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I need to put a winter stick on my mooring. Any advice. Materials (pressure treated wood, etc.) The marina I bought the mooring from wants me to pay $140 to change to stick and store the ball/ lines and will put out again in the spring. Seems high to me. Let me know what others are doing.
I' ve gone with PVC pipe with end caps on it and weighted jsut right to sit upright in the water. With 15' of line it lets the chain sit in the mud and rusts much longer. Takes me about 5 minutes to put on or off.
A piece of 2x4, paint it white, blue stripe and mooring # up top. Attach some light weight galvanized chain and attach the assembly to your bottom chain. I do mine in Poppy Bay when I pull the boat in December. Easy to do and see what I have at the same time. I can't tell you if $140 is to much. You're paying for the conveince of somebody to go out, store it and go back out and put it in. Boatyards in the area charge $85 hour, so doesn't seem out of line.
Janda has the right idea with the 2nd lightweight chain. You want your bottom chain on the bottom. Out here alot of people use a painted cedar fencepost.
actually the cost is relative. i just did my older neighbors for him, and when pulling in the ball into the back of the boat, the crustations and chain put a nice series of cratches on my transom. So me being a nice guy is costing ME some glass work this winter (i have nothing else to do on the list anyway :-(
__________________ 2003 Century 1800 with Yama F115
2000 Malibu Response LX ski boat (325 HP Indmar)
A winter stick replaces your mooring ball during the winter, especially useful in coves and harbors that may freeze -- the winter stick sticks out of the water a lot higher than a mooring ball does and is less likely to freeze in ice and either break the chain or drag the block.
I made one out of PVC and will be putting it on inthe next weekor so. I like the lighter chain option for the up line instead of trying to float chain with the steak.
Phil C - 10/24/2007 4:33 PM
A winter stick replaces your mooring ball during the winter, especially useful in coves and harbors that may freeze -- the winter stick sticks out of the water a lot higher than a mooring ball does and is less likely to freeze in ice and either break the chain or drag the block.
Up here where I boat, we do the opposite. We don't WANT it high in the water column. We affix our winter sticks at the bottom of a dead low tide, with the intent it rides under the ice flow on a falling tide. Short scope it is what we do ...
__________________ [red]MISS TEAK[/red], 25' Parker mod-V Sport Cabin "Life's too short to own an ugly boat ..." www.classicparker.com
On the lake I tie a length of floating line to the chain. The other end is ties to a small fender about 12" long.(I didn't know they made them this small) Should the ice rip rip the fender off the line, it's still floating. The spot is well marked on the GPS.
Stopped by the old house/mooring in the fall. The new owners are quite lazy and never bother to remove the ball off the chain and tie a line to shore. (I left them everything) The ball was about 75' from shore when I installed it. It is now at least 150'. Were it not for an island and shallow water to the left it would be a hazard to other boaters. The ice had no trouble moving a 12-1500 pound rock around the cove.
__________________ 2003 Boston Whaler 255 Conquest w/ twin 200 HPDI's
I've never been a racist. I don't like the white half either.
This is new information for me too. I guess you learn something new everyday. Now I can go back to bed!
Those of you using PVC tube, I'd suggest filling them with something like spray foam so they wont sink if they get cracked or smacked. If this is plumbing PVC it will degrade in UV but you can stretch its life by painting the whole surface just like you put sunblock on your nose.
__________________ I'm not a boat expert, I just read THT!
A winter stick replaces your mooring ball during the winter, especially useful in coves and harbors that may freeze -- the winter stick sticks out of the water a lot higher than a mooring ball does and is less likely to freeze in ice and either break the chain or drag the block.
Phil C - 10/24/2007 4:33 PM
A winter stick replaces your mooring ball during the winter, especially useful in coves and harbors that may freeze -- the winter stick sticks out of the water a lot higher than a mooring ball does and is less likely to freeze in ice and either break the chain or drag the block.
Up here where I boat, we do the opposite. We don't WANT it high in the water column. We affix our winter sticks at the bottom of a dead low tide, with the intent it rides under the ice flow on a falling tide. Short scope it is what we do ...
Some folks by us do the same but they can be hazardous if you run early or late in the season at moon high tides a few low sticks float just beneath the surface and are very hard to detect - until they detect you! Any similar problems like that up your way?
__________________
1967 BW Nauset w/ 88SPL Johnson
I use the boat till December and back in March. If I can't see the winter stick I don't know there is a mushroom or DorMor there. The winter stick is supposed to make boaters aware of a mooring anchor below the water line. Sometimes it is bad enough the channel markers are not in at these times. Any obsticle is an obsticle.
Looking forward to tomorrow mon the boat, but fish are no where to be found in Nantucket sound.
winter stick 
