Mooring Weight?

[Surfly]

Hello;
I have a 20' SeaSwirl, 8' beam, 4.3l I/O. I've been told that a 200lb mushroom anchor with appropriate bottom and top chain would be sufficient as a mooring. The mooring location will be in a bay that does get some good SW wind and at most 3-4 foot wind chop, no sea swell, mostly mud bottom. Does this anchor recommendation seem adequate?
Many thanks now and for the future: I'm a new boater with a great deal of enthusiasm and curiousity.....

JT

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Mooring Weight?

mooring usually requires a permit, that's first, and they will probably tell you what you can and cannot use. we've used pieces of old railroad rail in the past.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Agree on the above. Nice thing about mushrooms and mud is that the mud sucks up the mushroom (preferably without holes)....you ain't a gonna get it out if it stays very long....great for mooring, sucks on anchor recovery.

Chain to me is 3/8" or above, at least 6' of it. Helps to keep the stress off the anchor....acts like a shock absorber. Since the chain is heavy, it will want to lie on the bottom. This puts tension on the anchor line and if the boat tugs, it has to lift the chain first. By then most of the impact of the tug has been absorbed.

I usually pay out at least 3x the depth of the water for the anchor line and secre it to something solid...preferably a bow eye, not a deck cleat.

Works for me.

 

[Surfly]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Thanks folks. No permit required here. Since we have significant tides here (13 feet, at times) I'm going to use about 10' of 1inch bottom chain and about 25' of 3/8 top chain. I'm going to set the mushroom in about 6' of water at mean low tide--the boat draws about 2' and that will leave extra room for neap tides.

Does that all sound about right? Maybe it's overkill, but I'd rather sleep well on a stormy night than be staring at the ceiling listening to the wind and wondering......

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Sounds great to me.

I didn't mention it, but I took a shovel and made an indentation in the clay bottom where I moored such that after placing the mushroom I had several inches of bottom material covering the flukes.

The next year (summer vac) we went back and I decided to see how the mushroom was doing.

It had buried it'self nicely about 6" deeper than when I set it. Maybe it was bottom silt that filled in or maybe it just worked it's way down. The important thing is the setup I mentioned (as you did) worked and the mooring setup was holding. I agree. Jumping out of bed in the middle of the night and trying to secure a boat in gale wind/waves is totally out of the question.

Mark

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Just had a thought. How much anchor line are you adding to the chain or are you going with chain all the way?

The boat will have to support the weight of the chain and you may not want that much weight on the bow in rough water.

The idea of the chain is that it lies on the bottom and the boat lifts it when a big wave lifts the bow of the boat. Too much weight at the bow might not let the bow rise properly.

And I'd use nylon line. It stretches, absorbing impact, is extremely abrasion resistant and seems to tolerate UV's. Would use a galvanized or SS eye and perferably splice the line. A clevis would connect from there to the boat and I would secure the clevis pin so that it couldn't unscrew. A tiewrap would work fine....(uv resistand) or piece of SS wire.

I'd say Polyethylene is totally out of the question.

Mark

 

[Surfly]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Well, the top chain goes up to the mooring ball which will hold everything up, right? From there, I have a 15' "pendant" line running to the boat. So no, the bow doesn't have to hold up the chain. Am I forgetting anything?

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Mooring Weight?

OK. Only one more thing. I reread your initial thread and you mentioned that you would be anchoring in 6' at mean low tide and you have a 20' boat. Then there is the distance the chain/rope will allow the boat to move toward the shore to shallower water when the storm is blowing onshore.

If you have a storm at mean low have you calculated wave height and boat pitch and do you have adequate room for the transom/outdrive to clear the bottom when she pitches?

You can purchase a used tractor inner tube, like a 13.6 x 24 or 14.5 x 30 for probably $5. Load at least your anchor on it at the shore line and float it out to your drop site. Then come back and get your chain and it should be a piece of cake getting all that weight out to where you want it. Nice thing about the mushroom you can roll it out to the tube.

Good luck,

Mark

 

[roscoe]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Surfly, you got it. Just make sure that the boat cannot hit bottom anywhere at low tide, when the boat makes its swing around.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Mooring Weight?

I had a mooring as a kid in Jamica Bay in NY. I used a big concrete block that I had placed truck spring U bolts in and cable (wire rope) 3/4" to the mooring bouy. The bouy was a beer keg

I liked using cable and it seemed to have outlasted the chains.

 

[Surfly]

Re: Mooring Weight?

Great suggestions everyone. I do have adequate "swing room" for low tide, onshore storms; I probably have far more room than I need, but the alternative isn't acceptable.
I wish I'd thought of the truck/tractor inner tube idea before I wrestled the dang 200lb mushroom out to the low tide line. I never thought I'd say I have more brawn than brains but the truth may be that I don't have much of either!
I'll use the boat to float the anchor out to the exact spot tomorrow.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Mooring Weight?

See, the thing about the tube is, when you are finished you can tie a rope on it and the kids (and adult kids) can go tubing. I like the tractor tubes as they are tall enough for you to get your bod (regardless of how big you are) outta-da-watta and get more whoopie in the ride. For little tykes they can really get a ride bouncing over wakes and all.

Seems in our latter outings, we spent more time tubing than we did skiing.

Mark