Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

I'd love to see pics of this place, waterfront and floating swim dock....

What's the swim dock attached to??? If it's attached to something, chances are it's pretty well attached and could help tie off the boat. Can you give us an address so we can Google-Earth it???

I'll take some pics on saturday and see what you guys think. (dock was just put in, not on google earth yet)

I'm not going to take an engine block and throw it over board, I just had a hernia operation! LOL.

I'm pretty much thinking either my big anchor is going to have to work or I'll just leave it home in the slip.

Like I said there is a mooring field where I think I can get one, but I'd have to figure out some way to actually get to the field - it's about .25 miles away from the house.

Keep in mind the hernia thing. If I had some kind of small boat with an electrical motor I guess that would work.

I do have a "sea eagle" 50 dollar inflatable but my doc said rowing is off the table for five weeks!

 

[Beefer]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

I'm not going to take an engine block and throw it over board, I just had a hernia operation! LOL.

Keep in mind the hernia thing. If I had some kind of small boat with an electrical motor I guess that would work.

Aren't you married?

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Aren't you married?

haha nope! this is a going on vacation with myself to a nice house and then lure some single chicks to the place kinda vacation.

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

So here are some pics:

Overall view:

Ramp down to the floating platform (obviously it's not 100% just yet):

The dock in this picture belongs to the boat that is out on that mooring, he has his boat WAY out there I assume because of the tides coming in and out, which of course would cause the rope to either go slack or tighten up

The dock on the left, belongs to the mooring on the right:

I'm going to go for it here's my plan.


I measured the anchor I have, it's actually a 30lb fluke anchor.

I also have this thing called an "anchor buddy" it's an elastic rope that expands and contracts like a bungee cord depending on how hard the boat is pulling on it.

This is what I plan on doing (minus the rope on the back of the boat to the shore):

My goal is to keep the boat closer then the guy in the pictures above but also allow for high tide and low tide movements.

What do ya think? I also have a mooring I can use in the event of a severe storm that's about 200 -300 feet away.

Another thing I was thinking of doing was attaching two fluke anchors, one as the main holding one at the end of the line with a chain and then the other about 10 feet back on the rope where I'd attach the anchor buddy line. That way most of the force would be on the first anchor, and the main one would only be used if a storm tried to move the boat..

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

hrmmm maybe i have to start a new topic on this. I think I'll just go for it and post my results

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Unless depth of water is an issue at various tide levels, I'd investigate the possibility of just tying off to the floating dock. It's gotta have some serious concrete mooring blocks. Is that not a covered boat tied to a similar dock off in the distance in the last pic? Hard to tell.

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Ok well After all this work and advice I just talked to the guy who built it, he goes "why dont you just tie off to the dock??" haha just like you did scotabout...

I guess that'll be what I do. We'll see how it goes..

 

[Lou C]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Well after the storm we had yesterday that capsized a few boats in the Sound...I'd be careful...tieing it to the dock should be OK as long as you have adequate fenders and your auto bilge switch and batteries are in good shape...
If you couldn't use the dock...I'd have checked to see if you could have rented a mooring for that 2 week period...for a 20' boat usually they specify a 200 lb mushroom mooring (that's what I have and they hold great even in storms)...but then you'd still need a dinghy to get out to the mooring...

Another good thing to keep in mind...on the North Shore of LI the water depth changes 7 feet between high and low tide...you might want to check the depth at that dock at low tide and trim up your lower unit if its going to be in less than 5 feet of water at low tide..

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Well after the storm we had yesterday that capsized a few boats in the Sound...I'd be careful...tieing it to the dock should be OK as long as you have adequate fenders and your auto bilge switch and batteries are in good shape...
If you couldn't use the dock...I'd have checked to see if you could have rented a mooring for that 2 week period...for a 20' boat usually they specify a 200 lb mushroom mooring (that's what I have and they hold great even in storms)...but then you'd still need a dinghy to get out to the mooring...

Another good thing to keep in mind...on the North Shore of LI the water depth changes 7 feet between high and low tide...you might want to check the depth at that dock at low tide and trim up your lower unit if its going to be in less than 5 feet of water at low tide..

Yea, tides are fine - I was talking with the guy today and he said there's 7 feet of water at dead low during a full moon (like today and tomorrow).. auto bilge is working fine..... dual batteries have never let me down ..... knocking on wood right now.

 

[RobbyA]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Take it with you, tie it up to the dock and if it sinks, well my friend you have a new thread to start on!

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Ok so here's a quick drawing of what I'm going to do, just because I'm anal.

The white lines are regular 1/2 inch thick anchor line.

The blue line are my anchor buddy line (I will ALSO have secondary anchor lines in case the anchor buddy snaps, setting them at high tide of course)

This way I figure that I can keep the boat off the dock......because when there's 3 or 4 foot waves it really doesn't matter how many fenders are out, banging against something is no good.

See any problems?

http://i27.tinypic.com/28jtz.jpg

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

If the boat is moored beam on to a strong wind it will exert alot of force on your anchor. If you want to moor your boat this way I would recommend having the stem pointed toward the anchor and the stern towards the float. Kinda like a "Mediterranean mooring".

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

If the boat is moored beam on to a strong wind it will exert alot of force on your anchor. If you want to moor your boat this way I would recommend having the stem pointed toward the anchor and the stern towards the float. Kinda like a "Mediterranean mooring".

I think you used stern too many times in there Bow pointed towards what?

The wind is usually coming from the right of the picture. The current changes depending on tides...

The guy who built the dock said I could just tie it to the dock and forget about it.......but I figured by using the anchor I was at least lowering the strain on the dock.

 

[SeanT]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

So.

How do you get off the dock without getting wet?

 

[SeanT]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

The guy who built the dock said I could just tie it to the dock and forget about it.......but I figured by using the anchor I was at least lowering the strain on the dock.

I don't think it works that way. You aren't taking any strain off the dock. But you are anchored incase the boat comes free of the dock.

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

So.

How do you get off the dock without getting wet?

That's the magic of the anchor buddy!! I can just pull the boat and hopefully if I have it all tied up correctly the boat will just come over to me and as soon as I get on it, it'll move back out away from the dock! We shall see! I might have to video tape it for ya!

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

I think you used stern too many times in there Bow pointed towards what?

The wind is usually coming from the right of the picture. The current changes depending on tides...

The guy who built the dock said I could just tie it to the dock and forget about it.......but I figured by using the anchor I was at least lowering the strain on the dock.

I typed "stem" towards anchor. (The pointy end)

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

I don't think it works that way. You aren't taking any strain off the dock. But you are anchored incase the boat comes free of the dock.

Well my figuring is that if the boat was just tied to the dock it would make it want to "twist" counter clockwise during heavy winds.......

This way it will try to pull the dock out towards the boat during high winds, but at least it wont TWIST the dock.. right?

 

[SeanT]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Oh, could be. I guess I figured the dock would be moored so that twisting wouldn't be an issue, but only the owner knows for sure.

Also, yes I would very much like to see the anchor buddy in action

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Going on vacation for 2 weeks want to take the boat - but no mooring available...

Well what a freakin experience this was today.

Leaving my slip there were no waves, about 20 mins later I was fighting with 4-5 foot waves driving about 10 MPH.

Got to the house and the dock was JUMPING out of the water like I've never seen!!!

Keep in mind the water has been FLAT for the 5 days that I've been here. Of course TODAY is the day that we get some really big *** waves.

Never-the-less. I threw my big *** anchor overboard, thank god I ordered 250 feet of 1/2 inch anchor line last week, I'd be screwed with out it.

Anywhere after about 40 mins of trying to figure out the best course or action, here's what I came up with.

That was at low tide. it's about the best I could do, it's got the main HUGE anchor off the bow with 160 feet of line. Then it's tied to the dock at both the front and rear of the boat, then there's another second smaller anchor tied off the stern.......just in case.

Lastly I have a light on it that I can see from my bed room. I'll post that picture later.