Making A Mooring

Hey guys, I'm going to be mooring my boat on the lake this year. I am planning on making it out of concrete. My question is, how heavy does the mooring need to be? My boat is a 16ft CC Mustang, and the lake it is going to be on has minimal traffic and is pretty sheltered. I'm just not sure how much weight it takes to keep the boat were I want it. Anybody ever made there own, or have any ideas as to how heavy and what shape it should be? Thanks

I've been mooring my boats on a big lake for a long time. Spend the money and buy a mushroom anchor, enough chain, and a bouy. Whenever I see people trying to cheap out and not buy a good anchor, at some point their stuff ends up on shore.

HA Ha ha...Heeee heeee... Best use for a master crap boat I say. Good one Chopper!!

Sink an old engine block.

I was only joking about the MC

I was going to say yse an old engine block too. It would depend on weather condtions at your lake though.

rudderdad wrote: Believe it or not an engine block will slide on the bottom of the lake. By the way on ebay under boat trailers there is a guy with an inboard trailer that he says he pulled the SUPRA off of it at the dump because the stringers were rotten.

All these jury riggs will drag if you're on a big lake, and it gets windy.

I have used and sold my "Jury Rig" system on 12 x 12 foot square summer camp swim rafts, and up to 26 foot sailboats on a 7000 acre lake for over a decade without any significant movement. However, it is true you can drag just about anything on the right bottom surface especially if you use a relatively short chain and the object is smooth and rounded. Most engine blocks by themselves these days are not so heavy, the bare 351 block I just got in the mail is light enough for me to carry by myself for short distances and wouldn't hold a nautique in a stiff breeze unless it was a muck type bottow where the block could sink in.   

I spend a fair amount of scuba time untangling the chain of some of the commercial moorings at the local yacht club have some sort of extended attachment (looks like an upside heavy wieght coat hanger) apparatus coming out of the weight, over time the boats will wrap the chain around whatever the offending object is in relatively calm shifty winds until the chain is so short it doesnt make it to the surface anymore. They get together every couple springs and pay me to go out and untangle them.

Whatever you do if you get into big weight be careful and dont put it in your nautique.

I think it was Mark that first mentioned the engine block. Maybe he has a 1978 351 that he can give to Jeff to try out!!! Of coarse I still think the Mastercraft with concrete in is a better idea.

Thanks Guys, thats exactly what I was looking for. The lake I'm on is quite small and there is minimal traffic. I think I'll look into what the local marina's have to offer, and then depending on price figure out what I will do. No big rush now though, since I just started digging out the foam due to it being very saturated. Thanks Again Guys!!!

Clew in, Are you a scuba diver? I'm just wondering how you got the screw in anchor in the lake bottom. Was it in shallow water?