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[soldier151]

Hi Guys,
At Killingworth Lake (North East) we have a beautiful lake which is 1/4 mile set in lovely parkland.  The problem is the lake is about 5 foot deep and we want to moor some sailing obstacles for the guys to sail around.  Any ideas on how to position things in our lake, bearing in mind that they can only be temporary fixtures.  We have things like Wilson's Landing, which is a marina type landing stage, plus Bell Island which is a floating platform with a Lighthouse.  We also have a Customs House building, and Port of Tyne Authority buidling, BUT, we have no means of floating these on the Lake.  What does YOUR CLUB use and HOW do you secure them, especially in deeper water.  PS Visitors are always welcome at our Lake on a Sunday morning from 10.00 am till 12.00 am and Wednesday from 6.00 pm till 8.00 pm.  No i/cs I.m afraid as local residents complained.  Good parking and flat launch facilities, come along if in the North East.
Your help is much needed and appreciated!!!!!!!!!
Soldier151

[Colin Bishop]

A commonly used method is to have screw eyes fitted to the base of the obstacles. Then you have a large anchor weight which goes on the bottom of the lake connected to a line which passes through the screw eye and has a smaller weight hanging from it. If the obstacle is hit, the smaller weight will pull it back into position. So if the lake is 5 feet deep the line length should be 7-8 feet. The size of the smaller weight will be determined by the buoyancy of the obstacle which will need to support it.

For a larger obstacle you will need at least two sets of weights to keep it correctly aligned.

Colin

[50mm]

Not sure if this is relevant to the subject but its another way of 'floating' objects & obsticals on the water its a method we have used in the past and many still do i think.

Depending on the depth of your pond or lake will depend on the method that's available to use, for buoys in deeper water this methods has been mentioned anchor weight it into position,
same with shallow water just a shorter anchor line.

For other floating objects, say possible a dock or something similar take some lengths of pvc plastic piping ( stuff ya use for connecting ya 'crapper' to the main water feed) usually 1.5" dia or bigger for drains or guttering, get some of the expanding foam and fill the tube with it, cut the tubes down to length's you require and use the 90 degree bends to connect the pipes to make rectangular or square sections.

Take some ply and fit over the top of the pipe sections screw it to the piping so its fixed solid, test the floatation, if its to low or sinking use the air gap under the ply and fill with some sheets of the expanded polystyrene to give the right floating lvl, remember to seal the ply or its gonna rot and you will have to replace it later. on top of the ply you can decorate it how ever you want, stick cranes, buildings etc on it to give some nice effects.

To secure the floating deck wot ever you made to the bank you can tie it of using some line and a tent peg hammered in the ground if its grassy on the bank or if its concrete tie the line to some car batteries or sand bag. if you want it floating further out away from the bank use the anchor line method .

Guess just be creative , good thing about this system is that you can make up sections and connect them any way you want, to change the layout at any time to keep things interesting, and there overall size for transportation can be fitting in a large car or truck,maybe a trailer if you are ready to invest in one for this type of use, and since they weight very little its not gonna do ya back in playing around wiv em.

Well anyway have fun with it be great to see some pic's if ya try it out !