Boat Mooring

Hey there, my buddy has a cabin and I plan to leave my boat there for a month. The problem is, there is no dock space. So, I want to set up a mooring buoy in the water and a bow line on shore. Can anyone walk me through the process for getting the buoy secured and what I need to do to secure the boat at shore. I have heard of a product called Anchor Buddy, does anyone use it? Thanks for the help.

I use one when I go camping. The good thing is you can drop them deep in the water and it pulls the boat out away from shore. The bad thing is when it gets windy it moves alot. You need to be careful and make sure that it wont run into anything if it starts to move and your gone.

This is how I have mine set up 100 foot of rope plus the achor buddy. Attach the anchor buddy to to the rope with a large carabineer. Also tie a bouy that is on a 2 foot rope to the carabineer. Then if your boat is say 20 feet make a small loop in the rope 23 feet from the front of the boat and install another carabineer. Once again install a bouy on a rope. Then with the left over 75 feet of rope figure out where you want to tie the back off to. I use a metal fence post that I bought for 2 bucks at the local Farm store. Just pound it in with a axe or something. Before you hook your boat up grab the back carabineer that will attach to the back of the boat and pull on the anchor buddy. You have to strech the rope then walk around in the water and see if it will hit anything. If it will hit something either throw it deeper or fold the anchore buddy in half (I fold mine in half) Once it wont hit anything figure out where to put the fence post tie off the back and your done. Don't use a little piss ant one. The one I use is about 30 pounds and has large hooks on it. You dont' want it to move while you aren't at the lake.

The bouy's hold up the carabineers so when you come into park you can see them. Also when you are pulling out have some one hold the rope up so you don't run over it.

Once you get it all set up you can use a tube to move people to and from the shore so they don't get wet.

Remember, you need seven times the depth on rope length for an anchor.

if your gonna have it for a month, get your hands on some heavy @$$ steel or a big block of cement, Im talken like 250-400 lbs worth of weight depending on the situation and how windy it is. Then you need chain in my opinion, especially if you arent gonna be able to watch the boat 24/7. With a very heavy mooring you dont necessarily need 7 times the length of chain, I say 5-10 feet extra besides the depth of water is good(scope). We use a pad lock on our lake (father is paranoid) but we have the chain attached to the bottom of the buoy and then the chain runs to the bow eye on the boat where we lock it. If you want to secure the back of the boat to shore then run ropes to the shore but this is unnecessary, just swim or canoe to the mooring. Moor the boat so when you pull it in you are in say waist or chest deep water, that way the wind will never blow it very close to shore. I wouldnt rely on an ancor to do the job for a month I would look for something a little more permanent. We use an old engine block ~ 250 lbs and its never moved and we had near tornado conditions here a month ago.
Good luck
-Duane

Scott:

Your profile doesn't give any hint of where you are located. Is this a private lake? Is it a natural lake, or a reservoir?

What is the bottom like?

Out in California most of the lakes are actually reservoirs and are owned/operated my some sort of government agency. Such places usually take a very dim view of people installing any sort of permanent fixtures on the lake.

If it is a reservoir then you need to account for changing water levels. The water level can drop pretty fast in the month of August and September. A spot that was wading distance from shore now could be high and dry in another month.

If the bottom is soft mud then just about anything heavy can serve as a good anchor. Old engine blocks work good. Just be careful that you aren't cited for pollution by dumping an old engine block or similar into the lake!

If you don't want the mooring to be permanent, and the bottom is soft (sand, clay, mud, etc) then my recommendation is to get three Danforth style anchors with at least twenty feet of chain on each one. Drop the anchors in a triangle pattern, at least 5 times as far apart as the water is deep. Make sure the anchors are well set then tie off their lines to a float in the middle. If you are not using all chain then I recommend tying the lines together, then use a short length of chain (as long as the water is deep) to connect the tie point to a float. The idea is that you want the ropes connecting the anchors to lay along the bottom so that passing boats doesn't snag it.

With the anchors in a triangle pattern you will always have at least one anchor that is properly positioned and set to hold your boat regardles of the wind direction. You can also end up with a significant amount of "scope" while limiting the circle that the boat will swing.

Rod