Anchoring a slalom course in deep water

[MCskiFreak]

So here is the problem, the lake that my parents live on is a very deep lake with fast drop offs because of this there has never been a course on it. I have mapped areas of the lake where I would like to put one but all of them lie in 20-30' of water. Any ideas about how to pull this off?

[Marco]

We've anchored portable courses in water well over 30' deep at Lake Powell.  Just get EZ Ed to make you a course with a longer mainline so the angle from the anchor to the gates is not so steep and the anchors bite better.  I'm sure Ed can give you more detailed information, but 30' should not be a huge problem.

[Laz]

We have used our EZ-Slalom course in a 50' deep lake a few times without too much trouble. You have to have a 4:1 ratio of depth to anchor line length. Also, you should have at least a 4:1 ratio of depth to marker buoy line length. This is important for straightening the course out in deep water. To be clear, the anchor lines go from the anchors to the gates. The marker buoy line attaches to the anchor and has a floating bouy to help you remove the course. Make sure there are weights on this line, so the rope will not be hit by the prop. If the water is 50' deep and the marker buoy line is > 200' then it should be pretty easy to use this line to tighten the course. This will allow you to drag the attached anchor without lifting it too much out of position.....Does that make any sense at all?

[lpskier]

My course is in water at least 30 feet deep. I use heavy anchors, such as old cast iron radiators, but several cement blocks attached together with a cable or chain work fine too. Either will settle into the bottom and never move. Use a long anchor line, at least four or five times your water depth and put a totally empty large detergent jug (or something similar) at about the halfway point on the anchor line. The jug will always try to float to the surface, keeping constant tension on the anchor line and thus keeping the course tight and straight even if the water level fluctuates. If the water level fluxuates a lot, you may have to manually adjust the course as needed. Don't let the jug get close to the surface; you don't want it getting too close to your propellor, or the propellor of the wally in the IO who will come by. Plan ahead about how you will attach your line to the anchor. If your line is attached in a manner that allows it to chafe, it will break at some point and you will lose your anchor. You can use a piece of hose to make a protective sleeve and I usually use a carabiner to attach the line to the anchor.

[dleenhouts]

Check the local laws too, you don't want to do the work just to find out you've got to take it out when the authorities come by.

[MCskiFreak]

Thanks for the advice! All of it makes perfect sense. I had talked to some people about using ez slalom for doing this but clearly they were misinformed.

[RichardDoane]

Back when we could put a course in the Greenlake, near downtown Seattle for a couple of tournaments per year, we got pretty good at doing the portable course thing. Our anchors were 5 gallon buckets that we'd fill with cement, and they'd have threaded 3/4" pipe fittings to screw in 12" pipes sticking out on 4 sides to really stick into the soft bottom. We'd put an eye bolt into both the top and bottom, one for the mainline to attach to, the other for a line to retrieve and straighten the course with. lpskier is correct about being careful in protecting the ropes from damage, in fact one time officerfriendly did a great job of getting the mainline wrapped up around the prop during installation.

[Ed_Obermeier]

All good information above, really nothing I can add to it.  You didn't say if this was a portable or permanent course, I asume permanent?  I can offer a couple additional options for tensioning but lpskiers auto tensioning system (detergent jug, buoy etc attached about halfway up the anchor lead) makes for a good auto tensioner for slight water lever fluctuations.  Feel free to ping me at ed@ez-slalom.com if you have other/specific questions, I'll be happy to help in whatever manner I'm able.  BTW 30' really isn't that deep; I've personally used my own portable course in 70' of depth and I've had customers tell me they've used them in up to 100' of depth.  As long as you stick to the minimum 4:1 ratio of anchor lead to water depth you should be good to go. 

Ed @ EZ-Slalom

[boarditup]

I have used the EZ-Slalom in 90 feet of water depth.  I used a fairly large boat anchor (25-lbs or so fluke type) with a 12 foot section of very heavy anchor chain.  Additionally, I attached a rope and buoy to the other end of the anchor.  This was to tension the course with the anchor as close to the bottom as possible - keeping the course tight.  You need 4:1 for that rope, as well.  We then coiled the rope, secured it with a zip tie under the buoy, and avoided the buoy on the set-up run.  It was far enough away that it did not interfere with boat setup for the 55s.  The tension rope an buoy made course removal a snap.

[9400]

If you use a tension rope as long as your anchor rope, you can just attach it to the diamond at the gate, then you won't need to mark it with a buoy (just another option)

[kstateskier]

My course is in 80 feet of water, unfortunately I can't comment with any useful info because I didn't install it, its not portable and one side is anchored by a 78 Chevy Block and the other Jimmy Hoffa's dead body wrapped in chain mill and cinder blocks.