Buoyed by success

Good old Kiwi ingenuity has come up with a solution to the age-old problems of mooring, writes ROBIN BAILEY.

It happens every time there is a storm warning: the message to boat owners is often along the lines of check your moorings. By then it's usually too late to do anything other than check your insurance policy.

The earliest moorings were probably stones attached to the boat by a line woven out of the nearest available fibre, starting with various flaxes and progressing to hemp.

Then came the metal age, and for nearly 1000 years steel chain has been the preferred mooring material. Steel has always had its drawbacks. It rusts and there's wear and tear on the shackles caused by the links moving as the moored boat swings.

Now there's a new system. Invented by Dave McDermott, from Silverdale, it's a typical example of Kiwi ingenuity - a simple solution to an age-old problem.

All sorts of things other than boats have to be moored, including navigation buoys, channel markers and a variety of beacons. McDermott calls his system Moor4U, and it can be tailored to suit the boat or whatever else it is going to secure.

What makes it better than chain? There's nothing in it to corrode, rust or damage the environment. McDermott believes his invention will do its job for 20 years, surviving regular inspections at whatever interval the regulations require.

Besides rust, steel chain mooring systems are subjected to galvanic corrosion and, on average, 20 per cent of the system must be replaced every two years to prevent failure.

"Our system has passed all the official tests and has Maritime Safety Authority approval," the inventor says. "It is certified for anything from a 5m boat to a 50m superyacht. In fact, we hope to see it used during the next America's Cup defence if we get too many big yachts here for the berths available at the Viaduct Basin."

The four key components of the Moor4U system are the concrete bottom weight that sits on the seabed, the lead weights that keep the system on the bottom, the central core and the flotation device on the surface.

The solid concrete bottom weight comes in size options from 800kg to 20,000kg. It has a blade-shaped face and a concave scooped base to help it to bed into soft seabeds.

The 14kg lead weights are placed along the centre core and locked into place. The core runs through the weights, eliminating the need for any joins.

The core rope is a similar well-proven polypropylene to that which has been used in mussel farming for many years. It has a breaking strain of 16 to 156 tonnes and is encased in a centre core of PVC.

The buoy enables the centre core to slide up through the middle of the float. This means the rope can be secured to the boat's anchoring bollard without having to bring the buoy on board.

McDermott says the system's secret is its simplicity.

He credits much of the success in getting it to the market to the help he and business partner Mike Renwick received from Enterprise North Shore.

"Their mentoring system took us through the development of a business plan, the difficult requirement of securing patents and even put us up for an Industry New Zealand enterprise award, which we have just received. They have been fantastic ... and we're in Rodney, out of their area."

Auckland Harbourmaster James McPetrie says the new system could mean big long-term savings for both the Auckland Regional Council, port companies and other agencies responsible for moorings, as well as for boat-owners.

"At present, moorings in the ARC area have to be lifted for inspection every three years," he says. "In Rodney the checks have to be done every two years. This involves a an administrative chore as mooring owners have to be contacted to ensure the lifting has been carried out.

"It seems the new weighted polypropylene system will prove to have a much longer life than the present chain systems and won't need to be lifted so often, perhaps only every five to 10 years. This will mean huge savings all round."

Moor4U