring minders on inspected moorings ? I can not see Maritime losing revenue by removing these vessels when there is no waiting list in the area?
If you inspect / service your own, Ihave been told ,Maritime can have your mooring lifted and inspected and if it doesn't meet the license requirements a fine will be handed out ,and the cost of the lift and repairs recovered .
Bj

Bj, I don't think there's any sort of specs in the way of requirements. Every contractor has his own trip and every mooring field has its own characteristics. I guess if it was seriously under gunned they would have a case. But if they want to lift mine I'd be only to happy to let em.

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oldboyracer said..
My mooring is serviced every year ,how ever my boat has not been on it for 2 years cause I'm cruising . I hope they are understanding

They were doing the rounds in the bay a couple of days ago. I assume that they got my stat dec.

So I spent a bunch of years on the Great Lakes in Canada. Winters there truly sucked, but one good thing is that every year you had to haul your boat our for the winter freeze. No mooring minders there, it was just too expensive to haul and launch a boat you weren't using. Maybe we could organize 3 weeks of winter freeze to sort out the chafe?

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Jethrow said..
So I spent a bunch of years on the Great Lakes in Canada. Winters there truly sucked, but one good thing is that every year you had to haul your boat our for the winter freeze. No mooring minders there, it was just too expensive to haul and launch a boat you weren't using. Maybe we could organize 3 weeks of winter freeze to sort out the chafe?

I'll be in Toronto in a few weeks. I hope it has thawed by then!

Recently, in order to crew on another boat, we were lent a mooring. While I was cleaning up the rope I realised we were drifting down the harbour- I then pulled up the other end! We took the mooring tackle back to the owner in a wheel barrow!

Uninspected moorings are a danger to any user or anyone nearby. Mooring minders simply clog up mooring fields thus keeping keen sailors out of the market. They also look terrible and do nothing for the marine trades industry.

Not sure if it's worse or better here in Tasmania. You don't have to have a boat on a mooring so people seem to have 3 or more. Whilst you've got less scruffy boats around, all the prime anchoring spots get clogged up with never used moorings, including the similarly under-utilised club moorings.

Annual inspection seems entirely reasonable. Where a mooring is rented out to someone else (as is common here), it seems reasonable that the inspection should be carried out by a competent, qualified person with a copy of the certificate provided to the renter. If you are using the mooring yourself, a real self certification is fine, but not just, "she'll be right, I'll check her properly next year!"
Cheers
Bristol

Bristol, I couldn't agree more, annual inspections is a reasonable requisition or a self inspect, of course anyone could just sign a stat dec without having a look, but when it it comes to the pointy end, ie insurance claim and it's obvious that a mooring apparatus was, let's say neglected then guess who's in the shxt !
If it becomes mandatory to have a qualified mooring inspection, 1st there will have to be guide lines in place for mooring apparatus, considerations would have to include, sea floor type, tidal currents ( including flood events ) and localised wind exposure. Which would lead to as it has in the building industry, an outrageous over engineering of structural members so the engineers butt is covered
and yes I'm on the record as to my opinion of the way the regs have made minders prevalent. But I might also add that it seems that commercial moorings /club/ marina are taking up what as previously anchorage area ie try to drop the pick in Yamba ha. And they have no way of inspecting them. And the local contractor I should shut up now

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MorningBird said..

Jethrow said..
So I spent a bunch of years on the Great Lakes in Canada. Winters there truly sucked, but one good thing is that every year you had to haul your boat our for the winter freeze. No mooring minders there, it was just too expensive to haul and launch a boat you weren't using. Maybe we could organize 3 weeks of winter freeze to sort out the chafe?

I'll be in Toronto in a few weeks. I hope it has thawed by then!

Thawing a bit much from what I hear, lake levels are getting real high again. In Toronto TS&CC was my club, down on Lakeshore near the Boulevard club. Derek behind the bar still remembers me

Hi all

A boat ended up on the shore here a couple of years ago when the chain on the mooring failed

Below is a photo of where it failed

A good reason to service your mooring

Regards Don

Makes you want a trailer sailor.

A moored boat needs that maintenance. Yearly. At least

"Better to be lucky than rich "
My mooring at Bundeena was serviced on Friday and they inspected it yesterday.

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Donk107 said..
Hi all

A boat ended up on the shore here a couple of years ago when the chain on the mooring failed

Below is a photo of where it failed

A good reason to service your mooring

Regards Don

Great photo Don

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woko said..
Bristol, I couldn't agree more, annual inspections is a reasonable requisition or a self inspect, of course anyone could just sign a stat dec without having a look, but when it it comes to the pointy end, ie insurance claim and it's obvious that a mooring apparatus was, let's say neglected then guess who's in the shxt !
If it becomes mandatory to have a qualified mooring inspection, 1st there will have to be guide lines in place for mooring apparatus, considerations would have to include, sea floor type, tidal currents ( including flood events ) and localised wind exposure. Which would lead to as it has in the building industry, an outrageous over engineering of structural members so the engineers butt is covered
and yes I'm on the record as to my opinion of the way the regs have made minders prevalent. But I might also add that it seems that commercial moorings /club/ marina are taking up what as previously anchorage area ie try to drop the pick in Yamba ha. And they have no way of inspecting them. And the local contractor I should shut up now

The problem is there is no qualification for a mooring contractor or standards for a mooring apparatus. Locally it's just a matter of having your name listed with the local council. There would be the usual ABN and letter heads etc but that is about it. I'm sure if your mate was a contractor he could give you a certificate with out looking at your mooring just as easily as falsifying a stat dec.
Mooring requirements for different locations are going to vary enormously. those girly moorings in Sydney Harbour would not last in Greenwell Point for example. While mooring contractors continue to use SS wire and monel for mousing shackles we will continue rescuing wandering yachts! Do mooring contractors really want long lasting easily serviced moorings?

Ramona it's defiantly horses for courses when it come to mooring gear, and over the years any of the boats that have unintentionally slipped there mooring in our mooring field have mostly been from the big shackle on the block to the bottom chain letting go and it appears that electrolysis is the culprit, the last one when the block was eventually located the pin was sitting there right ontop of the block ! Without a stitch of thread on it, mousing would of helped. What's your choice of binding?

I'm curious too- if not SS or monel, what should be used for mousing?

Either the same metal as the shackle or a good stout plastic cable tie.

If the shackle is done up tight enough with maybe some thread locking compound on it the mousing is probably redundant.

The mousing is essential. In these examples the thread is non existent. Eaten away by the electrolytic action.