Moorings and Anchorages in Gulf-coast Florida?

[stewfish]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

I think you're confusing anchoring with a mooring. Helix anchors are used for moorings & requires special machinery to screw them into the sea bed. There are several types of mooring anchors but other than the Helix they are usually quite heavy & require some sort of crane or davit to get them out of the boat. Some people will even use an engine block but that's probably illegal & they don't work very well anyway.

Skrew anchor says:
when it is necessary “to anchor:” something temporarily or definitively in the ground, soft ground or sand.

I understand both, but as mentioned the Skrew mooring anchor also refers to temporary/anchor, vs mooring, as I sited above. It shows two divers screwing it in with a pipe, and refers to this ease of installation often on it's site. The site even says to use a pipe and mentions nothing of needing an auger to screw it in. This lead me to believe you could set it and remove each season. The helix which you are probably thinking of, is longer and harder to install, but I have read it can also can be done DIY if you are clever enough and not in a medium/hard bottom. but I digress.

The original question is without a Skrew, I just don't see how dozens and dozens of live-a-board boats stay at anchor each season and never move, vs my small boat with a quite over sized plow anchor moving with some big waves even on a shallow angle of the rode and plenty of heavy chain. Gulfport, FL has a soft mud bottom, with no mooring field.

After half a day of research it seems as though plow anchors are the cheap option for manufactures and the Sarca excel or super sarca have much better setting and holding like a rocna which videos show don't set that well after being covered in mud and need to reset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l59f-OjWoq0

[stewfish]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

I think you're confusing anchoring with a mooring. Helix anchors are used for moorings & requires special machinery to screw them into the sea bed. There are several types of mooring anchors but other than the Helix they are usually quite heavy & require some sort of crane or davit to get them out of the boat. Some people will even use an engine block but that's probably illegal & they don't work very well anyway.

Skrew anchor says:
when it is necessary “to anchor:” something temporarily or definitively in the ground, soft ground or sand.

I understand both, but as mentioned the Skrew mooring anchor also refers to temporary/anchor, vs mooring, as I sited above. It shows two divers screwing it in with a pipe, and refers to this ease of installation often on it's site. The site even says to use a pipe and mentions nothing of needing an auger to screw it in. This lead me to believe you could set it and remove each season. The helix which you are probably thinking of, is longer and harder to install, but I have read it can also can be done DIY if you are clever enough and not in a medium/hard bottom. but I digress.

The original question is without a Skrew, I just don't see how dozens and dozens of live-a-board boats stay at anchor each season and never move, vs my small boat with a quite over sized plow anchor moving with some big waves even on a shallow angle of the rode and plenty of heavy chain. Gulfport, FL has a soft mud bottom, with no mooring field.

After half a day of research it seems as though plow anchors are the cheap option for manufactures and the Mantus, Sarca excel or super sarca have much better setting and holding like a rocna you mentioned, but videos show the rocna won't reset that well after being covered in mud.

I feel more confident now if I got a Mantus, and maybe set a GPS alarm and stay aboard for the first few weekends, then switch to leaving overnight by it's self for the weekends

[Spade Anchor]

Our Skrews take less than an hour to install, replace larger heavier concrete moorings and are considered temporary by Harbor Masters.
https://www.spadeanchorusa.com/skrew-mooring-anchor

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by Spade Anchor

Our Skrews take less than an hour to install, replace larger heavier concrete moorings and are considered temporary by Harbor Masters.
https://www.spadeanchorusa.com/skrew-mooring-anchor

Still not what I'd call a "do it yourself" kind of product for most people.

[FSMike]

Originally Posted by stewfish

-----my small boat with a quite over sized plow anchor and plenty of heavy chain. -----

stewfish -
In your post #10 you said you had 10' of 1/2' chain. That's ridiculously heavy chain for your boat, but it's nowhere near what I would consider "plenty of ---chain" from a length standpoint.
What scope do you use when anchoring?You refer to a shallow angle, but that's not very exact. 5:1 scope? 7:1? More? Less?

[rickster1965]

Originally Posted by FSMike

stewfish -
In your post #10 you said you had 10' of 1/2' chain. That's ridiculously heavy chain for your boat, but it's nowhere near what I would consider "plenty of ---chain" from a length standpoint.
What scope do you use when anchoring?You refer to a shallow angle, but that's not very exact. 5:1 scope? 7:1? More? Less?

Hope you're still around FSMike. How much? What size chain? For a Morgan o/i 305