Mooring advice

Let me preface this question by stating that I understand that it's not recommended to keep a hobie cat on a mooring, both for the potential stress to the rigging as well as potential water infiltration into the hulls.

With that said, I have been invited to spend a week on lake in Maine next month and I intend to bring my Getaway. There are two options for keeping the boat here: on a mooring, or splashing and pulling it daily, derigging, and driving 30 minutes around the lake. So really, there is only one option: mooring. There is a single floating dock that the owner doesn't want me tying the boat to, and there is no shoreline to speak of. Trees encroach right up to the water line, so even if I could get the hulls up on land, the mast would be in the branches above.

I managed to keep the boat on a "mooring" last year. This consisted of a 45lb Olympic style weight with a bar and chain through the middle. I watched the boat very carefully for any signs of stress. The lake is very calm at night, so there was little to no mast rotation back and forth, and the boat also took on no water whatsoever. The boat was fine for 5 nights or so like this. On the last night, there was a thunderstorm and the boat dragged the mooring 10-20 feet, luckily staying a safe distance from the dock.

This year, I would like to make a more sturdy, but temporary, mooring device so that the boat stays put. I've thought about a couple of cinder blocks chained together, etc. But haven't come up with the killer idea.

TL;DR: Does anyone have any advice for constructing or purchasing a temporary mooring solution for a Hobie Getaway on a quiet lake?

Make a raft of 2" x 4" or 2 x 6's, with drums as the floatation devices,
attach some carpet (to protect the hulls)
anchor it firmly
drag the Getaway up onto it each evening.
Make sure the raft if firmly anchored.

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2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

This past weekend I did a regatta and the house I stayed at had a mooring that we used with sails up on our Hobie 16s while we hopped off and grabbed cat trax or were just waiting for a boat ahead of us to be pulled up into the yard. The lake bottom where we were moored was sandy and solid enough that home owner sunk an earth anchor into the bottom. My 16 in a light breeze with sheets out just weather vaned. Only issue was the eyelet on the earth anchor had an opening larger than the rope and it slipped off once. With some thought or choice of earth anchor I'm sure you could overcome this. The ones he had I think were only like 12in anchors, but you can always go longer. Just get a pipe or long crowbar to twist it in.

An example of what I'm talking about
http://m.homedepot.com/p/ShelterLogic-3 ... /202719050

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2010 NACRA Infusion
2004 F18 Hobie Tiger - SOLD
Hobie 16 - BREAKPOINT - SOLD

Thanks for the ideas.

I don't think the raft idea is going to work because: A. it's big, expensive, and brings up all kinds of issues of transportation and what to do with it after the week is over. B. it still needs its own mooring system

As for the earth anchor idea: I like it, but this is a Maine kettle lake which means it gets very deep, very quick. The mooring will be in 12-14 feet of water, and I don't think any of us is prepared to dive down multiple times to screw these into the bottom. I think the bottom is sandy, but I'm not 100% certain.

If you're going to just use some barbells or cinder blocks as a mooring, I think you might want to take a secondary line from the weight and tie it to one of the trees on the beach. That way if the thing does start to drift, at least it won't go too far.

You need to be prepared for the worst. If the wind kicks up overnight, I think a moored Hobie could pretty easily drag 45LBS worth of weight along a sandy bottom.

sm

A common poor mans mooring is an old engine block with a chain & then rope.
A fairly long & heavy chain is the key, its keep the boat from lifting on the mooring and forces it to drag it across the bottom.

I am going to set one up for my Getaway soon.
I live on the upland side of a low bridge and plan to keep the boat tied up for a few days at a time on the open bay side.

If you don't use the jib cover you can tension the rig using the main halyard to minimize the rig slapping.
I will probably just run an additional line that I can use to snug up the rig

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2004 Getaway with wings