Curreot forces on the ship must be added to the wind forces when evaluating a mooring arrangement.
In general, the variabiLity of current forces on a ship due to current velocity and direction follows
a pattern similar to that for wind forces. Current forces arc furtber complicated by the significant
effect of clearance beneath the keel. Figure 1.3 shows the increase in force due to reduced under-
keel clearance. The majority of terminals are oriented more or less parallel to the current, thereby
mi.nimizing current forces. Nevertheless, even a current with a small angle (such as 5°) off the ship's
10Ilgitudirutl axis can create a large transverse force and must be laken into consideration. Mpdel
tests indicate that the current force created by a ooe-knot head current on a loaded 250,000 DWT
tanker with a two metre underkeel clearance is about 5 tonnes (49 kN), whereas the load developed
by a one-knot beam current for the same lH.derkeel clearance is about 230 tonnes (2268 kN).
1.3 MOORING PATTERN
The tenn 'mooring pattern' refers 10 the geometric arrangement of mooring lines between the ship
and the berth.
The most efficient line 'lead' for resisting any given environmental load is a line oriented in the same
direction as the load. This would imply that, theoretically. mooring lines should all be oriented in
the direction of the environmental forces aDd be attached at such a longitudinal location on the
ship [llat the resultant load and restraint act through one and the same location. Such a system would
be impractical since it has no flexibility to accommodate the different eovironmental load directions
and mooring point locations encountered at various terminals. For general applications the moor-
ing pattern must be able to cope with environmental forces from any direction. This can best be
approached by splitting these forces into a longitudinal and a transverse component, and then
calculating how to most effectively resist them. It follows that some lines should be in a longitudinal
direction (spring lines) and some lines in a transverse direction (breast lines). This is the guiding
principle for an effective mooring pattern for general application, although locations of the actual
fillings at the rerminal will not always allow it to be put into practice. The dtX.Tease in efficiency by
deviating from the optimum line lead is shown in Figs. 1.4. and 1.5 (Compare Cases I and 3 in
Fig 1.4 where the maximum line load increases from 57 (559 kN) to 88 tonnes (863 kN)).
There is a basic difference in the function of spring and breast lines which must be understood by
designers and operators alike. Spring lines restrain [be ship in two directions (forward and aft);
breast lines restrain in only one direction (off the berth). restraint in the on-berth direction being
provided by the fenders and breasting dolphins. Whereas all breast lines will be stressed under an
off-bert.h envi.ronmental force, only the aft or the forward spring lines will generally be stressed. For
this reason the method of line-tending differs between spring and breast Lines (as explained later). If
spring lines are pretensioned, only the difference between the forces in the opposing spring lines wiJI
be available for the longitudinal restraint of the ship. This fact also relates to the problems with
constant tension winches mentioned in Section 7.
Some mooring patterns incorporate head and stem lines wh.ich are oriented between a longitudinal
and nansverse direction. The longitudinal component of such a linc acts like a spring lin.e and the
transverse component like a breast line. Under tension, the longitudinal components of bead and
stern lines oppose and tend to cancel each other, and are therefore ineffective in the 10ngi(Udinal
restraint of the ship. Head and stem lines are only partially effeclive in providing the transverse
restraint a~ shown in Fig. 1.5. Their effectiveness will be further reduced due to elasticity effects if
they are arranged in combination with breast lines.The effectiveness of a mooring line is influenced by two angles: the vertical angle the line forms
witb the pier deck and the horizontal angle the line fonns with the parallel side of the ship. The
steeper the orientation of a line, the less effective it is in resisting horizontal loads. For instance,
a line oriente d at a vertical angle of 45° is only 75% as effective in restraining the ship as a line oriented
a t a 20 u vertical angle. Similarly, the larger the horizontal angle between the parallel side of the ship
and the line. the less effective the line is in resisting a longitudinal force.