Move mooring with a yacht!

[seafox67]

Has anyone tried to lift and move their mooring with a sailboat? I have two 300lb mushroom anchors which I can dive on and separate them.

The local workboat has a huge backlog at the moment!

I would be interested to know if anyone has attempted this and what method they used.

Cheers

 

[Catalina36]

300 lb is 5 cubic feet of water, ie 30 gallons. Oil drum(s) float?

 

[seafox67]

300 lb is 5 cubic feet of water, ie 30 gallons. Oil drum(s) float?

Hey, that's an idea!

Could I go out at low tide and attach floats to the mooring and then when high tide comes the mooring tackle will be off the seabed enough to move it?

 

[davidej]

I was amazed to see a yacht at its mooring with one of the entrance buoys to West Mersea attached to it's stern. Apparently it had caught its propeller on the buoy's mooring line and then lifted up the sinker as the prop rotated. Apparently it had made its mooring under its own steam.

I was told by a scuba diver that sorted it out that the sinkerline had to be cut away and then recovered from the sea bed.

I don't recommend this for your predicament !

 

[Wansworth]

Yes

 

[Rappey]

Float boat over mooring at lw and take in slack using a piece of rope to secure mooring riser to yacht. Wait. Once boat is being pulled down motor back and forth to pull out mooring or wait some more.
You will either lift the mooring or cut the rope you used to secure it to the boat if it looks like your not going to pull it out from the seabed.
Make sure deck fitting is strong enough.
600 lbs ??. Ahhhh you mean 272 kg. ? that's a little less than 4 people

 

[seafox67]

Float boat over mooring at lw and take in slack using a piece of rope to secure mooring riser to yacht. Wait. Once boat is being pulled down motor back and forth to pull out mooring or wait some more.
You will either lift the mooring or cut the rope you used to secure it to the boat if it looks like your not going to pull it out from the seabed.
Make sure deck fitting is strong enough.
600 lbs ??. Ahhhh you mean 272 kg. ? that's a little less than 4 people

I've got dive gear so I could separate the anchors! but yes, 272kg doesn't sound that heavy but just wondering if I've not thought of something that might break my boat!

 

[Dipper]

If you have a light sailboat with an outboard, it may lift the propeller out of the water.

 

[seafox67]

If you have a light sailboat with an outboard, it may lift the propeller out of the water.

My sailboat weighed in at nearly 5T when it was last lifted out

 

[Rappey]

I would use the stern on my boat as its a lot beamier and would offer more resistance to being pulled down and i have extremely strong gear to enable this.
Dipper makes a good point if you are outboard rather than inboard.
Another option would be amidships with a rope over either side tied together so if you needed to abort or just release the mooring it will not pull the boat over to one side.
A lot would depend on the robustness of your boat.
Pulling just one up at 136kg is going to exert much more then 136kg before it breaks out of the seabed

 

[seafox67]

I would use the stern on my boat as its a lot beamier and would offer more resistance to being pulled down and i have extremely strong gear to enable this.
Dipper makes a good point if you are outboard rather than inboard.
Another option would be amidships with a rope over either side tied together so if you needed to abort or just release the mooring it will not pull the boat over to one side.
A lot would depend on the robustness of your boat.
Pulling just one up at 136kg is going to exert much more then 136kg before it breaks out of the seabed

Using ropes on either side sounds like a good idea

 

[Rappey]

An oil drum is 210 litres (45 gallons to those that have failed to upgrade... lol ) So thats 210kg of lifting force, probably not near enough to pull 136kg out of the seabed but once out will easily lift it from the bottom.
If you can dive on them even better as you can attach two ropes to the to an anchor( rather than what you can reach from a boat) and tie a buoy or similar to the end of each rope.. Motor the boat between the two ropes, tie together over the deck - and wait ! Just be aware of motoring into the ropes and getting them wrapped around your prop when motoring back and forth when trying to break out the anchor

 

[Refueler]

I used to lift and move concrete circular mooring blocks with my boat ... they were anywhere up to 1 ton in weight. In water - that weight is reduced of course.

How ?

OK ... you need a good tide range over the mooring .. great if it dries out !! First I used to go out in row boat and at low tide clear the mud from over top ..... check that ground chain was good and secure.
Once tide was in - go out with my yacht (25ft motor sailer) and make fast to the mooring ... and as tide goes out keep pulling mooring chain on board to have bow roller as near to over block as possible. Once tide out and boat settled ... shorten chain and attach extra ropes to spread the load to other points on the boat. Make sure there is system to 'jettison' if needed
Tide comes in ... boat will likely have bow pulled down .. I've had my boat at crazy angle at times and then POP up she comes .. better be hanging onto something because it can throw you !! I always have myself and helper at back of boat for safety.

Once its 'popped' you can gently motor to new position and lower as needed.

When we were putting blocks out ... we would manoeuvre block onto slipway ... bring boat over top and let tide settle boat ... Attach ropes and let tide lift it. The block hanging centred under the boat (bilge keeler needed of course) .... motor out to spot .. let go being careful to avoid any rope whiplash. We always had a marker line and bottle for 'owner' to find it.
Mooring owner then had job to dig in ....

 

[Refueler]

I would use the stern on my boat as its a lot beamier and would offer more resistance to being pulled down and i have extremely strong gear to enable this.
Dipper makes a good point if you are outboard rather than inboard.
Another option would be amidships with a rope over either side tied together so if you needed to abort or just release the mooring it will not pull the boat over to one side.
A lot would depend on the robustness of your boat.
Pulling just one up at 136kg is going to exert much more then 136kg before it breaks out of the seabed

Stern may not 'pull down' as much before it breaks free - but it really is not best part of boat to use. The stemhead is far stronger and much better to use. With extra lines back to other points on the boat.

 

[Refueler]

Using ropes on either side sounds like a good idea

Only as addition ... not to take full stress

 

[GTom]

How far do you want to move them? You could dive to the anchors and lift them with a lift bag, then just tow the lot to the new location. Obviously towing is not an option if you move from the South coast to the Clyde...

You need normal scuba gear and an 800-1000lbs lift bag.

 

[BlueChip]

I've done it on a 28 footer. The problem is that once you've lifted the mooring you have very little manoeuvrability and it can go horribly wrong if there is any tide running.
After doing it that way once I found a better was to lash a piece of 4 x 4 between two dinghies moored together, using a couple of fenders to separate them. At low water lift the riser and tie to the 4x4 with some warp ensuring the riser is free to run.
As the tide rises the mooring will be lifted and you can tow the dinghies to where required, position them over where you want the mooring to sit and using a sharp bread knife on the end of a long pole cut the warp making sure you are well clear.
I found this worked well for us.

 

[LittleSister]

A spell of Force 10 should do the trick.

Just hope that it's in the right direction.

 

[Rappey]

to lash a piece of 4 x 4 between two dinghies moored together, using a couple of fenders to separate them

What a great idea.
What's the displacement of a dingy roughly ? How much weight can it carry ?
Google has no reply to those questions?
4 people? 320 kg ? Possibly 650 kg total lifting force ?
Now if you could have a larger gap between the dingys maybe you could get the bow of the yacht above the mooring to help with breaking out the anchor, unless the anchors are not buried , then dingys would easily lift both.

 

[Mudisox]

I've done it on a 28 footer. The problem is that once you've lifted the mooring you have very little manoeuvrability and it can go horribly wrong if there is any tide running.
After doing it that way once I found a better was to lash a piece of 4 x 4 between two dinghies moored together, using a couple of fenders to separate them. At low water lift the riser and tie to the 4x4 with some warp ensuring the riser is free to run.
As the tide rises the mooring will be lifted and you can tow the dinghies to where required, position them over where you want the mooring to sit and using a sharp bread knife on the end of a long pole cut the warp making sure you are well clear.
I found this worked well for us.

Sort of like the RN recommends in their seamanship manual. Importance of using cut able ropes can not be underestimated. Also best done when not too bumpy, so far as the water is concerned.