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Mooring buoy depth question?
I am planning on setting a mooring buoy for my Catalina 22 off of the beach in front of my house. The beach is a lee shore on Puget Sound, so I will only be using it for summer moorage (and keeping the boat on its trailer during the winter months). The boat drafts 3'6" with the swing-keel down. My beach slopes gently for about 180 yards from the Mean Lower Low Water mark to the 1 fathom curve, then in about the same distance shelfs down from the 1 fathom curve to the 10 fathom curve, and then from the 10 fathom curve continues to shelf down rapidly to the 100 fathom curve maybe half a mile off the beach (for the East Coasters on here, no, I'm not making this up, it really does get that deep that quickly here!). Oh, and our range of tide is about 16'maximum at a solstice spring tide.
So my question is, given the extreme drop-off, I'm wondering what my best option is for dropping a mooring buoy, and how much scope to use. My inclination is to drop it between the 1 and 2 fathom curve with a fairly long rode (7:1 maybe?), mostly chain except for maybe twice the MHHW depth in dacron. Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
The bottom is a combination of clay, mud, cobble and some sand.
Werepoodle, that's brilliant! It really is logarithmic. I guess that's true for all of the beaches here, thanks to glaciation.
4 Answers
- Captain BillLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
The holding power of a mooring weight is affected by the following factors: whether or not it is set (imbedded in the bottom); the proper amount of scope is used; the weight and shape of the boat; the condition of the chain, hardware and line used; the wind, wave, tide and current conditions at any given moment.
A 3:1 scope allowing for your tide range should be good. Also you may want to look for a real mooring anchor. The provide much more holding power. You should be safe to set the mooring at the 1 fathom depth, just remember that it could still drop below that depth with spring tides or wind.
You can check out Dor-Mor's web site for some good info:
Good Luck and Boat Safe!
- 1 decade ago
Traditionally mooring buoy systems have used far heavier anchors than carried on boats. As a result, a long scope of chain is usually not an issue with mooring buoys. Have about double the length of the deepest water even at the highest tides is usually enough.
A common, low cost anchor, is an old engine block weighing a few hundred pounds or a concrete block again two to three hundred pounds.
For a permanent solution the advice given in the West Marine store catalog listed in sources is recommended (note, they do not benefit from this advice, as they do not sell mooring anchors).
Since your boat draws little over half a fathom, it might be a good idea to put the anchor at about the one fathom mark at mean low water mark.
Source(s): stories in cruising books and in boating magazines such as http://www.latitude38.com/ http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle... - 6 years ago
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Mooring buoy depth question?
I am planning on setting a mooring buoy for my Catalina 22 off of the beach in front of my house. The beach is a lee shore on Puget Sound, so I will only be using it for summer moorage (and keeping the boat on its trailer during the winter months). The boat drafts 3'6" with the swing-keel...
Source(s): mooring buoy depth question: https://tr.im/7qnu8 - Vasco PyjamaLv 61 decade ago
Your beach is logarithmic!
You don't mention what you are using as an anchor or what the bottom is like (mud, sand rock), so it's hard to make a specific recommendation.
Local knowledge is probably your best resource. You may want to talk to the harbor masters at the local marinas and other cottagers to find out what works best in your area.
The source link has a good article on mooring systems.
