Mooring a 185 off the beach, advice needed.

cmassa

cmassa

New Member
Jul 11, 2010
55
Northern California
Boat Info
2005 Sea Ray 185 Sport
Engines
4.3L Mercruiser, Alpha outdrive
I need to make a mooring for my 185. The beach at our cabin is granite sand and rocks and I get the bottom scratched up even with a keel protector installed if I beach it. In the afternoons we get some significant wind, even up to 25-30 mph and get lots of boat wakes as well. For some reason peolple like to cruise by about 20 ft out from the boat at 10 mph and make HUGE waves. I used the anchor last year but it would drag across the bottom. I even piled rocks on top of it.

I was thinking of making a mooring out of a 5 gallon white plastic bucked filled with concrete and possibly have some pieces of pipe sticking through it to help dig into the sand. Do you think it will be heavy enough?

The other problem with mooring off our beach, the lake is man-made and used for hydro-electric power so the lake level drops throughout the year and the mooring will need to be moved from time to time. So, basically I need something heavy enough to hold the boat in the wind but still be moveable, probably by dragging it across the bottom with the boat.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Chris
 
Chris - do you have any pic's of your situation? It's kind of hard to help you without knowing exactly what condition you are trying to moor in. In the Ocean areas, they use mooring bouys that have a concrete base. Why would you need to move your mooring? Just let the water go up and down and let the boat move as it will?
 
My Avatar shows the boat tied up just off the shore. The lake was full then so there was no beach, only a rock wall. I know the pic is small, I'll try to find another one. It is a very shallow beach so I am mooring in 3-5 ft of water in general, any deeper and the boat is way off the beach and I need to swim for it. As the lake is drained through the summer we have to keep moving farther from the high water line.
 
I used to use one of those stretch anchor lines (anchor buddy?) with my old sea ray. work great. Even withstood a nasty summer storm with winds like you are talking about.

Are you paying out enough line? the anchor should dig if you get the right length.

drop a buoy out from your boat. most would avoid in fear of hitting something it may be tied to.
 
Do you have any chain on your anchor before the rode? That will also help with holding power. I have no problem with the concrete idea but that would be a PITA to move when the water drops.
How about dropping a "no wake" bouy in front of your property?
 
Let me also say that the wind switches direction 180 degrees around mid day, every day which makes using the anchor difficult too. There is a piece of chain on the anchor. We are thinking of building a floating dock but there is a big process in getting it approved through PG&E so we haven't gotten around to it. Also, when the lake gets low, we would have to drag it back up the beach before closing up for the winter and tie it up so that when the lake fills again in the winter its not 200 ft offshore. We would love to have a dock but they are not cheap either.

Chris
 
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beernutz said:
Is there a place to mount some kind of mooring whip which could be adjusted as conditions change?

http://search.overtons.com/?Ne=1000&N=2253&Ntt=mooring
Click to expand...

Not really because we are just off the beach. There is no dock. Its a tough spot for mooring because of the wind and shallow slope to the beach. When using the anchor the boat swings around a lot due to wind and waves and I have to have it just the right length or it swings into very shallow water. I usually try to tie off the back of the boat to the shore with my ski rope. That way I have something I can pull to get the boat in closer to load up. With my parents old 1972 jet boat we didnt worry about it, just beached it all the time. I'm trying not to wreck the bottom of this one on the rocks. I figure that with a heavy concrete mooring I could have it tighter, more vertical so the boat won't travel far, just swing around the mooring.
 
Just take 3 - 5 gal buckets. Fill with concrete and put a 12" stainless eye bolt in each one. That yields about 300lbs. Be sure to put several nuts along each eyebolt to give it holding power in the concrete. Shackle the 3 eye bolts with a short length of chain to a stainless Screw Pin Shackle. Be sure to sieze the pin. Run a line up from the shackle to the float. By using 3 separate buckets each can be moved separately. The shackling will allow them to work as one and allow you plenty of holding power for the wind and waves. Otherwise form up a large box to pour a large concrete pad and figure out how to drag it into place;)

At our lake here in town, the local harbormaster just makes concrete pads 12"x12"x12" and moors up to 24' boats on them. Keep in mind that concrete is about 150lbs per cubic foot.
 
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What kind of anchor do you use? I have a 185 and we anchor near an inlet just off a sandbar. Heavy tides and wind as well as commercial fishing vessels coming through. I use a Digger Anchor and don't have a problem.
 
The buckets will work. I doubt you'll need three like Chuck mentioned, but they're cheap and easy so it can't hurt. I have done exactly what you are thinking about. I used re-rod, instead of pipe, but I did the same thing by having two pieces sticking out the bottom in a "cross hair" fashion. I had them stick out about 8" - 12".

If the area you are actually anchoring in is muddier/softer, then look at a large mushroom anchor. Or, better yet, look at one called Dor-mor. Better holding/penetrating power than a mushroom and it's shank is much shorter.
 
The weights here seem to be less than those I've read about in other places - concrete in water loses about half of its weight, if what I've read is correct, because of its density relative to water. The "mushroom" anchors used in Cayuga (outside of harbors) are *much* larger; 500-800 lbs. The pyramid-shaped anchor is a real possibility. I've used a single 5-gal bucket of concrete w. a 12' catamaran (no sail) and watched th boat drag the mooring; the length of the rode (2.5-3x depth of mooring is frequently suggested) is extremely important, so the first comment about anchor line length might be high on the list of things to check. I'm no expert, but I've been messing around with a mooring in the open lake for over a year, and I know full well that just when you think you've finally got enough weight/line, the lake shows you otherwise....
 
The bottom type is the key. It sounds like the bottom is firm, gravel, stoney, I don't think I would trust a couple 5gal pails rolling around down there. Subtracting buoyancy two 5gal pails of concrete will give you about 120#. Dead weight mooring anchors are usually real heavy. The conditions you describe sound like they would roll those pails around and move them. In a mud bottom after they settle in maybe not. What are the others using in the area?
 
The bottom is a coarse decomposed granite sand. Things that dig into it (like anchors) tend to pull right out or drag through it. The only way I could get the anchor to hold well was to make sure it caught on an old stump/roots on the bottom but those would eventually break because they were so old. Most times the anchor would hold in the sand but a few weekends we had higher winds and the boat was pushed all over the place.
 
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