Mooring in Shallow Water

[bm1981]

This year it looks like I have the opportunity to get a township mooring on the Barnegat Bay in NJ. The mooring will be on the eastern section of the bay, prevailing winds are from the west / SW. The section of bay is pretty calm and shallow, say waist deep.

In looking at other posts it seems that in deeper water moorings the rigging is more complex with the different size chains, lines, and whatnot.

I'm thinking about using a helix anchor since its a sandy bottom and it will make pulling it out at the end of the season much easier than a traditional anchor or block of cement.

My question are,

In 2-6 feet of water what do you need for a secure mooring- specifically from the eye of the mooring "block" to the float. It seems like 12 feet of chain is overkill for that depth but I don't know, plus other boats are pretty close.

Is anyone else here using a helix?

[ctenidae]

I moor in water that's about 6 inches deep at low tide (dropped a pair of pliers over the transom once, and just reached right down to grab them.). However, it's a 7 foot tide, so there's a lot of swing. Mud bottom, so we use a mushroom. Last weekend, with the boat on the hard and nothing but the ball on the chain, the mooring got dragged about 200 yards by a pretty big storm (tide overwashed our island, water was shin deep in the streets. Fortunately, my house is about 4 feet higher than the rest of the island, so we were dry), and only stopped because it got tangled up with 2 other moorings.

Point of the sotry- overkill is a good thing. While it looks like you're only dealing with tides of a couple feet, install for the extremes. If other boats are close, be sure you give yourself enough margin to account for them swinging (and drifting), wihtout compromising your own lines and holding.

As in most things, follow the manufacturer's instructions, comply wiht local requirements, and seek the advice of someone who knows what they're talking about.

[itsermam]

Those helix anchors look pretty cool - was not aware of them. My 2-cents is that in any anchoring situation more scope is better (at least up to a point). 7:1 is recommended for regular anchoring, but I know many who use 4:1 or less in well known anchorages with good bottom characteristics. Check in with the folks at Helix and see if they give a recommendation, but I would not go below 2:1.

BTW - As long as no one does something "discourteous" like putting out a stern anchor when they moor their boat you should all swing more or less together with tide, wind, etc..., which cuts down on the chance of banging into your neighbor in the moorage area.

Good luck and please let us all know what the manufacturer recommends.

[GreenLake]

With a regular anchor you need a lot of scope to make sure that the angle of pull is flat. If I understand the helix correctly, it would seem to resist some amount of pull upward as well. A mooring block would be in-between, since it relies on friction.

Then there's the problem of correctly predicting the storms. We had a series of winter storms here that lowered the beach by a foot and pulled a number of (keel-)boats off their all-year mooring. Something that doesn't happen every year, or even every decade.

So, talk to locals with long memories!

[algonquin]

As a general rule the more scope the better. In your situation however your scope will be restricted by the proximity of the other moored boats. Barnagate Bay is a good sailing area but the afternoon southwesterlys can create choppy conditions due to the shallow water. Brad

[Baysailer]

Not sure if this applies to your situation but I looked into these elastic mooring system that reduces scope and swing diameter.

http://www.hazelettmarine.com/advantages/

Baysailer

[bm1981]

So the recommendation I was given was helix, 4 ft. (or water depth whichever is greater) heavy chain, rope/ fender. The addition of light chain to rope would be overkill for this area. I'd use a fender as a float since that's what the locals are doing.

Now I just need to figure out what type of rope and do I get it spliced on one or both ends. I'd assume stretch is good in this application and may think about using a prespliced heavy dockline but I still need to look into that.

Lastly, Persa bailer... well its seized open, will the cockpit fill w/ it open or only to the hole in the transom if it rains? I noticed that the available boom tents do not cover the full cockpit on a DS2 on the length of the boom.

I'll either pull the cap off and plug it via a cork or get the D&R one just don't want to find my DS on the bottom of the bay; again.

[Skippa]

Santa left me a boom tent for Christmas, I have not had a chance to rig it just yet, Launch is scheduled for May 1st. Link is pasted below, It looks as if it will cover the transom and seal the entire cockpit. It was a bit more expensive than some other models available but it was just what I was looking for.
Kevin
1980 DSII
http://www.sailorstailor.com/proddetail ... =DAYS05COC