Parking an Island just offshore...

In a number of the YT videos I've watched over the past year I've seen where people "park" their Island just offshore. Of course at the time I wasn't paying attention to the details, and now I'm trying to figure them out!

Next week I'll be at a lakefront cabin in a state park, unfortunately without a nice beach to pull the TI onto. They have dumped large rocks along the shore to combat erosion. I'd rather not have to launch/retrieve the TI every time I go out, so I'd like to try to "park" it out front of the cabin - at least during the day. Don't think I'd be comfortable leaving it there overnight.

The water isn't terribly deep, but the cabins are near the dam so it isn't a shallow / gradual slope. The water gets to 20 feet pretty quickly according to the chart. (But no deeper - this is a fairly shallow lake.)

The Islands I saw in the camping videos appeared to have one end anchored, then the other end attached to a tree onshore. Is there a better/proper way to do that? Just drop anchor, get it set, then get to shore however - swim if it's too deep - and tie off? (Maybe I should get a cheap SUP to use as a launch! )

Is there another option anyone could suggest?

I just had an errant thought - take my own mooring point? Heavy object - cinder block? - with rope attached, put a ring and float at the top. Remove it when I leave, of course, but I'm not sure the park people would approve of that, though... Not sure how heavy the weight would have to be to keep a rigged TI still...?

I think you answered your own question. We have a pretty good anchor (a guardian G4 (pretty darn important for scuba divers), but a cinder block will work fine as well. We also have a Sevler inflatable 4 person boat that we keep stored in the front hatch of our TI (it was like $40 bucks at Walmart, we typically tow our gear out to sea in it).
What I would do is drop the anchor just off shore with a rope thru a pool noodle. Use the raft to paddle out to the TI (up to 4 people). Leave the raft tethered while your out. When you come back tie the TI to the tether, take your mirage drives and any valuables out, and paddle the raft back to shore. If you have a second line ran to shore, you can hand over hand the raft back and forth from shore. We often leave our TI moored offshore in the Keys for up to a week at a time. The tether will always have a boat attached to it, so I wouldn't worry too much about the tether. Down here people do this with their boats and jetski's all the time especially us campers (nobody messes with your stuff at campgrounds (kind of an unwritten campground rule). Also if the boat is registered it's pretty much an automatic grand theft felony if someone steals it (according to our insurance agent anyway). We usually go out a couple times a day so I just leave my mast in. But if planning to leave the boat unattended for a few days, take the mast down (the rocking motion of the boat is hard on the mast). Also check the water level inside the hull daily as some TI's leak a little (Hobie is not really recommending to leave them in the water, I have a friend who kept his AI moored in the water in the boat dock next to his big powerboat ( it sank over time, but that was many months).
Have fun
FE

We had the same problem when using a 27 ft Stiletto sailing catamaran in various protected places in Mexico. On some occassions when the protect beach was rocky or high brush covered, we'd drop an anchor as described in the previous post.

However, rather than use a tender of some kind, we'd simply tie a long loop of line. Both ends of the loop are tied to the boat's bow fitting and one side of the loop runs freely through the end of the anchor four foot long anchor. The other end of the loop is then back to a stake tie off on shore.

The anchor chain is the 1:1 pulley with the boat's bow tied to one leg of the loop and the loop tied to a shore stake.

This way if we wanted the boat out by the anchor we pulled one line until the boat pulled near the anchor and then we again tied off the loop to the stake tie off on shore. If we wanted the boat nearer the shore but off the rocks, we pulled the other side of the loop until the boat reached the place where we could wade out and board.

I wouldn't recommend this set up in a huricane, but in protected water it worked well and also kept water under the keel.

In a lake environment it would do quite well, especaily with a Hobie TI.

Try it, you'll like it.

Tom

We are currently taking our TI on a longggg voyage down the East Coast following the Southeast Coast Saltwater Paddling Trail. We started in Virginia and are currently in the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina. During the trip so far we have encountered a number of different scenarios when finding a place to stop for the night or, like now, waiting for a storm to pass and conditions to improve. They have ranged from using boat ramps (not great when you have a boat loaded with gear for a long trip), floating docks, fixed docks, bulk heads, and anchoring. After pedaling in the above-normal fall heat for a full day with no wind, we even considered a duck blind for our overnight accommodations! Luckily we took a break and were able to make it to a local motel before night.

So we have found the need to anchor at some locations and have an over-sized claw type anchor (11 lb) from Lewmar to perform the task. We combine this with a short section of chain and floating line for rode and have a bridle for attachment of the anchor rode to the boat. The bridle and line portion of the anchor rode do double duty, as they serve as dock line lines when tied up. I installed two cleats (one fore and one aft) to make line connections simple and secure. As others mentioned, a line to shore from the stern can be paired with the anchor setup and useful in some situations where you need to maintain the orientation of the boat with respect to shore.

I do caution you on using a cinder block or other device as the anchor/mooring point. I say this because you would be surprised how much windage an assembled TI has and how much force even a modest breeze will generate (especially if the mast is inserted). I think its best to use an appropriately designed device for the bottom type you will encounter.

Have Fun!

_________________
Cheers,
Chris

Since I started this thread way back when...

I wound up never trying any of this. The "satellite view" in Google Maps is deceiving - the cabins sit atop a nearly sheer 30 foot drop to the water! What little slope there is to it is densely vegetated, so no walking to the water from the cabin, darn it...

I also didn't even get to sail the TI anyway. The entire week was ZERO wind! Crazy... Didn't think that could happen in Oklahoma! (Though I did use the TI in "single outrigger" mode, that's a sweet setup.)