The cost of moorings

[Harro]

Hello everyone
I have just been quoted $25,000 Australian dollars for a mooring in Broome Western Australia. This seems outrageous to me. Also $1,000/year for survey
Your comments please

Kind Regards
Harro

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Harro

Hello everyone
I have just been quoted $25,000 Australian dollars for a mooring in Broome Western Australia. This seems outrageous to me. Also $1,000/year for survey
Your comments please

Kind Regards
Harro

Agree, perhaps it is that it is in Broome but here in Sydney one can get a new mooring apparatus for less than $2000 laid and the annual maintenance is around $4-$500 dollars.

[GordMay]

How far is your mooring site, from the installer’s base of operations?
What type of mooring, at what depth, is proposed/quoted?
Is yours, the only mooring, being contemplated, at this time & place?


Installation of a helix, for instance, unlike a traditional dead weight mooring, requires expertise, a barge c/w spades, and special hydraulic equipment.

The cost for a [single] large helix is about $2,000 USD [$3050 AUD - $2700 CAD], and takes about an hour to install [once set up, on site].
Add in the cost of chain, fittings, and flotation, and you’re [easily] up to a materials cost of $4,000 USD [>$6,000AUD].

I would expect the actual installed cost, to vary mostly, due to the travel distance/time to/from the mooring sight, water depth, and bottom conditions. The travel costs could [easily] outweigh the materials and labour costs, by a large margin.

A survey requires the careful examination of every fitting, and every link of chain. Again, the travel costs, to/from the site, could [possibly] exceed the actual inspection cost.

[Harro]

Thanks for your response. A lot of difference between 25k and 2k..
Don't know what to do, I live in Broome and would love to have a mooring here.

[Harro]

Originally Posted by GordMay

How far is your mooring site, from the installer’s base of operations?
What type of mooring, at what depth, is proposed/quoted?

Installation of a helix, for instance, unlike a traditional dead weight mooring, requires expertise, a barge c/w spades, and special hydraulic equipment.

The cost for a [single] large helix is about $2,000 USD [$3050 AUD - $2700 CAD], and takes about an hour to install [once set up, on site].
Add in the cost of chain, fittings, and flotation, and you’re [easily] up to a materials cost of $4,000 USD [>$6,000AUD].

I would expect the actual installed cost, to vary mostly, due to the travel distance/time to/from the mooring sight, water depth, and bottom conditions. The travel costs could [easily] outweigh the materials and labour costs, by a large margin.

A survey requires the careful examination of every fitting, and every link of chain. Again, the travel costs, to/from the site, could [possibly] exceed the actual inspection cost.

Thanks for the information.
I will enquire on the distance to the supplier.
Depth is 10ft lw but tides can be up to 30ft.
Mooring is for 12m to 25m boat length.

[Fore and Aft]

Harro I am not surprised, your in a cyclone zone so I imagine the mooring has some sort of cyclone rating? I also wonder what the harbour fees are?
Cheers

[Harro]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Harro I am not surprised, your in a cyclone zone so I imagine the mooring has some sort of cyclone rating? I also wonder what the harbour fees are?
Cheers

All boats are removed from their moorings during cyclone season. The Port here is commercial only. Can't even get fuel. No Marina either. Everyone sails their boats south for cyclone season. You don't see a single moored boat from Dec to March. I'm a pensioner and can't afford a mooring. I think my sailing days are over.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Harro

Thanks for your response. A lot of difference between 25k and 2k...

The only $2k, I mentioned, was the cost, in US dollars [±$3050 AUD ?], to purchase [not install], a US made, helix anchor, in the USA. YMMV.
I also, enumerated some of the additional costs, in the total, which might add up, very quickly - even to $20k AUD.

[HankOnthewater]

Hi Harro
I feel your pain. If the mooring guys are from Perth, that is 2600 km, lots of fuel to drag a boat and gear up there, lots of travel time for crew, plus accommodation/meals for at least 6 nights.

I just got a price indication where I live, (400 km from Perth) for $12k, in 4 mt of water, with a tidal range of max 1.5 mt.
Three years ago I put 2 moorings down in Bremer Bay, done by locals for around $6k each, all moorings for boats up to 20 mt, 25 tonnes.
You can put your own gear down (in an approved place), but you need to have surveyed before using it

Maybe Broome is also more expensive due to the requirement to have large weight plus 3 or 4 additional anchors?

If you like, I can give your the contact details of a mooring contractor in Perth, don't know if he goes as far as Broome.

Department of Transport in WA requires a mooring survey each 2nd year. For Albany that charge is around $600. However if we get together with other mooring holders the price goes down.

[Shrew]

How much of this is cost for the physical mooring, how much is installation costs, and how much are harbor fees?

Some places have a 20 year wait list for moorings. Maybe this is how the harbor addresses this issue and uses it as a means to generate revenue.

[old pirate]

Are trailer sailers popular in Broome ? They could answer the mooring shortage ?

[grantmc]

I'm assuming you've done this OP, and I certainly don't want you to suck an egg.
But just in case. Have you tried Broome Mooring Hire and Services 0406 938 540. They have moorings at Gantheaume Point. You could also ask if they can help with local people to lay a mooring.

At my home base we typically use a concrete block of about a cubic metre on the seabed for a 30 footer. The blocks sink in to the merk as the bottom of softish mud. Make up the form (boxing) work from old pallets. A trip to the chandlery for the appropriate black chain and shackles plus some mooring line that you splice up yourself. Tie it all together. Find a local fisher mate to take your block out and drop it with buoyed chain attached. And the cost of an approved diver to sign it off. Here in Wellington it would run to about $3k all up.

But back to local help. Plonkers like us on the internet in vastly distant parts of the world think Broome is something you clean your floor with. If it were me I'd be talking to locals, especially owners' of boats who've already laid a mooring.

[Kd9truck]

I rent my 800 lb mooring in oyster bay on Long Island sound. For 1500$ usd, I also pay for the launch service to and from my vessel. So in total 3500$ usd a year, they do the up keep.
I am happy to pay the rental fee, the price is “by the foot.”
(We are 45ft) All moorings are pulled each season as per federal environmental directives.

[longjonsilver]

Get the biggest anchor you can handle. Use oversized chain. Install a big windlass. Thats what i did - minus the windlass. A 66 lb anchor and 3/8 chain for a 24' trimaran. Worked perfectly even during the hurricane. Pulled it up myself at end of season. If anyone asks, i am not mooring i am anchoring.

[SuW]

Originally Posted by Harro

All boats are removed from their moorings during cyclone season. The Port here is commercial only. Can't even get fuel. No Marina either. Everyone sails their boats south for cyclone season. You don't see a single moored boat from Dec to March. I'm a pensioner and can't afford a mooring. I think my sailing days are over.

Do they not have trailerable sailboats in your country?