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QUESTION Janee Niebler, Gull Lake, Ont.
You don't need the scuba gear, the drill, or the big bad hook. You do need some different anchor materials and a different method, advises Astorville, Ont.-based dockmeister Max Burns, author of The Dock Manual, published by Storey Books. Instead of rope, use 3/8" steel chain. It won't deteriorate anytime soon, and it will add some useful weight. Instead of concrete blocks, you need some seriously heavy anchors. They should add up to at least double the raft's weight. (Don't stint on these, because each submerged anchor loses about one-third of its weight in the water.) Here's Burns' simple suggestion for making your own: Lay some polyethylene sheeting down on a flat surface, get some used 14" tires, and fill them (the tire insides and the centres) with concrete. While it's still wet, insert steel hooks into the concrete for attaching the chains. Make a bend in the shaft of each hook before inserting it, so it can't pull straight out of the hole once the concrete dries. The resulting anchors should weigh about 115 kg each. But - and here's the really neat part - because they are wheels, you can manhandle them with relative ease by tilting them up and rolling them to the water. If you know your raft's approximate weight, you'll know how many of these monsters you have to make - probably not more than four, one for each corner. Cross-chain them, i.e., criss-cross each pair of chains so that each corner is linked to the anchor under the adjacent corner. The chains should run at about 45° angles under the raft. If your raft still has a case of wanderlust, you can always gang more anchors at each corner.
Jo Currie
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