'Can I trust this mooring?'

Most sailors use traditional moorings without knowing about their condition or how they're made up. Ben Sutcliffe-Davies explains

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Most navigable estuaries are lined with traditional swinging moorings and they've filled up many of our anchorages, too. Some skippers view moorings with suspicion, preferring to trust their own anchor or to tie up alongside every night, but most of us use them, either as visitors or as long-term residents.

It's easy to inspect the top part of a mooring when you pick it up and it's wise to do so, but what about the parts that you can't see through the murky water? They all look the same at the buoy, but there are many different ways to make up a mooring tackle and many conflicting opinions among experts as to how it should be done.

Local knowledge is important. I grew up in a boatyard in Suffolk where the top reaches of the rivers dry out to various types of mud at low water and where it's crucial to ensure the boat can't be damaged by grounding on top of her mooring tackle. Strong ebb tides, varying depths and shifting sands can complicate it further.

As a yacht surveyor and cruising skipper, I've encountered many different types of moorings around the British coast. It's worth knowing a bit about them and here's what you need to know.

Boatyard or fairway committee?

Many boatyards have been in the moorings business for generations, under long-standing fairway agreements. They lay their own moorings and rent them out, often on a seasonal arrangement and the owner of the river bed-usually the Crown Estate-gets a percentage of the takings.

A boatyard mooring is the least-hassle type because an annual service of the tackle is normally included and you can expect it to be fit for purpose for the agreed size and draught of yacht. It's always worth checking with the office at the start of the season that your mooring has been serviced prior to your using it.