Two questions re your moored boat

[Robbo22]

Firstly, how do you access your boat when its tied to a mooring buoy several hundreds of feet from shore....via Paddling a small inflatable?......Swim out?.......float out on an airmatress?......kick your way out on an innertube. What is the most popular method ?


Secondly, how do you get your mooring weight (assuming its approx 200-300lbs) out to its resting place....

Do ya, float it out on a large innertube then deflate the tube.....or,

Load several bags of quick setting concrete on to the boat along with a pre-made form, then mix it out there and when hardened throw it over the side with chain and float attached

Or in desperation....do you offer four young bucks a 24 pack of Bud to help you lift it into your boat then have them chuck it over the side for you.

What are your most favoured methods ?

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I'm a trailer guy but used to sail a sailboat that was kept on a mooring. My favorite method was to have it at a marina and let them ferry me back and forth to the boat in the launch! I also kinda liked the fact that the mooring was their problem!

The alternative is to have an inflatable or dingy that can be rowed or pushed by a small motor back and forth to the larger boat. You then just leave it tied to the morring until you get back, unless you want to drag it along behind you as some people do.

Marinas typically set moorings by loading them onto a small barge or floating dock section. Sometimes a workboat serves as the "tug" and sometimes an outboard motor is mounted directly to the barge. Some even have a derrick with a wire rope/electric winch setup to lift the mooring and place it overboard.

 

[External Combustion]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I have only helped set one. The anchor was walked out to the end of the wharf on a large hand cart. It was then tied to a line that was wrapped several times around the bollard on the wharf. A line was passed around the boat from gunnel to gunnel and passed through the eye of the clevis on the anchor. The anchor was let down into the water (pushed actually, with lots of spray on the helping crew!) and the line around the boat tightened enough to bring the anchor out of the mud. We used a couple of blocks to do this. There were no worries about the boat, but I can easily see using a 2 X 4 to strengthen the sides against the crushing effect of the line. The boat was taken out to the right spot, the mooring line attached and the line around the boat let loose. We moved a 600 pound "anchor" with a 20 foot boat. The "anchor" was an old punch press, but it is still in use.

Old iron machinery can be a good deal for moorings that are basically dead weight anchors. The varied shapes provide more draging resistance than a concrete box and frequently they can be had for just hauling them away. I would suggest cast iron machinery only, as steel can corrode into nothingness surprisingly fast.

Cast concrete can be used as many here will attest, but remember that you will have to cast one and a half times as much weight in concrete to get the same holding power as in iron. The concrete is far less dense and that accounts for the loss.

 

[rocky100]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

Hmmmmmm, different methods over the years---the marina will run u out, or some kid with a jet ski(hang on tight), or inflatable boat which u can pull behind u while out on the water ( kind of a hassle though).
Good luck.

 

[Martinique]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

In the past I have borrowed another persons rowboat from the dock to get out to my moored boat then motor back in with the borrowed row boat to tie back up to the dock. If you have a Dinghy sling on your boat you can take your inflatable out and return the row boat to the dock that way too. Then you don't have to wait for place to dock your vessel when it's busy.

As for moving a heavy mooring. Simply drop it off at the edge of the water at low tide then at about 1/2 tide motor your boat up over it and tie it off real tight with thick rope around the bow. Then in about an hour, your boat will have picked the mooring up off the bottom then you can motor away real slow to deeper water to drop it anywhere you want.

 

[AGENT 37]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I used some old trawl net and placed in on the edge of my boat on a sheet of plywood. I then laid concrete chunks into it until it weighed several hundred pounds and laced the net tight around it and tied my mooring line to that. I then took it out in front of my house in the bay and pushed it over the side. I later added more weight to it a piece at a time by doing the similar thing and just tying a loop around my already existing mooring line and dropped it down on top of what I already had.

I used a small one-man inflatable pontoon boat to row out to my mooring. I would then tie up my inflatable to the mooring bouy when I got underway and returned to shore the same way.

I've also used a pulley system to the shore in near shore moorings. The boat is hooked into a looped line that goes through a pulley and is run to shore and tied off. When you moor you simply unload on shore, hook the boat into the mooring line and pull it until the boat is out to the mooring bouy and tie it off (we used a tree) when it's time to go just untie and pull the boat back into shore. Our application put the boat about 250 feet from shore.

Without a mooring bouy we have temporarily anchored the boat by setting the anchor on the edge of the boat and paying out a bunch of anchor line and putting a loop around the anchor. Hold the end of the anchor line and push the boat off shore. When its far enough out jerk the line and pull the anchor off into the water. It's tied to the boat with enough line to get it to the bottom. Pull the boat in to go and the anchor should drag with it or have enough slack to get the boat to shore.

 

[rheyboer]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I just walk out. As for the mooring weight, if your in the North just drag it over the ice. Come May it'l be on the bottom.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

've also used a pulley system to the shore in near shore moorings. The boat is hooked into a looped line that goes through a pulley and is run to shore and tied off. When you moor you simply unload on shore, hook the boat into the mooring line and pull it until the boat is out to the mooring bouy and tie it off (we used a tree) when it's time to go just untie and pull the boat back into shore. Our application put the boat about 250 feet from shore.

that sure sounds dangerous for other boaters,

 

[seaway81]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I used to work for a mooring company so I am really getting a kick out of these replies...

 

[AGENT 37]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

Not too dangerous where we did because we were mooring in a low traffic backwater on a remote island in AK. It would make a good clothesline for someone zipping along in a busy harbor though.

 

[mrmac]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

We had an 8 ft dinghy that we kept on shore - rowed out, left the dinghy at the mooring while we sailed (unless we went cruising), and rowed back to shore at the completion of our sail.

To place the mooring, we wrapped it in life jackets and floated/carried it to the desired spot. The homemade mooring was flue liner filled with concrete. Two anchors were attached to the block by heavy chain that ran through the concrete.

All went well until a storm raised the water level 4 or 5 ft with waves adding a few feet on to that. I hadn't allowed enough scope - the result being that the boat, block, and anchors began "walking" in the direction a nearby marina. It wasn't pretty.

Where you are, do you just put out a mooring or must you get permission from some governmental agency?

mrmac

 

[tommays]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

Up here it is all controled right down the surveyors on land controling the drop spot


In the winter we would allways remove the float and put on a winter stick so the ice would NOT drag it


And it really needs to be pulled and checked every 3 years just in case


When i first started the club had row boats and worked up to a kid and a SMALL outboard


Tommays

 

[Cptkid570]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I put a big piece of plywood on my deck to protect it, then mixed the concrete on the boat, then shoved it overboard. Probably not a very safe method, but it worked.

I've also heard of people using and old car engine block to make the mooring. That seems ok because it would be easy to hook a chain to it.

To get out to the boat, I had a small dingy with an electric motor. Before I could afford the dingy, I used a 2 man inflatable boat, stuck a battery in the boat, and hand-held an electric motor outside of the little inflatable boat.. it looked bad, but it pushed me along. (ok, until the inflatable boat got a hole in it, sank, and I had to swim in -- ahhh, good times).

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

I'm loving these anchor setting stories. Some of you guys are real inventive!

 

[Martinique]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

This is a good one. When I first started boating 20+yrs ago I would make large square concrete blocks with holes in them. 6 of these weighed about 500lbs. I would put a inflatable pool boat in the ocean then a peice of plywood on top of that then build all the blocks together and put a huge bolt throught the middle with a chain looped around the bolt. Squish it altogether then smim this thing (concrete blocks, chain and mooring ball) out to my "spot" then try to tip the raft over to drop the mooring. All the time, a police officer was watching in amazement and ready to call the harbormaster / fire trucks if I got sucked under. Not a good method. No one told me concrete was not that heavy in salt water either and when the first storm came I found my boat in practically another marina's mooring field! I thought the boat had blown away. Thankfully, nothing was damaged.
Take away message. Have a professional set your mooring or you might not have a boat to moor.

 

[amynbill]

Re: Two questions re your moored boat

Old iron machinery can be a good deal for moorings that are basically dead weight anchors. The varied shapes provide more draging resistance than a concrete box and frequently they can be had for just hauling them away. I would suggest cast iron machinery only, as steel can corrode into nothingness surprisingly fast.

That is my only experience with mooring. My aunt and uncle used to have a sailboat in Queens, kept it in the harbor there right off cross island parkway. The mooring they had dropped when I was a kid was some big old iron machine thing. I dont remember what it was (I was around 10 or so), but a barge brought it out there, dropped it down. Was cool when I was a kid to see that for some reason.

I am now in therapy.