What anchors are best for a portable course?

[MDB1056]

Have read differnt things about what anchors are best / easiest for a portable course. Woudl apprecaite any input on your experinces.Recently picked up a course down in TX that has metal anchors hinged with the two triangle points that are supposed to catch on the bottom etc. Haven't set it up yet but wanted to get feedback first as if I'm going to replace them I'd rather do it now.Thanks for any advice!

[gregy]

Sounds like the ones I have. Its what ever came with the ez-slalom. After my anchors got stuck a few times where I was fearing the line would bust if I pulled any harder I got some heavy rope and attached it the anchors and put green buoys on the other ends. I got some lighter mushroom style anchors and put them about 10 feet from the main anchor on the heavy rope to keep the green buoys out of line with course.

[wtrskior]

Tri-flute anchors are what Ed sells with his portable courses. I believe they were 30lbs. You can get them in various sizes and. The more weight you can handle the better.

 

[ski603]

Are you removing the course after each use or keeping it in for extended periods of time? We have an insta-slalom that stays in for the whole summer and we use the anchors like the ones that came with your course. They work great, we just have to tighten the course 1-2 times a season to keep the line tight.

[swc5150]

river anchors (what EZ uses)

[Moskier3ev]

@ski603 if you have water depth where you put your course, subs on the entrance and exit gate pipe and you will never have to tighten it as the water level changes. I don't know the physics but I had a public water course for 20+ years. I was told to do it by a wise person. I don't think I ever had to tighten the course again.

[Deke]

@Moskier3ev Could you add a little detail to your post? Would love to know exactly what the wise person told you.

[TallSkinnyGuy]

I use 18lb river anchors in my lake and have a muddy bottom. They work well. I attach a larger diameter rope with a buoy to each anchor to make pulling them up easier on the hands. I am in 90' of water, so pulling up the anchors is a chore. I also found that the line-tightening process works better by attaching my tightening line to the bottom of the anchor so that when I let loose of the tightening line the anchor is in the proper position to grab hold of the bottom right away.

[UWSkier]

Tri-fluted river anchors are what we always used with good results. This was in 50' of water.

[cragginshred]

New Melones is closer to 100' depth where the course is going in and 1 to 2 75lb buckets of concrete are used there.

[Moskier3ev]

John Shull he had a course on Bull Shoals before building a private lake. My course was on Table Rock Lake. I had a couple of foam subs tied to the gate pipe right at the buoy connection.

[TallSkinnyGuy]

If you are leaving the course in then modified concrete buckets can work fine, but I tried those many years ago with a course I had to put in and take out each day and now that I have the rubber coated river anchors I will not go back. The rubber-coated river anchors stick quickly in muddy bottoms, are pretty easy to manage out of the water and won't scratch up your boat.

[Justin_C]

We use 5 cinder blocks tied together. We're in about 8 feet of water and leave the anchors there with a buoy on the line when we take the course out. Some winters we just sink the course.

[Zman]

@MDB1056 How deep is your water at each end of the course? If it is less than 10 feet at either end, you may want to consider screwing a screw type anchor with eyelet into the lake (or river) bottom. Then you would just snap your mainline to the anchor eyelet, unwind the rest of it the mainline, drop anchor at the other and and give it a little pull. Only one weighted anchor to deal with, and you will always have pretty much the same location. The screw anchor is about 10 bucks for a 36 or 40 incher at farm supply stores.

[MDB1056]

THANKS to all for the great information. The course will come in and out on days used as it is public water but a very quiet lake. It's man made so muddy bottom and not very deep. Average 12-15ft. I'll look into the ruber coated river anchors as I've heard from others too those work well. As I've not had a portable course before I'm sure it will take a while to get used to putting it in and getting it out. After all I've read and seen I would think it would be a LOT easier to do both using a pontoon boat as you've got gates on both sides you can open plus the front , plus plenty of room for the pipes, mainline spool, buoys , etc . I'd think the driver could simply keep the boat in idle in reverse and a couple folks in front could install off the sides etc - mainline spool in front could just unwind etc. Going to give it a try! Has to be easier than trying to load it all in the tow boat. Thanks again for the input. I LOVE this forum!

[gregy]

Pontoon boat might be easier. We used a canvass tarp to put over the trunk covers to keep from damaging the vinyl. I'd say try the anchors you have before spending more money.

[TallSkinnyGuy]

After installing ours a couple times we got the install time down to about 25 minutes -- and this is 90 feet of water, so shallower will require less time to drop anchors and make straightening the course easier/quicker. We use the compact EZ-slalom set, so it fits easily in our tow boat.

 

One thing I really wish I would have done before taking the course out the first time is put together one arm section on land first. The instructions I got with the set did not correspond with the numbering on the arm sections and I would have preferred figuring that out on land rather than being very confused in the boat during initial install.

 

For install we have one driver always at the wheel, one person in the boat and one on the swim deck. We keep sections 1 and 2 on one side of the engine and sections 3 and 4 on the other side to make finding the needed section faster. We also rigged up a way to keep the rope spool connected to the back of the engine cover to keep it stable -- this helps a lot during removal when winding the rope in.

 

It won't take you long to figure out an efficient system for both install and removal. For removal you don't need the engine on, so we like to play some mellow tunes during removal and enjoy the serenity of the lake.

[Deke]

Has anyone tried Box Anchors for a portable course? Ours stays in all summer but needs to be moved and re-tensioned frequently due to water level. Just wondering...

[ShererSkier]

Pretty much what @TallSkinnyGuy said, but we don't bundle ours the same. The directions for the E-Z slalom are a little confusing because they group 3 sections by number as well as specific arms by number. So there ends up being 3 sections total and 5 numbered tubes total. Putting a section together on land is definitely the way to go, it helped us a lot! Also trying to keep the course taught as it goes in also helps at the end when setting the last anchor. Honestly I've never given using a pontoon a thought after trying it in the tow boat, Its nice being close to the water on the rear deck when setting the arms down into the water.

 

As for anchors, we use these with 4ft leads and they work perfect in 25ft deep water with muddy bottom. The flukes probably help but we've never had to tighten it. We use it like you will be, only in when in use. Have fun with the course!

[m_pags]

X2 for @TallSkinnyGuy s method. My wife and I install ours in about 35 minutes. The key is using the swim platform when attaching the arms to the mainline as well as removing them. I had to use an IO boat to remove mine once and it added at least 20 minutes. Like @gregy we cover the trunk with a rug to protect it. We use River anchors. They hold great.

[wtrskior]

@TallSkinnyGuy I've had similar deep water install with the ez slalom.. if you haven't done it' already you need 4:1 anchor line to depth so nearly 400' for your application. The kit comes with 100'...

Add more weight to the anchor end you will be pulling from, even if it's an extra 10lb Navy tri-flute anchor

 

You are also best to separate the boat guide sections from the trunk buoy. Add the turn buoys after the boat guides are set up.

[TallSkinnyGuy]

FYI, I mentioned above using 18 lb river anchors, but that was wrong. We use the 30 lb coated river anchors and I added about 6' of heavy chain to each to help keep the anchors in the right grabbing position even with a more upward pull from the mainline.

[Zman]

If you are about 10 feet or less, is it an option to leave mainline and pipes in the water, just pull your buoys? Maybe leave a sub-buoy on both anchors to make findind mainline quick.

[Justin_C]

@Zman that's what we do. We're on a fresh water lake in Canada. We did this with our old mainline that was quite seedy and it worked well until we pulled a little too hard when adjusting the next year. New mainline purchased through ez slalom and we fully intend on just sinking it again. If memory serves, we didn't even bother with a marker buoy, just put the start point in a GPS.

[MDB1056]

Thanks again to everyone for all the great comments. I'm fortunate enough to have a yard big enough to be able to lay it all out to make sure I can connect it correctly before trying to install it. Otherwise my luck I'd have parts at the bottom of the lake

[TallSkinnyGuy]

I mentioned above in an earlier post that I had a lot of confusion the first time setting up because the instructions didn't match the numbering on the pipes. Due to this confusion one of my buddies started putting pipes up on the edge of the boat to enable digging deeper in the pile to find the next pipe section. Two seconds later and a section was knocked off into the water and started sinking to the bottom (about 90' depth). I was standing on the back and dove in after it with hat and prescription sunglasses still on. I caught the pipe after it had sunk about 6' under the surface and came back up with the pipe section AND hat and sunglasses still on! It was a fortunate save, but that story is why I stressed putting together a section on land first.