Ski boat moored to a Houseboat?

[BigBald]

I am looking for some creative ideas on how to moore a ski boat up to a houseboat.

We take a group of high school students down to Lake Cumberland every summer. Last year we had 3 ski boats of different types.....Sport Nautique, Ski Nautique, and a Wakesetter. We had 3 houseboats moored together. However, for the first time, we experienced some damage to two of the ski boats. During some decent waves, the ski boats got up underneath the houseboat. And the the houseboat banged up the ski boat a bit. Nothing major, but a pain.

We had 3 bumpers per ski boat. but they still didn't seem to do the trick. Does anybody have any creative suggestions for a way to keep the ski boats from slipping underneath the deck of the houseboatn while moored? This year we will have 5 houseboats and 4 ski boats...and we want to make certain that we don't get any damage.

thanks in advance.

[NautiqueJeff]

What about something like this? DRAGON88 uses this system on his dock, and if you could somehow mount these to the houseboat, you'd be all set.

[DRAGON88]

I was just going to comment about the arms, Thanks Jeff. If i remember correctly those arms were spendy ($350 per set) but that was 5 years ago. The better and cheaper option (albeit still a pretty steep.) would be something like this.

Actually after poking around on the Overtons website I cant seem to find my type of arms... Here's their official website though Click

I think there are cheaper mooring whips out there, I'm just not sure of where...

Edit: How about this idea, you take some PVC pipe and use the pipe to move the boat away from the boat. Like a spacer system kinda... See my diagram below:

[97SN]

A good, inexpensive solution is to use the anchor buddy line on the front of your ski boat and tie the back of the ski boat to the houseboat with regular ski rope. We used this quite successfully last summer with 5 ski boats tied to one houseboat. It was very easy to pull the ski boat into the houseboat for loading & unloading but kept the ski boats safely away from the houseboat and from eachother to prevent any banging & crashing. Of course you may need to add additional line to the anchor depending on the depth.[/url]

[Deuce]

VERY GOOD IDEA 97SN. My friends always moore to the houseboats, but I get panicky..... Mine is always floating out on it's own.... Yellow_Flash_Colorz:

Of course the boats we(they) moore to are fairly small, think the biggest has been around 60'..... Last year....actually the red boat in photo, had one of the bumpers pop due to heat from the generator exhaust.... VERY LUCKY there was no damage to his gelcoat.

[Deuce]

Oh....and wanted to comment.... 5 houseboats/4 skiboats is quite the armada.... We have never been over 2 houseboats/3 inboard/2 I/O.....and that seemed big.....

E.J.

[97SN]

Here's a snapshot using the anchor buddy system tied to the houseboat. There are three other boats that you cannot see from this viewpoint, but all are done in a similar fashion.

[BigBald]

Deuce - yes it's quite the armada....this is the biggest trip to date for our ministry. 41 high school students and 20 adults. The previous largest trip was 24 students and 15 adults.....three 70' houseboats and 3- inboard boats.

As far as the "anchor buddy" thoughts.....would those work on a lake as deep as Lake Cumberland....we will be in 100'+ water depth???? That would be a bunch of extra line to buy for mooring 4 boats? $$$

Here is an idea that me and a friend have been kicking around...would love your thoughts?

[BigBald]

Here an image of the houseboat railing.

We use two or three of the white bumpers per boat, and the houseboat have the tires. Althought, we don't really like the ties and usually move them....they are somewhat dirty and they ususally have some radial threads poking thru.

Remember that I am just trying to keep the ski boats from getting up underneath the houseboat when there are some serious waves. We still need to be able to make access easy for everyone. And not have a really cumbersome system to get down to the lake, mounted to the houseboats, removed from the houseboats, and then hauled back home.

sounds easy right???

[efox]

Cut a length of PVC pipe 2" diameter to about four feet. Cut halfway through 2 tennis balls and poke a hole in the opposite side. Thread anchor line through on tennis ball and then into the pvc...jam the tennis ball over the end of the pvc. Thread the line out of the pvc and through the other ball and jam it on the other end of the pvc. Use this to tie of the boat to the houseboat. Lines keep boats tied up, pvc keeps the boats apart. Change diameter and length to suit your individual needs.

Eric

[97SN]

Bigbald_SPLASH180,

Yes, we had to add some additional nylon rope to the achor buddy line in deeper water, so you're right in saying it can get costly if you plan to anchor in water deeper than 50 feet.

One issue you might encounter with your pipe & carpet solution is that the pipe will have a tendency to push the skiboat away from the houseboat as it rocks up and down with the waves, especially if the waves are hitting the side of the houseboat vs from the front or back. Imagine the side of the houseboat being pushed up relative to the ski boat and thus pushing the bottom of the pipe outward against the ski boat. If the waves are frequent and severe enough, this may break the PVC pipe if you don't have enough slack in the rope between the houseboat and the ski boat. If you're going with this solution and plan on staying on the water for more than a few days, I would take a few extra pieces of pipe in case repairs are necessary.

It sounds like this is an annual event for your group, so going with NautiqueJeff's Dragon88 photo is probably the best long term solution if you can get it to work.

[darrel409]

If you have "tubers" in your group, just use the tubes between the houseboat and your boats. Lots of wakeboard boats on our section of river this method protects our boats from rollers pushing them into the dock.

[Hollywood]

I like the PVC pipe idea. As long as the pipes go uder the water a foot or two, they'd probably offer the best protection with the least amount of work involved.

[BigBald]

Hollywood....I thought so also....however after 97SN's comment...I may try to go 3 or 4 feet deep and cover with carpet. That would cover us just in case the boat started to push out a bit.

Another option that I am considering is adding a "heated" bend in the PVC to curve it back underneath the houseboat....only a slight bend. But I would need to figure out how to keep the bend heading under the houseboat and not spin....

Keep the comments coming..

[igkya]

Add a 'corner' piece of PVC (30 or 45 degrees) in the mid-section, then run the remaining straight piece into the water.