Proper boat mooring

[simcoediver]

I have a question thats more or less directed to charter captains. My dive buddy and I prefer to bring our own boat to dive in Kingston and Tobermory for a number of reasons.We usually wait patiently for charter boats to leave their mooring before we tie up to it to dive and yes we do have a 3rd person in the boat. Now ,my question is---What is the proper procedure for us to follow when a charter boat comes along while we are there?Are we supposed to retie our boat up to your boat?[Thats not always easy to do!} Do charter boats expect to wait patiently for us to finish as well? I fully understand and respect the fact that charter boats are running a business and the last thing I would ever want to do is make a charter captain angry!So educate me on whats right!

 

[Warren_L]

I'm no charter captain by any stretch, but when we were diving the keystorm on saturday, there was a smaller boat there already on the mooring line. Our captain politely informed them that we were going to take the line and to have them tie off on us. Now whether that is the right way, I don't know. It's just what the captain did.

 

[Bob3]

It's generally considered courteous for the smaller vessle to allow the larger to tie off & then raft off of them. It also simplifys matters if the smaller will be leaving sooner.

 

[Col.Cluster]

You should confirm this with one of the charter operators. My understanding of the situation is that if you are tied off on a mooring then it is your mooring. If you refuse to allow another boat to tie off then all they can do is wait. Personally, I do not believe this is the wisest action to take. It is far more beneficial for all parties if you would surrender the mooring to the bigger boat and tie off behind. This fosters a positive relationship between all concerned and tends to be the unspoken etiquette between all the boat captains I have seen operating. Perhaps, Divedude or one of the others captains has time to offer some thoughts.

All the best
CC

 

[divedude]

Tough Question

I can only answer for the Kingston area and how we like things done.
Any one can use any mooring and almost all of Kingston's will support 3 or 4 boats tied to them at the same time. some of the graveyard ones we only like one large vessel on at a time, but all the local guys will just go to another if someone is already on them.
Some one should be on your vessel at all times.
If you are on a mooring and a larger boat comes up and ask permission to tie, then the smaller boat must give up and allow the larger boat to take the mooring, then raft or tie off behind.
You should always ask permission to enter the area of dive operations, not just for courtesy, but because it's the law and in the collision regulations. If any thing happened to a diver and you have not ask and been granted permission you can be charged with a criminal offense. I get a little Pi$$ed off when a boat comes flying up to me and throws a line at me without even checking to see were my divers are or asking permisson to come along side.

All of the regular charter captain's will allow another vessel to tie off, You do not have to wait, just call on VHF radio 16 or 10 If you do not have a VHF radio you shouldn't be out there.......

No one should have to wait "for they're turn" some times a captain will tell you that they will be done in 10 or 15 minutes and ask you to wait as they are recovering divers.

I have had small boats refuse to let me tie up and tell me "I was here first, it's my mooring".........NOT a good thing to say to me...

Who do they think put up the mooring in the first place????
Who do they think spliced the line they are on????
Who do they think put the 5 ton mooring block there???
Well I'll tell you who did... POW and who is POW? It's the local guys, mostly charter boat captains and dive store operator's
so without them no one has a nice mooring line and buoy to tie off too. In most other areas it's SOS and it's still made up of local guys in the area who work hard so anchor damage is no longer a danger and you have great wrecks to dive on.

I have my back yard shed filled with 10 POW/SOS mooring buoys, another 20 or so jugs, many feet of chain, about 2500 feet of mooring line, thimbles, huge connectors, and all the stuff needed to keep mooring in good shape. Lots of nights in the winter I sit and splice thimbles into line and inspect line so that we have everthing ready for the next season. I'm not the only one the other guys all do stuff like that. Ask Tom R he set up the times with the boats and divers last year so that mooring all went up in good time.

That being said most charter boat guys don't take it well when some boat with 3 or 4 divers tell them they can't have the line that they worked so hard to put there. but 99% of the time we never have any problems and people are understanding and courteous. Here in Kingston we usually ask for a donation to POW if you are using the mooring as they do cost money. We are not like Tobermory and have Parks Canada doing the work and collecting money for the moorings.

Not only do the Kingston area charter and stores do the work to maintain the mooring they pay a "mooring fee" so that we can afford to keep the POW mooring project going.

Check out POW and support them if interested.

Damm I think this is the longest post I've ever posted........
I hope it answered your question.

 

[Groundhog246]

Well Said Jim.
If POW is putting in the buoys, then they're "private" buoys and POW can set the rules. If the charter operators are paying to moor, I think private boats should too. How well is it advertised? I'd suggest POW set out formal rules for use of moorings (duly voted on by the membership) and spring for some flyers for the dive shops and marinas and signs at boat launches. A sign along the lines of "Vessels on POW moorings must share the moorings by allowing a stern tie" would spell it out. Maybe you should have to be a member to use a POW mooring? At $20 a year a bargain. At the time they're signing up you could set out the "rules".
I'm not sure if Toby charges for a private boat to use a mooring (I know the local charter boats pay). I do know you have to check in with the park office for permission to use your own boat. And of course, you have to have a park tag.

Off topic rant I have found that for a sport that costs as much as this one, divers are pretty cheap bunch (myself included). I hear complaints about the cost of gear (LDS making too much), cost of air, cost of charters, cost of annual service, etc, etc. I chatted with a guy a while back, drove to Toby (3 hours each way), spent 2 nights in a motel room, rented gear for the weekend (what's about total here about $300 plus) and his big whine was the Park Tag, because THAT was perceived as a Government TAX.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

We have pretty much the same issue here with privately funded moorings and in general other divers who use them have chipped in on costs and materials. In a couple cases we have put in an additional mooring at the more popular sites ro avoid the need to raft one or more boats. Personally I like rafting as it offers additonal social opportunities but some other boat owners or operators are not always so accomodating.

But to be honest the limiting factor now is time and labor as there are limits to how much maintainence a few divers can do with a growing number of moorings.

I gotta agree with the off topic rant. People trash the local dive shops right and left for what they perceive as an unreasonable markup and then flock to Leisure Pro or other mail order/on-line dealers. They are also seriously short sighted as where exactly do they think they will get their air when they put the LDS out of business? It isn't cheap to own, operate or house a compressor or to maintain a full service dive shop but the LDS is considered evil if they can't match Leisure Pro prices.

The real unlikable divers are the ones who will go to the LDS to try on a wet suit, mask, BC or set of fins that the LDS has stocked at great expense and then go buy them online because they can get them a little cheaper.

The government tax thing is not limited to just divers. We have the governors cup pheasant hunt every year in South Dakota and it is not uncommon for a very well off individual to be invited to the hunt, arrive in their business jet (with operating and depreciation costs of $800 to $1500 per hour) and then complain about the cost of an out of state hunting license.

 

[knives]

still off topic...
Yes The GLUE likes to help POW out as well...without the excellent moorings , it would be difficult for any diver to access these great wrecks...

 

[pufferfish]

divedude once bubbled...

Here in Kingston we usually ask for a donation to POW if you are using the mooring as they do cost money. We are not like Tobermory and have Parks Canada doing the work and collecting money for the moorings.

Not only do the Kingston area charter and stores do the work to maintain the mooring they pay a "mooring fee" so that we can afford to keep the POW mooring project going.

I was out on a charter this spring up in Toby and one of the charter captains there was not happy with the way things are going up there with Parks Canada and wishing Toby could return to a voluntary system, "like they have in Kingston."

Not only did he feel the forever increasing Park fee was discouraging divers from coming to Toby (ah no, it might be the parking issue) but the dive shops and charter boats had to wait for Parks Canada to decide when they would put in the moorings. One of the Park's divers was on holidays, and because it was a commercial dive you had to have backup divers, etc. In other words he felt Parks Canada was not responsive to the local charter and shop owners needs. It sounded like it was our way and on our time for PC putting in the moorings. I guess the local shops and charter boats even offered to volunteer their time and services to Parks Canada but PC said no due to liability or Park diver availabilty issues, I believe. Keeping the placement of mooring buoys each spring in the hands of local shops and charter captains as in Kingston is probably the best way to go. The system is more flexible and repsonsive to local needs and the costs are kept down as one doesn't have Park divers who have all those expensive benefits to pay.

I agree with Groundhog in that if divers are paying a mooring fee on local charter boats then divers on private boats should also ante up. Some mechanism must exist to collect a fee either through POW membership or a locked mooring buoy where each diver can drop a toonie into it

 

[zboss]

I've got to say that the best mooring system, and thus I think a well-developed etiquette, is in the British Virgin Islands. All the dive sites which are regularly in use and are designated as national marine sanctuaries have multiple moorings - making diving very easy... Here is how they are designated:

White: Dive use by non-commercial boats on a first-come basis with a 90 minute time limit.
Red: Day use only by non-diving boats.
Blue: For use by dinghies only.
Yellow: Commercial dive boats only.
Large Yellow: Commercial, daysailing or large (over 55') boats.

In general - even though we have a private boat, we use the yellow one's anyhow. Keeping that in mind that we almost never come across sites that don't have a mooring available, the etiquette is different depending on the time at which either you approach a site or another boat approaches you...

1) If you are tied up and not suited up and a larger boat approaches... you unhook and allow them to hook and then you hook into them

2) If you are tied up and suited up and good to go and have the dive flag up... the boat cannot legally even approach your boat.

3) If you are tied up and finishing... the other boat floats for a minute or two until you are ready to go and you just leave

4) If you are approaching a dive site and see a boat moored and flying the flag - don't approach

5) If you are approaching aother vessel not flying the flag - ask to approach and tie off.

In any case - if you are at a popular site try to finish up what you are doing ASAP to free the mooring up.