Bay River Houseboats

How do you attach a house boat to a buoy?

Public Comments

1. With a rope
2. It is illegal to tie off to a bouy. You could get a ticket. Do it at your own risk.
3. with a rope? make sure you put those things between the boat and the bouy
4. Presumably there is a rope attached to the bouy. Tie the bow line of your houseboat to that rope. There should be an "eye" underneath the bouy for you to pass the rope through. Do so, and either tie a bowline knot or bring it back to your bow cleat and tie it. The latter is easier for untying when you are ready to cast off. If you are talking about a steel navagation bouy or something similar, you're not going to lift THAT out of the water to pass a rope underneath. Look for someplace to pass a rope through and tie off to on your bow cleat. Mind you, they are not usually designed to be used as moorings, and you may have concerns about legality depending upon where you are and wether you tie up there for any reason other than an emergency. Navagation bouys are just that.... not public moorings. If you want your own mooring, get a big cement block with a piece of chain through it, an old engine block or something heavy enough that it's going to hold your boat in place in the heaviest wind you can imagine for that locality. Get a rope that's about 25 or 30 feet longer than the maximum depth of the water where you plan to put it. Attach the rope to the heavy object in some manner that it is not likely to come undone easily. Using a shackle, a thimble and a splice in your rope would probably be best. Then, on the other end of the rope, tie a bowline knot and into it tie a floater bouy with a painter rope. You can grab the bowline easily when you are coming to your mooring and simply slip it over a cleat in fair weather, or pull some slack line in and tie off to a cleat directly in inclement weather. Here is a link to information on splicing rope: http://www.lehighgroup.com/ropesplice.htm Hope this helps.
5. go to your local city/town hall and get a mooring permit and then you can get a cement wedge to be dropped in there is a lot of places that do it alot of boat yards but if you don't want them to do it build a real good size form on your boats bow with a curved 1-2 inch bar that meeets at the top weld a circle clamp to it then attach a swivel and depending on the depth attach a chain half the lenght and another swivel with double braided rope and a another swivel with a mooring buoy with another section of rope 6ft long with floaters in order to grad it easier, and done deal
6. I hope you are talking about a mooring. It is illegal to tie off to a navigational buoy. You should use a nylon dockline of sufficient strength for that boat, and make a bridle. Size of line is calculated by percentage of gross weight. Make sure there is enough swing room for changes in tide or current. Make sure there is enough ground tackle on the mooring to hold a house boat.