Bridle fairlead
Because the anchor bridle cannot be reached from the deck / forward beam, we use a separate bridle when we are on a mooring. We attach the bridle to the forward mooring cleats and then to the mooring. We have two options:
- We can run the bridle lines outside of the hull, but this damages the gelcoat or,
- We can run the bridle in a straight line, over the cross beam. But the line then chafes over the rough part of the beam, or it gets caught in the space between the beam and the hull and wears through very quickly.
Neither has proven a good option for us. To solve it I installed two large fairleads. These keep the bridle off the cross beam and prevents it getting caught in the space between the beam and the hull.
The fairleads are Harken #3281 jibsheet fairlead large.
Hi. Good idea on using a fairlead – just back from chartering a Lagoon 46 which had no cleats on the cross beam, and the mooring line would put strain on the pulpit seat stanchions when the boat swung, irrespective of whether you ran the line inside or outside the seat. Couple of observations on your solution though 1) always use two lines doubled back – one from each bow – rather than a single line looped though the eye of the pennant and onto the other cleat. Its a lot more secure and reduces the chafing on the line, especially if you have barnacles or growth on the pennant eye 2) you could consider putting cleats directly on the cross beam. you then use a bowline loop tied off on the cleat, run the line through the pennant eye and tie off on the cleat, then as an added security measure take the bitter end back to the bow cleat and tie off there. That way even if the mooring cleat fails you are still attached (and if you have used 2 lines you have the other bow gh also.
I agree with your comments. We use a Mantus type of bridle, so it is not a single line through the loop. The buoy end of the line has a spliced eye with a stainless steel thimble. I use a large shackle to attach it to the mooring. No chafing at all.
Thanks you for making this website and sharing the information that you have. I like what you have done here with the bridle fairlead. I would like to copy you but my boat is away in charter (Astrea 42), do you recall the length of bolt that you used to go through the cross brace? I assume you went all the way through just forward of the internal vertical “beam” of the extrusion?
Hi Jeff,
The bolts just go through the upper skin of the beam. You can insert a spanner from the side to hold the nut but you cannot turn due to lack of space.
So use an LN type bolt so you can tighten the bolt from the top. I used 40mm M10 LN cylinder head bolts and a washer with locknut in the beam.