mooring stuff ?'s

[scottyt]

okay, continuing my mooring questions thread.

i talked to the place that had train wheels, they are giving me an axle with a large gear attached, total weight around 1000 lbs. it looks like a big barbell with only weight on one end. the guy even has a little over 10 feet of 5/8 chain he is giving me. the chain is was used for pulling out heavy equipment that got stuck. the water i plan on mooring in will be around 10 to 12 feet deep. i know the general rule is 1.5 times water depth for the big chain and same for the slightly smaller chain. if i use 10 feet or so of 5/8 then 20 feet of 1/2 inch does anybody think it wont be enough or is it ok?

also for money reasons right now, i plan on splicing 2 15 foot 3/4 3 strand ropes to the chain, plus a float ( a fender ) with a 1/2 line to act as a retreival line in case i drop it and as a third back up. most likely this will be a temp get me thru the winter with no sailing set up. the idea is it will look like an anchor right now, till i can get the mooring bouy in the spring when i will be off and on it more often. it will have a swivel to the last couple feet of chain to avoid twist. the float will be coiled with the line on deck with a small line as a break away, but tied off. if both 3/4 lines part then i will see it and the 1/2 inch line should hold me until i notice, max of 2 days. obviously i will use chafe gear and the 2 3/4 lines will be slightly different lengths so if one fails the other will take over.

any thoughts?

[CalebD]

Sounds like a plan scottyt.
We use a mushroom anchor (350#) with 20' of 5/8" chain and 20' of 1/2" chain in the Hudson with our heavy almost 4 ton boat in plenty of current. You should be fine in Balto. harbor with the setup you propose with relatively small currents going on. I know we violate the scope rules up here but because of the small mooring field size it is necessary.
I hope this works out for you.