Mushroom Mooring Anchor

[gjaffess]

I would like to purchase a 100 lb mooring mushroom for my sailboat. Does anyone know where I can pick one up in Florida.

 

[Ross]

If yu are strong enough you can pick it up when ever and where ever you you like but to purchace I would check Sailorman in Ft Lauderdale

 

[Ron20324]

I have not been to Ft Myers since mom passed and cannot recall the store names, but there is one place on Rte 80 on the east side of town. It is almost a warehouse of boating stuff.

Also, on the east leg of 41, just on the north side of the Caloosahatchie bridge, on the east side of the road, there is a place that also has a store in Naples, so maybe Naples TERRY can fill you in on the name(s)?

 

[Benny17441]

No retail operations that I know. You'd be better purchasing it in your area and driving it down or shipping it with the boat. Check with Inland Marine in S Darmouth, MA or Pioneer Mooring. If not an option check the shipping charges. The one in FT. Myers is "Marine Trading Post" 239-997-5777. You could also try Don's Marine Salvage in Clearwater, FL 727-576-8577. Sailorman in Ft. Laudadale has turned into a regular marine store much like WM I doubt they would have mooring anchors but I could be wrong.

 

[rgranger]

I once read of a guy who went to an auto salvage yard... and purchased an old engine block that had been stripped down. He ran a chain through the piston holes, bolted some zincs to the chain... claimed it worked really well. I guess 300# of steel in the water would. If the water is deep enough, there is not much oxygen down that way to cause the engine to rust and once it settles into the muck ...

Anyway, it is not something I've tried, just something I've read about.

 

[Benny17441]

At today's scrap metal prices a salvage yard could fetch close to $70 for a 300 lb hunk. A 100 lb mush room anchor is designed in such a shape that when properly installed it will hold many times its own weight. Such an anchor can be purchased for around $150. For the monetary difference I think it would be kind of foolish to trust a boat to just sheer weight and the eventuality that it will at some point settle into the bottom. If I need a mooring anchor I want maximum holding power today and not to play the odds on when is the next storm coming. I also figure picking up, transporting and installing a 100 lb mooring anchor will be a lot easier than the 300 lb engine block. To me there more than go the price savings. If that were a myth I would say it is probably "Busted"

 

[higgs]

Where in Florida?

 

[Bob S]

I remembered reading a BoatUS Hurricane Prep Guide
http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/assets/pdf/hurr_prep_guide.pdf

The first question, then, is: Will your mooring hold? As a result of numerous moorings being dragged during recent hurricanes and northeasters, a search has been underway for a more secure mooring anchor. A study by the BoatU.S. Foundation, Cruising World
magazine, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that a 500-lb. mushroom buried in mud could be pulled out with 1,200 lbs. of pull (supplied by a 900-hp tug); an 8,000-lb. deadweight (concrete) anchor could be pulled out with 4,000 lbs. of pull. A helix morring, however, could not be pulled out by the tug and the strain gauge recorded 12,000 lbs. of pull—its maximum—before a shackle was burst apart by the strain. Scope in each case was slightly less than 3:1. (In another helix test, a strain gauge had
registered 20,800 lbs. before the hawser snapped.)

After reading that I would prefer a helix mooring over a mushroom.