Temporary mooring

willsnow · Jun 23, 2015

What if you set you anchor really hard, with a marker buoy above it and a line cut just for this purpose. You should drop it far enough from shore that you can achieve the correct scope before you hit land. Then tie to your stern to land anchor. Don't see why it wouldnt hold.
Or - if it truly is nothing but sand - swing up your boards and beach it

MrBill_FLL · Jun 23, 2015

What kind of anchor do you have already? and ground tackle?

I would think using a good anchor and ground tackle will be superior to a 'dog screw'.

a 25-30# anchor, all chain, 7:1 to 9:1 scope and a float should keep the boat safe in almost any conditions..

not a bad investment.

Meriachee · Jun 23, 2015

The stern anchor business is troublesome. As you know from living here, the winds can be shifty, and while most of the time (this year seemingly the exception) they are relatively calm, but that "four PM front" can have a nasty leading edge. While the screwpile may be enough to hold the boat, the lateral stresses induced by a stern anchor could easily dislodge both.
A single semi truck brake drum, with 15' of code 70 chain and a cheap float would more than suffice as a temporary mooring, it's the method of choice for those of us "on the ball" at Wabamun, and a couple of Mac's on Pidgeon are done the same way.

Meriachee · Jun 23, 2015

p.s.
You want the boat moored in more than 2' of water. With a draft of 18", you run the very real risk of putting the hull into the tackle if it gets stormy. At the very least it'll scratch the bejeevers out of the gelcoat. At worst, well........

Meriachee · Jun 23, 2015

I know who wrote it, and it's WAY too complicated. Just loop the code 70 through the centre and bolt it together with a 5/16 stainless bolt, oversize washers and 2 nuts. Do not attach the chain directly to the drum. That way it can move. The business of attaching it to the drum adds no less than 4 single points of failure.

We've been doing it that way since 1993, the only difference now is that we pull the chain taught, and slide drums down on top - currently we're using 5, as 2 years ago a microburst dislodged 3

Meriachee · Jun 23, 2015

The thing of note in the article is that we see serious corrosion at the point where the chain exits the loon poop. There is some alkaline reaction or something above my science level at play. We proactively replace the installation every 5 years, and ours stay in all the time.

You should easily be able to extract a single drum and 20-25 feet of code 70. Don't get galvanized chain either, the gold code 70 from someplace like Peavey Mart wears the best, the galvanize scrapes off quickly and the stuff winds up looking old and rusted in weeks.

MrBill_FLL · Jun 24, 2015

There's temporary mooring, and storm mooring. While I understand you wanting to keep the boat close to shore, you should consider what would happen if a storm comes through. and what the probabilty is, and consequences of failure.

I don't know your lake or area, or the bottom. if its all sand and mud, and the boat starts rocking in 4' chop and 30 mph winds, the hull will probably bottom out repeatedly. on sand and mud, probably won't hurt the boat. on rocks, it could crack the hull.

if it were me, I'd take the boat deeper for overnight, use heavy anchor tackle, and move in close to shore at sun up, on a temporary mooring.

beaching the boat is fine if the boat doesn't rock on something hard. (are powerboat wakes an issue?) -water ballast boats are thin skinned.

Do you have a kayak, dingy or SUP? That will take the pain out of going deeper, and give you another toy.

just consider the worst case, and evaluate the probably and consequences.

GL!

ps: what does that truck drum weigh? 100#? (and that's above water)

remember its not the weight of the boat, its the surface area for the wind pressure to consider.

Meriachee · Jun 24, 2015

A single drum will suffice. I know people on Pigeon who have a single drum in for the whole summer, and that bottom is like concrete. Adding an anchor to the mix is a place for the chain to get tangled up. If you're in 4-5 feet of water, and that's probably a safe minimum, then 15 feet of chain should be plenty.

Where you get into trouble is looking at it like a parked car. The boat is not going to be in the same spot you left it, and trying to tie it off such that it stays exactly where you left it isn't going to work. It's going to swing. If you're looking at doing this to prevent hitting a dock or something, then you're too close.

MrBill, most of the lakes here are 2 feet of "loon poop" on the bottom, and the stuff will suck a drum in tight in a few days. Three drums held my 26c and in almost 15 years it never dragged. The drums are about 120lb, but it's the surface area and the bottom that make them work. With chain loosely attached, the chain can move around the drum, and if left alone, will allow the thing to work in as well as a good Danforth, but through 360 degrees. (I wouldn't advocate hanging one off the anchor roller though

)

MrBill_FLL · Jun 24, 2015

So its really like a mushroom anchor, that gets swallowed by the muck.

Good luck.

fwiw:
http://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/Constructing-a-Permanent-Mooring
<snip>
A weight of 5-10 times boat length is a good rule of thumb, as a bare minimum. The heavier the better, as long as you don’t have to move it.

Meriachee · Jun 24, 2015

Pleasure Macboy. We're on the north side of the lake, 11km west of the townsite. Shoot me a pm if you're inclined.
I doubt you'd see the Cat on Gull, even my trailer extension isn't long enough. ha ha.
Cheers
Gary