So last week I moved to Pittwater to a mooring owned by the Avalon Sailing Club at Clareville.
It seems that the boats on two sides of me are barely 1 boat length away when the boats are nose to tail meaning that when there is no wind or current against very little wind the boats could easily hit stern to stern. Mentioned this to someone at the club AGM on the weekend and he just commented that in such a situation there would be unlikely to be waves which to my mind is nowhere near good enough particularly as there are always idiots in power boats making wakes in mooring areas and even in the absence of wakes very small waves could cause heavy boats to do damage to each other.
Maybe I have been spoilt on Lake Macquarie recently in a bay with bugger all boats in it but has this become the norm in crowded anchorages? There do seem to be other boats in a similar crowded orientation at Clareville.
I could perhaps ask for my mooring rope to be shortened or just bring a bit more of the rope onboard myself although a metre or two doesn't seem to be enough to solve the potential problem. Would lashing the wheel one way or the other rather than straight minimise the chances of a stern to stern collision? Any comments appreciated.

Most moorings on Pittwater are like that. I'm lucky that in the predominant summer Southerlies and Nor'easters I have spacing to surrounding boats but only just over 1 boat-length in still conditions to the mooring bouy to my east.

Very rare down here for two boats to be stern to stern and not overlap

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Jethrow said..
Most moorings on Pittwater are like that. I'm lucky that in the predominant summer Southerlies and Nor'easters I have spacing to surrounding boats but only just over 1 boat-length in still conditions to the mooring bouy to my east.

Very rare down here for two boats to be stern to stern and not overlap

Ok thanks for that.

My boat was up there for 10 months, renting a mooring in that area.
At the turn of the tide, when windless the motor boats swung differently than keel boats, and mine hit its neighbour one night. No damage, but not a fantastic situation, as I'm used to more space in Vic waters, in the 2 areas I've had swing moorings.

This situation becomes worse when there are outboard motor props ready to gouge, bit like tow bars and bull bars on cars
So who pays for the damage if it can be proven, it would become its someone else's fault

I had a boat moored at Clareville, for the first year it was great, lots of room. Then they came and dropped another mooring in between me and my neighbour boat. Within 6 months there was damage to the transom which looked to be due to a collision. I tied a rope to the other boat and pulled the two transoms together and took a photo, complained to waterways, they sent someone out to take a look. Basically they said shouldn't happen, too bad.

Note: I couldn't prove thats what caused the damage, but it seemed most likely too me.

Yes it's a Cole 31 behind me with a very pointy transom that sits well above the waterline. It would do quite a bit of damage of it came down onto my swim platform. Maybe I need to fabricate a stainless steel tube hoop to go round my swim platform :(.

Happens all over the place. Worsr scenario is when you have a high freeboard planning hull power boat adjacent a heavy displacement long keel sailing yacht. Unless almost impracticably well spaced, they will react differently to changes in wind, tide and current, inevitably resulting in contact.

A simple solution is to repurpose your old car tyres strategically fixing them to the stern of your boat. Or to your neighbours boat as its not used anyway

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surfershaneA said..
Happens all over the place. Worsr scenario is when you have a high freeboard planning hull power boat adjacent a heavy displacement long keel sailing yacht. Unless almost impracticably well spaced, they will react differently to changes in wind, tide and current, inevitably resulting in contact.

Must say that the excellent RMS boating officers for our area (Betts Bay Gladesville west Sydney Harbour) seem to be right on top of this issue now, with very light wind and change of tide events creating havoc back in the early 80s with frequent stern to stern encounters .............reallise that in higher demand so inherently higher density areas boats can be packed in like sardines with consequent results as mentioned...............

I was in Pittwater, Salt Pan Cove for 10 years and close into the jetty. I never had this problem. It is usually because the person who laid the mooring cocked up, too long a rode, for ther wrong length boat or wrong position.
Was the mooring laid for your boat is the first question. If it is a previously laid mooring it may have been for a 20ft boat.
At Drummoyne in the harbour again it wasn't a problem, for me anyway.

I've stayed at a few of the clubs there on moorings and all have been too close together. Even lost an outboard once and they just shrugged their shoulders. Will never use one again.

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MorningBird said..
I was in Pittwater, Salt Pan Cove for 10 years and close into the jetty. I never had this problem. It is usually because the person who laid the mooring cocked up, too long a rode, for ther wrong length boat or wrong position.
Was the mooring laid for your boat is the first question. If it is a previously laid mooring it may have been for a 20ft boat.
At Drummoyne in the harbour again it wasn't a problem, for me anyway.

Yes who knows.
One of the club officials told me he will get their mooring guy to look at the situation in the next couple of days. Apparently the club records are in disarray and there are boats on their moorings which haven't paid for a couple of years so I might be able to get another one once they're audit is complete next month.
Unfortunately it is a pretty densely populated and large mooring field and any mooring further away from other boats will be quite a lot further out away from the clubhouse. I went out today and glued some 6 mil thick 20 mil wide plastic moulding stuff from Bunnings down to the rear top of my swim platform protruding about 8 mm as per the attached picture so that an adjacent East Coast 31 with a very pointy transom as pictured doesn't guillotine my swim platform.
II then went for a canoe around Clairville and in addition to seeing an old boat of mine I saw so many boats in gross disrepair including a few with totally shredded headsails hanging from forestay tracks and booms flying around outboard of the gunnels that I couldn't believe it including one half sunken one.

Wow ! Has pit water taken a tumble or has it become a rich kids dump ? My distant memories are of all well kept vessels.

It must be terrible to finally get to the launch pad of your sailing dreams only to be surrounded by ass holes. That cole ,,what' a **** kicker,, more pictures of the cole
for the internet please,,, that'll teach em

That stern of the neighbour looks like the ramming bow of an ancient Phoenician warship.

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woko said..
Wow ! Has pit water taken a tumble or has it become a rich kids dump ? My distant memories are of all well kept vessels.

Yes I am in shock. It's a total dump. As compared with Lake Macquarie the houses are worth at least 4 times as much but the boats on moorings certainly are not in as good average condition. I think all the good boats are in marinas. Strange because the mooring fees are presumably being paid and are double those outside Sydney. Maybe the owners just get too old to use (or maintain) the boats. There are also a few steel hulks which look beyond repair. I'd hate to be moored too close to one of them. Maritime certainly aren't doing their job. Apparently there are 4 boats down at Cairville alone and one apparently since NYE!