Mooring a Laser

Rob Hair

Active Member
I'm considering mooring my boat for the sailing season in a small (350 acre) lake with a line to the bow and one to the stern. Anybody have experience with doing this - problems with water absorption, or anything else? I've always stored my Lasers on land but can't really think of what problems I'd encounter. I'm pretty sure I have no leaks. :)

Thanks for sharing any such experiences.
 
I have 0 experience with this but my initial thoughts are:

- Do not moor the boat by the bow eye alone, it may not be strong enough to hold the boat during high winds/chop (even small chop on a 350 acre lake)
- Make sure your boat really has 0 leaks (maybe leave it in for a few days and check for leaks later) but you know you're boat better than anyone else on here.

My overall advice and experience is with dry sailing Lasers, but those are just my initial reactions. Good luck!
 
Yes, for sure. And I plan to use a fabric cover.

Also, its not the boat or location in my photo.
 
So if you are mooring the laser as a bare hull, then are you going out to get the boat only to bring it to shore to rig? And the same would need to occur to derig the boat? If you were doing this back-n-forth to rig and unrig, it seems like a waste of time and might as well keep on land.

Alternatively, If you are trying to rig and unrig a laser on the water moored, that seems like really, really hard work.

I can't imagine either situation making your life easy. I would highly suggest keeping a laser on dry land for practical rigging/derigging purposes. Otherwise, I have to believe there are way better small sailboats for a reasonable mooring lifestyle.
 
Mark, thanks for replying. Unfortunately, in this location it just not possible to keep the boat on shore or I would of course do that.

Thanks to all that have replied. Wavedancer, the links you provided were particularly helpful and I've decided to build a rack with straps to hold the boat. I was hoping to avoid building something but preserving the boat's integrity is worth my time.
 
ive seen water blow over the gunwhales of daysailers and swamp them. during storms. once the water sinks the hull enough water will come up through the dagger case or in the instance of the oday, it would squirt out of the centerboard down haul hole. so unless you can keep an eye on it....id expect to find it sunk to the deck, full of water. so good plan to keep it off the ball.
 

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