marina and berthing fees

[skipper681]

I've been ringing around this morning and the prices are shockingly so variable, it goes from £146 a month at the high end in a marina to £220 for a year if I put an anchor fore and aft on the river Bann through the honerable Irish society.

I was on the phone to the harbourmaster of Ballycastle marina, it will cost £57 a month to keep my boat at Rathin island. (I'd need to get a ferry to get over to my boat lol)

It's a 24ft boat and the most expensive was £146 a month.

So anyway. If I take on the the £220 a year mooring (which I will) I'll need to put down 2 anchors. The last time time I did this I used car engines (fore and aft) and a diver to bury them.

Im really open to suggestions, what would you guys do in my situation. I have a space on the river Bann but I need to put down 2 anchors.

Car engines fore and aft chained up? or what would you suggest? Any better ideas?

Thanks

 

[NormanS]

Look in the For Sale section on here for anchors. I don't think that littering the seabed with old car engines is really acceptable nowadays.

 

[skipper681]

Look in the For Sale section on here for anchors. I don't think that littering the seabed with old car engines is really acceptable nowadays.

I really do get your point and thanks. Although If dug into the sandy bottom (the diver) and buried under the sand it works a treat with chain.

You haven't suggested anything, help me out bro.

I have 6 anchors in the boat, I just want to put a permanent mooring down and I'm not putting a three hundred quid anchor down in my permanent berth. I've used some very heavy iron things in the past that someone that worked for BT gave me, no idea what it was was it was a ton weight and pure iron. worked a treat.

I'll explain again, on a river I need to put my own mooring down. I cannot afford for a three hundred quid anchor fore and aft so I am open to all and every suggestion.

Kind regards

 

[Pete7]

Couple of big old CQRs well dug in should do nicely. Cheap enough second hand.

Spent many an hour diving to the West of the Bann breakwaters on the little fishing boat wrecks sunk alongside the breakwater. There are a couple of large engine blocks in the river mouth just outside the breakwaters on the west side too, but you probably have enough water to pass over the top.

Pete

 

[skipper681]

Thanks Pete.

I'm just off the phone to a harbormaster, he has no spaces in his but he has mentioned people using train wheels as permanent anchors on a river, I've never heard of such a thing, sounds like a plan though, has anyone done that and if so is it recommended?
.

S

 

[philld]

How about a concrete block cast into an old tire? I think you might want some old bits of steel in the concrete to reinforce it.

 

[duncan99210]

Thanks Pete.

I'm just off the phone to a harbormaster, he has no spaces in his but he has mentioned people using train wheels as permanent anchors on a river, I've never heard of such a thing, sounds like a plan though, has anyone done that and if so is it recommended?
.

S

Not done it myself but it’s a common thing. For sale here https://boatgeardirect.co.uk/anchors/accessories/product/558-railway-wheels at £7 for 10 kg. When I owned a mooring, it was a granite block provided by the local quarry and placed by the mooring company used by the club I belonged to. The anchor wasn’t the expensive bit though: it was the chain and swivels that cost.

 

[Pete7]

Whilst NI does have a railway they don't have much stock and the days of Belfast's shipyards having lots of scrap (shipyard confetti) long gone. Couple of old tractor rims might do for a 24ft yacht, may even float with the tires on until your diver lets the air out. Or at this point you may as well use a couple of old engine blocks, if they were cleaned up first.

There are some granite hexagonal blocks nearby, but the National Trust might be a wee bit upset if you took a couple.

The other problem will be moving what ever you choose. Trailer, barrels to float and a slipway are part of the solution.

 

[skipper681]

How about a concrete block cast into an old tire? I think you might want some old bits of steel in the concrete to reinforce it.

Thats a plan too but it would need to be well buried. I did that at each end of my creel string when I did lobsters before trawling.

Thanks

 

[MoodySabre]

Old lorry wheels work fine in gloopy mud.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Many years ago, we used scrap barge anchors. I remember we visited the scrap yard and bought them at scrap metal prices - and the yard said, "Oh, they're about a hundredweight each". WHen they were laid, we reckoned they were nearer two!

 

[LittleSister]

I've been ringing around this morning and the prices are shockingly so variable,

Some of us suffer from places where prices are shockingly (and suspiciously) so similar!

 

[Davy_S]

What you should not do is, nick two tesco shopping trolleys, line them with Polythene, place a bit of ironwork in them, then fill them with concrete, and push them near to your mooring.

 

[dgadee]

Used to use welded up anchors - very basic - in Belfast Lough. I think the heavy ground chain between them ensured they didn't move. Bann should be easier on the gear than where I was.

Or, I've been trying to sell a 20kg original Bruce ...

 

[superheat6k]

So scrap cast-iron anchors are OK, but a cast iron cast engine isn't. What utter nonsense. Heavy, sinks will likely work, just ensure the engine has no noble metals to cause the chain to dissolve.

 

[Greemble]

So scrap cast-iron anchors are OK, but a cast iron cast engine isn't. What utter nonsense.

Old anchors wouldn't have old engine oil coming out of them.

 

[RivalRedwing]

There are some granite hexagonal blocks nearby, but the National Trust might be a wee bit upset if you took a couple.

A pedantic geologist writes: basalt not granite ;-)

 

[Pete7]

A pedantic geologist writes: basalt not granite ;-)

Oh, best not use that then. Perhaps a sailing trip to Alisa Craig, they have round stones there with handles, should do nicely.

 

[dgadee]

Oh, best not use that then. Perhaps a sailing trip to Alisa Craig, they have round stones there with handles, should do nicely.

Absentee landlords again. They won't let you land.

 

[rszemeti]

Sounds like an unbelievabel amount of effort when you will usually find there is a bloke with a boat and a hydraulic crane who lays moorings all year long and has a yard full of old moorings. I think we paid £150 for the ground tackle on one many years ago and we never even had to see it. We rented out spot, told the mooring guy the location, paid hims his money and he dropped it in. Every 2 years we paid him to pull it up and check it.