Small boat beach pulley systems - which is best?

[Thorne]

Looking for websites with pulley system photos or descriptions. Using PVC pipe out on the boat end of the system is new to me, but looks effective as long as not too many water weeds get into the pipe.

Here's a good one -
http://www.neilmoomey.com/howtos/anchor_buoy/

[Bruce Hooke]

The old standby in Maine was an X made of 2x10 lumber with a nice big well-rounded hole for the rope to go through on one arm of the x and a smaller hole on the other end of the same arm for the anchor line. This seems to me like it would offer less resistance to seaweed than that PVC pipe, but I could be wrong. The PVC pipe is probably slipperier but the diameter is smaller so a really big lump of seaweed could jam it.

It is an advantage that the PVC pipe keeps the two ropes far enough apart that you are unlikely to have seaweed get wrapped around both lines, which can be a problem.

[rbgarr]

http://www.boatcovers.cc/cgi-bin/catalog.pl?item_id=68

[Thorne]

Are you trying to tell us something, rbgarr? (grin)

Our water is still liquid down here, and I was actually inquiring about systems for use in even warmer weather.

I've seen PVC pipe systems, and large clothesline pulley systems, but not much more. The wood X sounds interesting, but I'm sure there are others...

[rbgarr]

That winter stick keeps the outer end of the outhaul above water (and unfouled) at a height that would be above your stemhead. Should anything get on the rope the hole at the top is much larger than a pulley(s) which will jam on most flotsam. A PVC pipe made to resemble a winter stick will have to be made unsinkable.

[htom]

Two thoughts come to mind: large PVC, maybe 8", and store the rode in the PVC long-bottomed U; and the perforated, corrugated, drain pipe, wrapped around the bucket or basket used for the rode.

[Bruce Hooke]

My guess is that the "winter stick" might work in a pond where the boat is maybe 30 feet from the dock (but then why bother!), but in a place where there is any real tide and thus usually some serious distance between the buoy and the shore, the weight of the rope would cause it to sag into the water unless you pulled it so tight that the winter stick was nearly horizontal, at which point the rope would be in the water anyway!

The old style winter stick...an 8" diameter wooden pole that is a good 8-10 feet long and anchored down with a heavy chain might do the trick but even then it would be hard to pull the rope tight enough to keep it out of the water. Furthermore, a mooring good enough to anchor a 2 ton boat is a lot of money to lay out for a simple offhaul for a small boat!

Based on my experience, the large clothesline pulley would be totally unworkable in a place like Maine where you are pretty much guaranteed to end up with a good bit of seaweed on the rope.

[Bruce Hooke]

I have also heard of people dispensing with anything floating at the offshore end of the system and just letting the rope lie on the bottom when there is not a boat to hold it up. This has the advantage that it cannot foul props and it is below most of the floating stuff that causes the most problems with tangling, but it also puts the rope where there is more chance of chafe. I have mostly heard of people using this sort of rig when they are setting up a temporary off-haul while camp-cruising.

[rbgarr]

I've used that specific winter stick as an outhaul for several years now with no problems. To each his own, though.

[Bruce Hooke]

Now that I think about it, even if the rope between the shore and the buoy gets seaweed on it there is still some advantage to having the turning point clear of the water and thus less likely to get fouled, so that does make sense.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

.
I used to keep Aileen Louisa on a 'clothesline outhaul' in a mud berth where she was only afloat on the top four or five feet of the tide. (The purpose was to have her lying out of the range of kids, either afloat if the tide was up or a fair way out in the mud if it was out.)

At the seaward end, about 40' from shore, I buried a deadman to act as an anchor, to which I attached, just above the mud, a rubber bow-roller which became the seaward 'block' for the outhaul. An iron ring on a stanchion on shore, above HWL, was the landward mooring point. A long-spliced endless loop ran between the roller and the ring.

Both sections of this loop lay along the bottom, as Bruce described in post #8. There was essentially no risk of chafe here as the bottom was mud, nor was weed growth a problem. The system worked for years until I left the place without ever needing overhauling, but a sand or shingle bottom would probably mean you'd want to check it each year for wear.

To one of the two legs of the endless loop I attached two 6' rope risers 15' apart (AL's LOA,) each buoyed with a small fishing float.

Picking up the mooring meant finding the fishing floats, attaching one riser to each of bow and stern, then rowing ashore. Once ashore I'd pull the non-riser side of the endless line which would take AL out to the deadman. She could then be left like that to alternatively float and dry out on the tides for as long as I wanted. (For extra security I could also padlock the two lines together where they left the onshore ring so she couldn't be hauled ashore without undoing the padlock.)

The reason for having two risers was to keep her parallel to the outhaul, necessary because the tidal flow here was along the beach and the use of only one riser would mean she'd swing into mangroves on either side of the mud berth whenever the tide was flowing.

Without knowing more about your situation, Thorne, I'm not sure how relevant all this might be to you, but there it is for what it's worth....

Mike

[AJZimm]

My system is a variation on the wood X described above. My X is 4 x 4 red cedar, painted, with a ring and cleat on one arm and a ring bolt with large (4" dia) ring on the other arm.

The boat is anchored and the anchor line cleated off to the arm with the cleat, with a fender attached to keep the remainder of the anchor line afloat. A floating polypro braided line is run through the ring on the other line and brought ashore, pretty much like the line in the version with the PVC pipe.

It works, and the wood X and poly line stow in the anchor locker along with the anchor and its line

[James McMullen]

I bought one of these at the end of last year after seeing a guy pull up to the beach while the tide was going out and pretty effortlessly dealing with his boat: the bungee-cored Anchor Buddy rope that stretches from 14' to 50'. I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, but after watching it in action it looked like just the thing indeed for little boats like mine and yours, Thorne.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BXVHusPoL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://www.tuggyproducts.com/images/1_To%20Shore%20-%20Small.jpg

http://www.tuggyproducts.com/images/2_%20Away%20From%20Shore%20-%20Small.jpg

[I, Rowboat]

I use a clothesline system daily to retrieve my dinghy to get to and from work. My system involves a simple 2" shackle at the anchor end, with the two shore ends separated about 15 feet. The dinghy grounds on anything lower than +3 tide - so once a day on almost every day (although I'm parked at the marina during weekdays). So I have the opportunity to walk out and untangle a mess, if one ever develops. I've been doing this for about nine months though, and haven't had to do that. I think that pipe thingy would be an awful, sand filled mess for my situation, but if it's bouyed above the mudline and never dries out, I can see how that would work. I agree that keeping the lines apart is essential for any long-term setup. Also, I keep a pair of scissors handy and slice off all eelgrass, weeds, and what have you to keep the system clear. The anchor itself is a simple deadman -- about 4 feet of 2"-dia pipe laid horizontally in a 24"-deep slot I dug at low tide, plus a chain bridle. I use two old 200ft climbing ropes, which sink and are very abrasion resistant.
I use a slightly simpler setup with Dragonfly when I am camp cruising and have found that long-shore currents are quite a drag on the situation (pun intended). I think floating line might aggravate that.

Also -- my dinghy has to weather gales with this setup. I would be nervous with James' bungie-cord-thingy for anything approaching an onshore breeze.

[BrianW]

I've used the Anchor Buddy for years...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/BrianW/hot%20springs/brian-getting-on-boat.jpg

...works good.

[I, Rowboat]

Yep. Clothesline worked fine again this morning.

[Ian McColgin]

The pipe-U looks like a slick solution to a particular problem.

For Leeward, I just used a large shackle on the end of the anchor's chain. The line led through that. I had a 3' bit of clear hose over the line that ran from the loop where the painter connected so that I could feel the bump where that chafe gear got onto the shackle.

Where I anchored the dory Leeward in Hyannis Port could get really dynamic in a south easterl - no protection at all for 20 miles. Stretchy systems would not do. And we certainly had lots of weed.

But it was all drift-in weed, not growing on the bottom weed. So it was mostly a problem right at the tide line. After some storms there'd be so much piled from the waterline to the high tide mark that I couldn't just lift and shake the parts a bit, but had to excavate to get it out. But the parts running through the floating weed were not a problem and in general would strip off the line just being pulled along the sand.

I had a small bouy at the end of the chain so I could pick up the mooring before hitting the beach and then set myself back, keeping the bow into wind and wave if it was on-shore. Sometimes as we set back, I found it helpful to by hand peel the weed off that part - it was in hand anyway - and this left the part that would go through the shackle as I pulled her back out nice and clean anyway.

[Eric Hvalsoe]

I have also heard of people dispensing with anything floating at the offshore end of the system and just letting the rope lie on the bottom when there is not a boat to hold it up. This has the advantage that it cannot foul props and it is below most of the floating stuff that causes the most problems with tangling, but it also puts the rope where there is more chance of chafe. I have mostly heard of people using this sort of rig when they are setting up a temporary off-haul while camp-cruising.

I tried running a clothesline directly from the anchor a couple of times while camp cruising, the last time I tried this the clotheslines wrapped itself near the anchor ring and I only got the boat back because I was able to drag the anchor in. Time before that the clothesline simply fouled on the bottom. Maybe I'm doing something wrong - but next time I dropped the anchor it was attached to a bouy. The clothesline ran through a pulley at the bouy, and through another pulley on shore. That worked fine. The line still sunk, but seemed less likely to foul. Sampson makes a yellow float line which I would be tempted to try for the clothesline, of course it would be susceptable to fouling by other boats on the surface. I have looked at the oingy boingy thing - pretty cool, but fifty feet is not always going to be enough.
My observations are relative to cruising - not a permanent mooring. Don Kurilko has a well thought out system for cruising.
There are quite a few variations.

[Bill Perkins]

Thorne; here are a couple of out haul buoys I found being used in Maine .
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4309694924_9af9b308ee_m.jpgThe roundish one is light gage PVC about 2 or 2 1/2 ft. sq. depending on the weight of the out haul you need and maybe 2 1/2 in. diam.pipe for the smaller ones . It's an unclogable low friction dumb sheave with the anchor line hitched to one corner and the out haul bearing on the other .Those are long sweep 90's in the corners .It resists flipping by wind or wave ,which is one way the out haul gets twisted.I haven't tried this yet ,but I'm going to .

By the way ,I've gotten allot of pleasure out of searching the Forum with the Advanced Google Search you've suggested .

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

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Here are three possible options for a small boat, identified by Eric Hiscock. The first two seem to be the ones that appear with some variations in the descriptions above. The third one is a very simple solution that could be applied from a beach as well as from the dock shown.

Mike

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/dinghy-moorings.jpg

[BBSebens]

I bought one of these at the end of last year after seeing a guy pull up to the beach while the tide was going out and pretty effortlessly dealing with his boat: the bungee-cored Anchor Buddy rope that stretches from 14' to 50'. I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, but after watching it in action it looked like just the thing indeed for little boats like mine and yours, Thorne.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BXVHusPoL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://www.tuggyproducts.com/images/1_To%20Shore%20-%20Small.jpg

http://www.tuggyproducts.com/images/2_%20Away%20From%20Shore%20-%20Small.jpg



I put one of these to excellent use on my 16' peapod when I go camping at places with quite rocky shores that discourage beaching.

I used an 8# mushroom anchor with the "Anchor Buddy" attached to it and a spare fender as a buoy.

Row in, hook up, then row to shore. Grab bow line, let anchor buddy pull the boat back out, and secure bow line to shore anchor of choice.

To head out, simply haul in the line. Load up. I rigged a simple tug-n-let-go knot so I could hop in and give the line a tug and then the Anchor Buddy pulled me offshore. Unhook and have fun!

Pretty slick system really.

[Bruce Hooke]

.
Here are three possible options for a small boat, identified by Eric Hiscock. The first two seem to be the ones that appear with some variations in the descriptions above. The third one is a very simple solution that could be applied from a beach as well as from the dock shown.

Mike

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/dinghy-moorings.jpg


Interesting. I suspect that in today's world, at least in the US, the permits required to do the first one would be too much of a hassle to make it worth while in many cases, but if permits were already being pulled for piling work in the area that design could be quite a nice solution. Setting a piling that would survive the winter weather in many areas is no small undertaking if it had to be done as a one-off, but if other pilings were already being set and if the bottom was suitable it could be not such a big deal.

The last option looks to me like it would only really be viable if the boat only needs to be moved about 1/3 of the way from the shore to the anchor. This limits it to places where you do not really need to get the boat very far off the shore, or to places where the geography of the shoreline is such that a small lateral movement actually has the effect of moving the boat quite a ways off shore.

[Fritz Koschmann]

BrianW,
That's got to be one of the best places anywhere. I love it there especially in a storm. We usually stay in Mirror Harbor though, our 40' cat barely fits through the entrance, a few feet on either side. Just looking at your photo I can smell the hot water.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

The last option looks to me like it would only really be viable if the boat only needs to be moved about 1/3 of the way from the shore to the anchor.

I think this is probably about right, Bruce. Hiscock's dock situation I think assumes water at all stages of tide. Therefore (a) this method keeps the steps clear for others to use, and (b) stops people getting at your dinghy -- unless they (i) know how it's moored and (ii) are prepared to tamper with the mooring warp. (This latter possibility applies equally to all cases anyway, of course. It's why I used a padlock on Aileen Louisa's lines if I were leaving her for any length of time. But of course anyone who is serious enough can always cut any warp anyway if they have a mind to.)

Mike