Adding pre gates

[skiboyny]

We have a floating course that we leave in from May to September. It's come in and out for many years. It uses a stainless main line PVC arms with a cement anchor at one end and pinned to the shore on the other, via 800' of vinyl coated stainless. It's made by lord knows who. It has no pre gates and we would like to add them. Anyone aboard done this? Any ideas on the how's and how much's?

[tru-jack]

one 55m rope and some cement blocks with rope and pre gate balls attached.  works fine and it's simple.

[Ed_Obermeier]

To clarify what tru-jack said.  Measure off a length of rope 180.4 feet (55 meters) and use that as your yardstick.  Measure out from the entry gates and at the end of the measuring rope drop an anchor (cement block etc) with a line on it.  Attach buoy, adjust the buoy line for the depth. Instant and cheap pre-gate setup.

Ed

[04196]

Ditto tj and ed, I measured out some poly rope at 180.4, put it on an extension cord plastic reel with a stainless snap hook on the end, clip it on the entry gate cable and slowly motor out, when you reach the end drop your cement block with premeasured line and bungee/ball, reel the rope back up. I use some "noodle" foam (like a sub buoy) towards the end of the line, we have lost a couple of "pre balls" to the yahooooers since we are on a public lake. The noodle keeps the line near the top and easy to find to attach a new ball when needed. If you're not on a public lake, you won't have the "yahoo" problem but still makes the line easy to find if the ball gets hit or taken off.

[skiboyny]

Thanks for the replys everyone. I don't mean to be dense but here are a couple of more questions. On one end the water depth is only about 8 ft so what you suggest is very doable. The other end water is very deep which is why we run 800' of stainless to a pin on the shore. I'm not sure this is an option for us. Also what would you do for the winter months short of dragging the blocks out? Is there a way not to re invent the wheel each and every season?

[LeonL]

Ok, here's what you can do on the deep end ( and the shallow end to if you want).  Make up a diamond gate similar to the entrance gate that you have.  Be sure to make the distance what the boat guides are and not the entrance width.  Use a piece of 2" PVC, drill and attach eyebolts, ropes and green buoys.  Attach stainless cable or poly rope to the eyebolts with sufficient length to reach main line(forming a diamond like your other diamonds) with a foot or so extra.  Using a cable clamp at each end attach to main line, at 55M, being sure that PVC and main line form a 45 degree angle. If you remove the course for winter you can do a little nicer job, but maybe you won't need to.

[Than_Bogan]

Suyderhoud also sells 55m cable sections to extend an Accufloat course and add the greens.  We're planning to install these later this year, so I can't yet comment on any potential problems.

But I *think* it's the solution you're looking for.

(Edited: I was blind the first time.)  The part number seems to be SC113:

http://www.accufloat.com/courses.html

Contact info here:

http://www.accufloat.com/contact.html

P.S. I'm confused how you can anchor the course to the shore.  Wouldn't that result in the cable being right on top of the water?  Or is there some 6'+ deep spot near the shore that you anchor it to?  In any case, adding the 55m balls on cables seems like it should work -- just causes your "shore" anchor line to be shorter.

[skiboyny]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm thinking this is a better way to go.

 thanimal wrote:

>P.S. I'm confused how you can anchor the course to the shore.  Wouldn't that result in the cable being right on top of the water?  Or is there some 6'+ deep spot near the shore that you anchor it to?  In any case, adding the 55m balls on cables seems like it should work -- just causes your "shore" anchor line to be shorter.<

The line stays pretty far down (at least as low as the grid) untill it hits the shore line which gets shallow fairly abrubtly. So if there is enough water to run a boat there is not a problem. If someone managed to get a boat in at the point where you could see the cable they would have far bigger problems. Thanks for your links!

[Than_Bogan]

Hope those 55m cables work for you (and us)!

I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I'm still confused and getting more curious.  Assuming everything is tight -- which you definitely want for a slalom course -- then the cable would form a straight line from (roughly) 4 feet deep at the gates to 0 feet deep at the shore.  (And to even achieve that you'd need some serious weight on the gates to avoid a straight line all the way from the OTHER end.)  Halfway there, or 400' from the gates, it would thus be 2 feet deep (see straight line assumption).  That's a little over twice as far away as the green buoys, which would be a typical spot to drop, thus putting you in great danger of tagging the cable with your prop.

Obviously THAT can't be what's happening, or you'd have been screwed a long time ago, which makes me all the more curious what I'm misunderstanding!!

[skiboyny]

It stays at least 4ft. deep all the way untill the water is less than that. The weight on the gates is much less than you might think. Draw it put the water on the top cable below it and the bottom of the lake stays deep most of the way than tapers to shore. We hook the boat a bit to the left after coming out the end gates so we don't follow the straight path for the whole 800'. I know I'm probably not explaining it real well but it does work.

[Deke]

I would purchase the 55m sections from Ed. The single buoy on its own anchor works OK if you don't ever need to move or re-tension your mainline. In our case the single was just too much hassle so we'll most likely add the sections next season.

[skiboyny]

Ed ez-slalom?

[davemac]

yes.... www.ez-slalom.com

[Than_Bogan]

Public lake?  At my home site, we wouldn't really consider individual anchors because on summer weekends the place is packed with yahoos.  Anchors would surely get dragged and lost on a regular basis.  We've even had the two big anchors at the ends get moved a few times [including this year].

We've also had to move the entire course a few times over the years [including this year], which is way easier with Accufloat.

Also, specific to this thread: It sounds like his depth gets crazy at one end, which could make individual anchors a real pain?

[A_B]

 

 

We added the Accufloat pre gate sections back when pre gates came out.  It easily hooked onto our Accufloat course.

We use an anchor at one end and then we used screw in anchors with eyes at the other and route the cable to shore off to one side, using a screw in anchor a few feet off shore going up to a trailer winch mounted on a metal pole that is cemented in the ground.   As water drops, we just go over and give it a few cranks.  Has worked well for almost 30 years.

 

 

[skiboyny]

Anchors wouldn't be an option for this site. It is a mad made flooded river that gets wide and goes to a spill way to make power. The trees in this particular spot were never even removed. Just flooded. I think about sixty foot deep at the one end of the course.