The Magic Homemade Mooring Secrets

[Seeds21]

Ok Captain Shawn back with a few more sailing secrets. Straight off my crappy cell phone in the harbour. Anyway a mooring is little more the dead weight on a chain. Currently im on 3600 pounds of rock concrete in plastic barrels via 3/4 inch chain. On and off 2 years 70 ft of combined sailboats has not broke loose in up to 50 knot winds. Judge the bottom muddy areas less weight is ok as over time your mooring will slowly sink into the mud. Old railway axels, concrete road barriers, plastic ph testing barrels full of rock and concrete like i use. Or any other 1000 pound plus weight will work. Building your block or barrels on the beach and paying a tugboat or large fishboat a hundred or two are options for getting it in postion in your harbour. Floats like large scotsman bouys, homeade 15 inch tire floats, envirofloats and 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch link galvanized chain all are options. The main purpose of a mooring is free rent and a place to store your boat when your home a mooring plus a chained up dinghy on shore is a wondeful combo. Cheers captain shawn

 

[Tude]

Ahoy there Sir! Good info - and nice avatar too!

 

[creature]

C'apn Shwan, thankee..

bloody mop-man, here, seeking to bring some sails to freedom..


no fucking shit.


what plans are about & what vessels are at hand
& what kind of dreams do you have, from where to where?

 

[Eyegor]

I like your ideas for moorings but an anecdote of caution: I knew a guy we called Captain Lowliner at a marina on Lake Ontario. This guy was always fighting with marina management and talking about pulling out. He finally decided to drop his own mooring and get off the dock. Long story short, he lasted less than 2 weeks out on the hook. First USCG cited him for hazard to navigation because the idiot dropped the mooring in an area not designated as an anchorage. It wasn't a traffic lane, channel, or anything else, it just wasn't an anchorage. Then EnCon fined him and made him haul his ballast back up. He had used an old Chevy big block and two concrete filled drums. They claimed that these were not approved materials, he had not had them properly cleaned prior to dumping them in the drink, and that they were susceptible to deterioration over time. This was in the People's Republic of NY or so hopefully things are better elsewhere. Bottom line, I would experiment with living at anchor for awhile before dropping a mooring. Good way to test the waters, in more ways than one.
Thanks for bringing up the topic. Looking forward to what others think.