Hi All-
Thinking of booking a 50 or 52ft monohull for our next trip. Haven't made the jump to 50 been hovering around 42-45. Is there any concern for swing radius at any of the mooring fields if we go to a 50 or 52? I've read that the balls are good up to 60ft but I feel like some of the fields are tight. TIA for any thoughts.

Maybe at Cooper. Last spring I witnessed two cats “kissing” at 3am. They were on the closer in boatyballs and the boats were every which way. I was awoken by our cat bouncing against the mooring buoy (but fortunately well away from other boats). We were on a 40 ft cat and the others looked about that size.

The two places we've seen some close calls (but no bumps) were Cooper and very close into the Pirates Bight. The winds are often wonky at Cooper and the to the point it would almost be weird to wake up to all the boats facing the same direction.

Most of the Bight is great but if you tuck up into the closest moorings we saw a bunch of boats swinging weirdly and and one monohull moved rather than stay in their original spot because of how a neighboring cat was swinging.

Dave

If you are on a cat tie your boat up like this at Cooper. You will shorten your swinging radius and the ball can not make contact with the boat hulls or go under the bridgedeck. You will enjoy a quiet sleep without the ball slapping the hulls. If the forecast is for high winds use the conventional method.
George

Anegada also has several very closely spaced mooring balls that will have you touching your neighbor if the wind dies and you start spinning.

George - just curious, your pic looks like a traditional bridal - How does this stop the ball from hitting the boat or going under the bridge deck when the winds die and currents slow?

The standard way to tie up is to run a dock line from each cleat to the mooring pennant. This leaves about 20 to 30 feet of line from the boat to the ball. The ball is free to run up under the bridgedeck and bang the hulls all night long. If you look closely at the pic the mooring pennant is tied directly to the starboard cleat and the length adjusted such that the ball cant reach the port hull. A dock line is added to the ball from the port cleat and adjusted so the ball cant reach the starboard hull. The ball is now trapped and can’t touch either hull or go under the bridgedeck. Swinging radius is also cut way down.

I have had success with this method, although I agree it is difficult to see it in the picture. I think what George is saying is that sometimes the pennant off the mooring ball is pretty long, so as he suggests, I bring the pennant on board and hitch to the cleat on either the port or starboard side of the bow, so that the mooring ball can only reach half-way to the opposite hull. Then feed a dock line through the actual mooring ball eye and back to the same cleat (you might have to pull the mooring ball up out of the water to reach it). And finally cleat the dock line so that the mooring ball is secured between the two hulls in a way that it can't reach either one. This way the boat can only swing around the mooring ball, not swing from the end of the pennant, plus can't bang the hull of your boat.

Thanks guys for the additional descriptions. Very helpful and will have to give it a try.