In the "attached image"—at the very bottom—are this family's three D-I-Y moorings.
The center mooring is about 54 years old. Judging by the protruding rocks, it's lost part of its original concrete surface to dissolution by the lake. (Not to mention the totally-missing galvanized steel part!
).
The mooring to the left is just ten years old and had a large new
galvanized eye-bolt embedded in it: It's pretty ugly today, and wouldn't go another ten years, IMHO. The galvanized chain—bought at the same time—was featured
earlier and is no longer usable. (Note the difference in diameters within the same chain-length).
Both of these concrete moorings (below) are being retained today by chipping away around the center and swaging a stainless steel cable around both. The "bitter end" of the cable has been embedded in the right hand mooring, which was constructed this Autumn.
While a single mooring of the same weight as the combined weight of these three moorings would be best, the cable connects all three moorings together, which will be used
in tandem).
An engineer friend suggested that iron and steel are far denser than granite and that I should embed the concrete with iron—
so-o-o-o—included within the concrete matrix are dozens of iron and steel automobile discarded parts: brake discs, connecting rods, brake drums, bent bolts—even heavy fencing and broken steel tools are included.
That newest block on the right is still of concrete construction; however, to reduce any wear on our new (and expensive) stainless-steel chain, I bolted two discarded stainless-steel sinks together to form the concrete-and-iron mix.
At opposite ends of this new mooring, I bolted two bow-eyes to embedded steel connecting rods (inside the concrete pour). One bow-eye is visible at the upper right.
Both "pours" of concrete are linked together by a heavy-duty steel fire grate (within). With some effort, its tips were bent over to fit inside its stainless steel "clam shell". Now that it's finished, my BIL and I can barely lift that mooring off the dock! (My BIL, who carries refrigerators up and down
stairs for a living).
One additional suggestion for
all moorings is to see that they are deeply buried—if possible. In a sandy area, a water hose can be used to tunnel out and settle the mooring deeply in the sand.
Seeing that stainless steel may not be sufficiently immune to this lake's corrosive actions, I should have investigated putting a PVC "thimble" through the block. (
Curved PVC, using two holes).
What might prove even better against corrosion is the use of a
synthetic line such as that used on sailboats:
Kevlar, Spectra, Dyneema or
Technora. (If not as a primary place for the mooring line—then as a passive backup).
This stuff
dulls the knives that start out barely cutting it!
Oh well...the search for the perfect Lake Winnipesaukee mooring lurches ever-onward!
