mooring buoy

Hi, list.

Anyone has a good design for a mooring buoy? We have a project in the Philippines to use these in a popular dive site.

Lot of thanks in advance.

Shucks, an empty milk jug and my lasso rope works fine fer me, I reckon....


Seriously though, tell us more about what you are doing so we can provide some good answers.

...all those milk jugs! Don't forget to keep the lid!
Terry

Sounds like you guys are, more interested in a permanent mooring buoy for reef conservation purposes correct?

Check this site as well as...

this site and...

this site

That should get you started in the right direction, please let us know if you have any more questions.

I read an article a while back about a biologist named John Halas who became interested in collecting coral reef samples by using a hollow drill bit to remove a long plug of coral from the reef to observe the story the told by the growth patterns preserved in the core samples. He would then fill the hole with cement to prevent further damage to the reef. He began experimenting with the idea of cementing an anchor in the fossilized portion of the reef to create a mooring bouy. His design basically consisted of an anchor pin(a stainless steel rod with an eye at the top) that was cemented into the coral. He fastened the buoy with floating polypropylene line using spliced loops at the buoy and through the eye of the rod for security and ease of maintenance. I believe this was in the Key Largo area. He installed about 100 buoys in marine parks in that area and they worked so well that he ended up being asked to install them in other marine parks. You can do a search for environmental moorings on the interenet to find out more info. Good luck with your project, and let us know how it turns out.

Mario,
Thanks so much for the recommended sites. Will check them out.

Background of project: In Balayan Bay, Philippines, we have installed mooring buoys for the past several years but local fishermen detach buoys for their own purpose. Since this dive site area is predominantly poor socio-economic class, this continues to do so if we install further buoys. Part of this project is:
1) educate the locals
2) install mooring buoys - a design that is almost guranteed not to be detached from the reef or cement slab

Would appreciate more insights of the design from this list.

Thanks so much again for all the replies,
Martin

Hmmm. Having to thiefproof the buoys would pose an interesting problem wouldn't it? The only thing that comes to mind would be to maybe use shedule 40 black steel pipe instead of a rope (depending on depth). It comes in 21' lengths and can be threaded at the ends and connected using couplings, or welded. You could anchor a female coupling in the reef and thread the pipe into it. It could stick up about two thirds of the way to the surface. Then get a smaller diameter piece of pipe that is almost as long as the anchored piece, with a flat round piece welded to it at the end, for a stop (like the head of a nail looks). Make it so the stop is just a little smaller in diameter than the pipe that is anchored to the reef is. Slide the smaller diameter piece of pipe into the pipe anchored to the reef(the end with the stop in first). Slide a reducer over the smaller pipe all the way down to the anchored pipe and screw it onto the anchored piece. That would prevent the smaller piece from being able to be pulled out of the anchored piece of pipe. Then find or make a buoy that is made out of steel that has enough buoyancy to support the weight of the smaller pipe and weld it to the end of the smaller piece of pipe that sticks up out of the larger piece. The buoy would then be able to rise and fall with the tide and or waves because the smaller pipe would slide up and down inside the anchored piece of pipe, but couldn't come out because the reducer would prevent that. If they wanted to steal that buoy they would need a hacksaw or a cutting torch. Sounds easy enough...doesn't it? It would have to be marked well as I imagine steel pipe sticking up through the water could do some serious damage to a boat. They probably wouldn't let you all do that though. Oh well, just a thought. ...The only other thing that comes to mind would be to use a thick steel cable to tether the buoy with. That might discourage some from stealing it. Your buoy would then have to have enough buoyancy to support the weight of the steel cable. Good luck, it sounds like you've got your work cut out for you... Anyhows, let us know what you come up with...

That pipe sliding up and down would probably make a terrible racket.. or the current would pull the bouy and bend the pipe and then it couldn't slide up and down. Just use pipe all the way to about 20' below the surface. Then bolt a thick chain about 30' long to the pipe and then weld the other end of the chain to a steel bouy that has enough bouyancy to support the chain. The extra 10' of chain would allow the buoy to rise and fall with the waves...that might do the trick huh?...I don't know...they'd probably just cut the chain... I reckon you're on your own on this one...

Get in contact with Coral Cay Conservation. They are based in the UK and have extensive knowledge of setting up buoys and local education. They have a web site.
Or try and get intouch with HEPCA based in Hurghada in Egypt. They have put 400 mooring buoys around the Red Sea area. They also have a web site.

I have had extensive dealings with both of these while I worked as an instructor.

Thanks to all who shared their inputs. The heavy chain seems more viable than the others, as other systems are more complicated (the simpler the system, the better). In addition, it is also hard to construct for multiple buoy sites and probably too heavy to bring to off-shore sites.

Thanks again for all the inputs and will keep you posted.

Best,
Martin