Mooring

A mooring is any permanent structure to which a seaborne vessel (such as a boat, ship, or amphibious aircraft) may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An anchor mooring fixes a vessel's position relative to a point on the bottom of a waterway without connecting the vessel to shore. As a verb, mooring refers to the act of attaching a vessel to a mooring.^[1]

For other uses, see Mooring (disambiguation).

The term likely stems from the Dutch verb meren (to moor), used in English since the end of the 15th century.

Dead weights are the simplest type of anchor. They are generally made as a large concrete block with a rode attached which resists movement with sheer weight; and, to a small degree, by settling into the substrate. In New Zealand old railway wheels are sometimes used. The advantages are that they are simple and cheap. A dead weight mooring that drags in a storm still holds well in its new position. Such moorings are better suited to rocky bottoms where other mooring systems do not hold well. The disadvantages are that they are heavy, bulky, and awkward.

Mushroom anchors are the most common anchors and work best for softer seabeds such as mud, , or silt. They are shaped like an upside-down mushroom which can be easily buried in mud or silt. The advantage is that it has up to ten times the holding-power-to-weight ratio compared to a dead weight mooring; disadvantages include high cost, limited success on rocky or pebbly substrates, and the long time it takes to reach full holding capacity.^[4]

sand

Pyramid anchors are pyramid-shaped anchors, also known as Dor-Mor anchors. They work in the upside-down position with the apex pointing down at the bottom such that when they are deployed, the weight of wider base pushes the pyramid down digging into the floor. Lateral pulls cause the side edges or corners of the pyramids to dig deeper under the floor, making them more stable.^[6]

[5]

Screw-in moorings are a modern method. The anchor in a screw-in mooring is a shaft with wide blades spiraling around it so that it can be screwed into the substrate. The advantages include high holding-power-to-weight ratio and small size (and thus relative cheapness). The disadvantage is that a diver is usually needed to install, inspect, and maintain these moorings.

Multiple anchor mooring systems use two or more (often three) light weight temporary-style set in an equilateral arrangement and all chained to a common center from which a conventional rode extends to a mooring buoy. The advantages are minimized mass, ease of deployment, high holding-power-to-weight ratio, and availability of temporary-style anchors.

anchors

(floating)

HMPE

(heat resistant) (including Kevlar)

Aramid

– Device used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting

Anchor

– Designated location at sea for ships to drop anchor

Anchorage (shipping)

– Designated location in a port or harbour used for mooring vesselss

Berth (moorings)

– Structure designed to allow for the docking of an airship

Mooring mast

– Propulsion of a vehicle by wind power

Sailing

IACS Unified Requirement A: Mooring and Anchoring

Find moorings

Popular Mechanics, May 1930, article on docking large ships in the first half of the 20th century