If you have a muck bottom, the cinder blocks hook up well. On sand or hard bottoms, you need the anchors. As for my course installation time, I usually have a boat driver and myself. It just takes time. If I had one person to hand me the stuff and another to help handle the arms, it would go quicker. The other problem is that our sites are shallow and have weeds at the level of the arms. It makes it a challenge to straighten it out. My latest strategy is to lay in the main-line and add the arms after the boat guides are straight. Last weekend I put in course on the Grand River in Grand Rapids, MI. It took 12 hours the first day and two hours the second day. I have rarely been more frustrated in my life. The course kept dragging down with the current. The next time I will wrap a hawser around the bridge caisson instead of an anchor. I don't think the bridge will move. I also had some debris discharged by some upstream activity settle on the boat guides, dragging them around. In the end, I had over a dozen concrete blocks on the bottom holding the course in place in the water in addition to 6 holding the upstream main line in position. I don't usually have this problem in lakes, but it still is an hour for a boat driver and one guy. If you want to help, I will be in Whittmore lake near Ann Arbor, MI on Friday night setting up for Saturday's INT competition. (Message edited by boarditup on July 14, 2004)
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