On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 06:24:11 -0600, Paul Cassel wrote:
On 10/4/2015 10:46 AM, Sir Gregory Hall, Esq. wrote:
On Sun, 04 Oct 2015 12:27:59 -0400, wrote:
On Sat, 03 Oct 2015 13:29:26 -0400, "Sir Gregory Hall, Esq."
wrote:

What is a ring mooring, multiple anchors in a circle? If so, how
many?

Two 48" diameter cast iron manhole cover frames or rings, one on
top of the other sunk into the bottom. Each one weighs about 400
pounds.

I don't get it. First, two 4' diameter manhole covers.

Not the covers themselves but rather the cast iron rings into
which the manhole covers fit.

Where'd you get them?

I worked for the water company and they have big concrete
vaults in the ground accessed by these manholes. From time to
time they abandon a pipe, valves, pressure regulators, etc.
so they no longer have any use for the vault so they fill it
up so it won't be a hazard to life or an attractive nuisance.
They remove the top concrete part and the manhole access.
They are left with heavy metal they must pay at the dump by
the pound to dispose of. I offered to take a couple of the
heavy rings off their hands.


Second, how'd you move them to site?

I used a truck with an electric lift. I backed the truck
up to a boat ramp and carefully lowered them one at a time
to a big Avon inflatable atop a piece of plywood. I slid
them off the plywood on sight after rigging the chain.

Third, .5" nylon is trivial
compared to the holding power of that anchor. It's silly to use TWO
manhole covers and .5" of rode when one cover would hold to the point of
the nylon breaking. I'm presuming a sand bottom rather than oyster or
limestone. The cover sinks over time like a mushroom.

The bottom is grass and slim mud over hard old coral rock. The
rings haven't sunk in more than a foot or so. I can still see
the top ring. There are slight irregularities to the rock and
I've had to renew the chain when I was using galvanized prior
to switching to stainless steel. I can dig out the mud from
around the chain and where the chain is there is a depression
in the rock large enough to snake new chain through. It's
about the length of my arm to pass it through the bottom.

Lastly, if there no buoy, how do you recover the rode?

When I go sailing, I simply tie one of those blue rubber
fenders onto the nylon rodes and the fender is labeled
"PRIVATE". If I'm going to be gone for more than a week,
I put an old dinghy on it and have friends keep an eye out,
etc. That keeps somebody from trying to claim it as their
own.