Buoy mooring

Buoy mooring is securing a vessel to one or more permanently anchored buoys rather than to a quay or to its own anchor. Forms range from a single mooring buoy a yacht picks up to multi-buoy moorings where a ship lies to bow and stern buoys, and to offshore single buoy moorings (SBM) where a tanker connects to a floating loading terminal and weathervanes around it. The mooring buoy is held by ground chain or catenary anchor legs to seabed anchors or piles sized for the design environmental load. Buoy moorings free up berth space, allow loading in open roadsteads with no jetty, and let a moored ship swing head to weather, reducing line loads.