Mooring a 185 off the beach, advice needed.

I'm guessing about 5 ft. It's put away under the cover now. As far as I know it's the stock Sea Ray anchor.
 
The anchor that typically comes in the "pack" when you buy the boat is adequate for day use only. It's probably a #5 or #7 economy fluke anchor. A larger one would work better. Also, about 10' to 15' of chain would work much better for your use. With the bottom condition you are describing, you should be getting a good hold. I suspect (as someone mentioned above) that you are not using enough scope. With the chain and (most importantly) a scope of 7:1 that anchor should just dig deeper and deeper as the boat pulls on it.

That being said, I still wouldn't be comfortable leaving the boat with only one anchor deployed. I would feel much better with a mooring system.
 
Chris,

Sorry to say, you have gotten a lot of well meaning, but inaccurate advice. Poured concrete blocks are a poor choice, mainly because concrete loses about 40% of its effective weight due to the effects of buoyancy. You need a denser material. We used to use two of the US Mail plastic boxes filled with concrete (about 3 90# bags worth) and steel to moor a 14' Zodiac. I got tired of having to reset the mooring two or three times a season.

If you don't have a lot of depth change, you can use a mushroom anchor, something in the 300-400 pound range should work well. You could also use a pyramid block as well, if the water depth plus mushroom stem length might pose a puncture risk to your hull. The next step is some good heavy chain. The chain is providing weight as well pulling strength, so for the bottom section don't be afraid to use something beefy like 1/2". You want to go with a length that can be pulled out of the water to get to the transition hardware to make inspection and servicing easier. In any event at least 5', 10' would be better. The upper chain length should be the depth of the water plus any variance. Basically you are shooting for the max depth. ALso don't forget you will need a swivel between the two chains. Some folks prefer the mooring balls with a metal stem, I've found the ones that allow you to pull the chain through work the best as the boat is always pulling on the chain and there is no load on the silly mooring ball stem.

Here in New England granite blocks are used commonly because they are cheap. I have a 1600 pound block on my bow and a 1200 pound block on the stern (actually delivered by the local mooring service). You say the beach is granite, you might be able to get something from a local quarry.

Henry
 
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Henry Boyd said:
Chris,

Sorry to say, you have gotten a lot of well meaning, but inaccurate advice. Poured concrete blocks are a poor choice, mainly because concrete loses about 40% of its effective weight due to the effects of buoyancy. You need a denser material. We used to use two of the US Mail plastic boxes filled with concrete (about 3 90# bags worth) and steel to moor a 14' Zodiac. I got tired of having to reset the mooring two or three times a season.

If you don't have a lot of depth change, you can use a mushroom anchor, something in the 300-400 pound range should work well. You could also use a pyramid block as well, if the water depth plus mushroom stem length might pose a puncture risk to your hull. The next step is some good heavy chain. The chain is providing weight as well pulling strength, so for the bottom section don't be afraid to use something beefy like 1/2". You want to go with a length that can be pulled out of the water to get to the transition hardware to make inspection and servicing easier. In any event at least 5', 10' would be better. The upper chain length should be the depth of the water plus any variance. Basically you are shooting for the max depth. ALso don't forget you will need a swivel between the two chains. Some folks prefer the mooring balls with a metal stem, I've found the ones that allow you to pull the chain through work the best as the boat is always pulling on the chain and there is no load on the silly mooring ball stem.

Here in New England granite blocks are used commonly because they are cheap. I have a 1600 pound block on my bow and a 1200 pound block on the stern (actually delivered by the local mooring service). You say the beach is granite, you might be able to get something from a local quarry.

Henry
Click to expand...


for some reason this came to mind!

"Jane, you ignorant slut!"

:grin:
 
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cmassa said:
I'm guessing about 5 ft. It's put away under the cover now. As far as I know it's the stock Sea Ray anchor.
Click to expand...

I think you are wasting energy with a mooring. 5' of chain is rather pathetic (no insult to you). But no wonder you are not left satisfied with your anchor.

Chain is more important then the anchor. I use 25' feet of "1/2" or 3/8" chain in 4 beaufort waves in a huge open bay in the sea. I use a cheap fordable anchor 22lbs. (some say these anchors or not great, but they do the trick and they are cheap)

Before you go and spend time go get 20' of chain and see if it does the trick.

If you don't believe me lay 25' feet of chain down on your driveway. Try to pull up and away.... It won't budge.

Just trying to help you save money. And really chain length is extremely important.
 
Thanks for the advice everybody. The reason I am looking into a mooring instead of using an anchor is that I am trying to keep the line as short as possible. The boat will be in shallow water (3-5 ft) no more than 20' from the waters edge so I can get to it by wading in the 68 degree water to get my boat. With the wind and waves a long anchor line allows the boat to be pushed onto the beach and rocks. Also, whatever I use will need to be moved frequently through the summer as the lake level drops. By the end of the summer I will have moved the mooring at least 100-150 ft farther away from the high water level. This is a small remote lake in the Sierras of Northern California and there are really no services available to help me. There is a small marina with a few slips (very expensive and not close to the cabin) and a gas pump and that's it. Whatever I use I have to haul in myself and be able to move it somehow. Maybe what I need just isn't possible but thanks again for the advice everybody.

Chris
 
It's still possible. But, the big problem I see is the depth you are talking about. With those depths, there's an excellent chance that the boat can float over the mooring system and be damaged. You'd have to put at least two systems out there (spaced apart) so the boat can stay in the middle. You'll also need some type of float, not only where you pick up the attachment point, but also directly above each system to warn other boaters (or do like Henry does and use one for the bow and one for the stern).

You don't have a tide to help you lift the "anchor" to be able to move it easily, so whatever you decide on you'll be dragging it with your boat to a new location.

Why don't you just moor the boat further out to start with and use a row boat to get to it? Get the mooring out in deeper water (where it will still be deep as the level changes) to start with.

We've used native rock many times in Maine - like what Henry mentioned - and it's a good system. We drill two holes through the rock and bend a re-bar into a U-shape, then stick it through and hammer over the ends on the bottom side. Sometimes we use large eye-bolts, too.
 
You need weight. I was told by a parks person that the weight of the buoys used on the west coast were 900 pounds. In the carabean a friend used a 350 pound counter weight of a tractor.
 
I too used to moor in 3-5 feet of water..........I took an old tire ( 16 " wheel size )...and laid a plastic garbage bag in the wheel opening. Then I filled this with concrete, allowing the concrete to fill the complete interior of the tire....... and set an eye bolt in the centre with some nuts and washers on the end to prevent pulling it out. I think my next one will use stainless steel u-bolts. Anyway the benefit to this method is that you can roll it into place and move it around as your water level fluctuates as does mine up here on a lake in Canada. The wide footprint of the tire laying flat on the bottom is extremely tough to dislodge. Getting my new SeaRay 185 delivered in 2 weeks so I'll be building another one again. These things make for excellent floating dock anchors as well.
 
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