Submerged mooring of a Laser One

   No moorings or dry moorings readily available near my place in Malta so the Laser is hanging from the rafters.  Plan is to sink the hull in three meters of water as a mooring method.  Estimates please of the submerged displacement so I know how many rocks to collect. Maybe 400 kg?

Author	Message Share Topic Printable Version Delicious Digg Facebook Furl Google MySpace Newsvine reddit StumbleUpon Translate Twitter Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic
Keith Sharp Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Newbie Joined: 20 Apr 15 Location: Malta Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote Keith Sharp Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Submerged mooring of a Laser One Posted: 20 Apr 15 at 11:19pm
	No moorings or dry moorings readily available near my place in Malta so the Laser is hanging from the rafters. Plan is to sink the hull in three meters of water as a mooring method. Estimates please of the submerged displacement so I know how many rocks to collect. Maybe 400 kg?

JimC Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6661	Post Options Post Reply Quote JimC Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 3:29am
	Don't understand. Do you mean sink the boat to use as a sinker to moor something else, or what? Surely you don't mean keep the boat underwater and refloat to use?

Keith Sharp Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Newbie Joined: 20 Apr 15 Location: Malta Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote Keith Sharp Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 4:28am
	<<keep the boat underwater and refloat to use>> Yep. that's it.

rich96 Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 20 Jan 05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 596	Post Options Post Reply Quote rich96 Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 5:33am
	This should have been posted on April 1st

Keith Sharp Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Newbie Joined: 20 Apr 15 Location: Malta Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote Keith Sharp Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 6:40am
	Maybe, but in fact it was posted April 20 and so far no-one has said why it's crazy. I'm expecting to enlarge the drain plug and let it fill with water as it sinks, so hull isn't crushed. That might also let me take photos of inside of hull: my understanding is that Lasers contain either lumps of foam or sealed plastic containers. It's a Europe-made hull, about 1995.

Keith Sharp Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Newbie Joined: 20 Apr 15 Location: Malta Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote Keith Sharp Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 8:27am
	More info and rethinking: 148255 UK-made Radial. No inspection port. A buoyancy Cubitainer (?) vaguely visible in photos through transom hole. It’s easy to believe that there are the apparently standard three 10-litre bags forward and three 20-litre bags aft. Current plan is to drill a big (maybe 2 inch) drain hole in transom and sink Laser hull for storage. Presumably, given the buoyancy bag information, 100 kg of limestone, specific gravity about 2.8, should sink the hull, maybe held in net secured through daggerboard slot. And presumably the Cubitainers will squash somewhat at depth three metres. Do people think this might work? Do you want to see a selfie of me sitting on the sinking hull winching it down towards the rock on the seabed? :)

Noah Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 29 Dec 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 611	Post Options Post Reply Quote Noah Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 8:29am
	Two questions spring to mind: 1) WHY? 2) How will you refloat it when you want to use it? I've seen kids competing to see how many can fit on a Laser before it sinks & it looked like a lot more than 400Kg to me. That's not allowing for flooded buoyancy though.
	Nick D-Zero 316

Keith Sharp Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Newbie Joined: 20 Apr 15 Location: Malta Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote Keith Sharp Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 8:38am
	1) Why? Nowhere else to put it. Malta regulations, crowded harbour, 10 year wait for legal mooring, no car. Sinking the hull might be easier than convincing the authorities that I'm a genuine fourth-generation fisherman, especially still wearing my Toronto BlueJays shirt. 2) Interesting. More than 450kg of kids? That's maybe ten kids to sink it? As you imply, fewer kids if I drill a big new drain hole in the transom. Promising! Draining it shouldn't be more than a few minutes dragging the hull slowly out of the water. Better than the 600 metres pull uphill to my house on Sunday.

Keith Sharp Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Newbie Joined: 20 Apr 15 Location: Malta Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote Keith Sharp Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 8:42am
	Oh, and idea would be to have boat/rock combo on sea bottom with maybe 10 kg negative buoyancy, so easily dragged to surface from shore. Then bag of rocks is hooked to hang just below surface to retrieve when returning from sailing. If I remember to put in the big bung.

jeffers Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 29 Mar 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3048	Post Options Post Reply Quote jeffers Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Apr 15 at 8:45am
	Sinking it is a very bad idea. You will never get all the water out of it and. over time, the layout will abosrb water making it a lot heavier. That and the hull will have backup buoyancy in it to prevent sinking if the boat gets holed.
	Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74