Sometimes my brilliance amazes even me......or is it necessity is the Mother of Invention????

The necessity is to get these mooring weights (as discussed in this thread here)

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sailing/General/DIY-Moorings-Unitized-System/

onto their allocated positions on the Bottom of the Burnett River for as little expenditure of hard earned moolah as possible.

The material cost of the two fore and aft moorings is going to be just under $1,000 or $500 for each of us so a 5% or 10% of their capital value investment in their transportation seems reasonable.

The first equation is robust buoyancy The cheapest around in 200kg lots are 205 litre oil drums at $5 each from the oil depot.





Each unit of mooring weight (in this case weighing 120 kg) is allocated two drums (400 kg buoyancy). The weights could be up to 200 kg each but I would not go beyond the 50% ratio.
There is frame and decking weight to be added as well as anchoring gear and the operator/s weight to consider too.





I have three sheets of this 18 mm form ply in my shed that has been waiting for me to do something with it for about 9 years and various other lengths of pine and hardwood studding as well as various useable pieces of steel which I threw at the four drums and ended up with this.





The drums have been separated longitudinally to create an open working area for when lowering weights and to provide a wider buoyancy footprint.

The joining beams connecting the floatation units can be longer or shorter, but if longer, They need to be more stout.





The clamping of the drums needs to be strong and adjustable.






The centre beam is the load carrier. This one is probably just strong enough for me but would be better if it was square section.
I have rounded it where the lowering ropes will run.

I had the ply and the timber but the drums, steel strap and bolts have cost me $50. Add the cost of the ply and timber for say another $100.

When you have finished with one of these as a mooring barge, add some ply decking and turn it into a party pontoon.

SandS said..

Looks the goods cisco !!! More hard wood across the top of everything side to side, to carry from just in case ?.?

What size wharram is that Cisco

LooseChange said..
The central beam that is your load carrier should also be placed on edge rather than flat and should bridge the other two beams that are already on edge.

And it should be at least a 150 x 50 maybe even 200 x 75

After you have used it to place the mooring you could leave it out there with an umbrella, some deck chairs and a bar.

Cisco builds a catamaran!
Ive got a spare mast and sails you can have so you could sail it to Lady Musgrave lagoon when you have finished dropping your mooring .

hangtime said..
Cisco builds a catamaran!
Ive got a spare mast and sails you can have so you could sail it to Lady Musgrave lagoon when you have finished dropping your mooring .

That is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.

Fiesta said..
Will the drums accept the water pressure as they sit lower in the water with the mooring mass on them?

Place a tubeless tyre valve in filler cap and pressurise with about 1 or 2 PSI to give the drum some rigidity. Bear in mind this is not a pressure tank and under no circumstances increase the pressure, assuming the folded seams will take it, also allow for pressure variation as temperature increases.

good one cisco !! thanks for the efforts in posting the progress !!! interesting topic !!

Dont forget to video it

I still have five more weights to make up yet (two doubles and a single). It all takes time and of course LIFE gets in the way sometimes.

Putting tackle on the weights and then laying them is the next step. I will post pics and vid when it happens.