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Overnight tie-up when house boating


sabre

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Taking my first houseboat trip this weekend.  I know there's a lot of folks that do it every year so I'm looking for advice on anchoring to shore, anchoring the 'bu and tying off to the houseboat?

These are my thoughts:

  1. Find a smallish cove and tie the houseboat off across the cove entrance 
  2. Pull the 'Bu into the cove in the evening to keep it out of sight (and allow us to keep all the boards etc on the boat)
  3. Tie up the 'Bu separately and away from the houseboat, so we don't have to worry about bumpers, etc

What am I missing?  Has anyone done this in the past? Has it worked well?  What are other options/opinions that I should look at or try?

Thanks

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I'd just do the normal beaching of the houseboat, as what you're talking about sounds incredibly difficult to find and even harder to pull off.   If you're worried about the rubbing, one of my buddies figured out how to tie his lsv to one of the anchor lines at night, which I thought was pretty smart.  

Edit: I assumed you were going to a secluded lake above, is that not the case? 

Have Fun!!!   So Jealous. :) 

Edited by Iwish
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We just returned from our second houseboat trip With Wake Zone on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. Since the houseboat is moored to shore, we always tied up directly to the mooring lines. Ouachita is awesome and we never had an issue with our boat toys disappearing and they stayed on the boat every night.

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There's a ton of info on this if you search. You're best bet would be to use an anchor buddy and box anchor off the bow eye. Than run a 40' rope from one of the stern eyes to somewhere on the houseboat. This way you can just pull the line in when you need access to the boat. When you're done let go and let the Anchor Buddy pull the boat away from the houseboat. If you have beach access than I would do the same thing off the bow, only run the rear line to a Sand Spike and put that into the shore line. That Box Anchor/Sand Spike/Anchor Buddy combo is the handiest setup every. Every boat should have one. Of course you can replace the box anchor with an anchor of your preference. IMO the Box Anchor is the only anchor I'd leave my boat tied to overnight though.

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19 minutes ago, MaliWop said:

There's a ton of info on this if you search. You're best bet would be to use an anchor buddy and box anchor off the bow eye. Than run a 40' rope from one of the stern eyes to somewhere on the houseboat. This way you can just pull the line in when you need access to the boat. When you're done let go and let the Anchor Buddy pull the boat away from the houseboat. If you have beach access than I would do the same thing off the bow, only run the rear line to a Sand Spike and put that into the shore line. That Box Anchor/Sand Spike/Anchor Buddy combo is the handiest setup every. Every boat should have one. Of course you can replace the box anchor with an anchor of your preference. IMO the Box Anchor is the only anchor I'd leave my boat tied to overnight though.

This right here is the only way to go in my opinion.  We also do a Ouchita trip every summer and do this exact tie up method.  We put a bumper on the anchor buddy line and the rope tied to the houseboat so both lines stay in the water all week and we just pull up to the house boat, hook the rope to the rear lift ring and drop everyone off then I pull forward to the anchor buddy bumper, grab it and hook it to the front ring and then pull myself back to the house boat and hop off and the boat gets pulled out about 30' from the houseboat.

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Thanks everyone for the replies. the lake is a large lake with a lot of traffic in the main channel but there are a ton of coves and a few islands.  My biggest 2 concerns are boat damage and theft.  I think based on the comments, we can avoid damage easily by using one of the mooring lines and an anchor buddy or something similar.  As for theft, it sounds like it's not a big deal and we shouldn't stress.

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I guess different lakes have different solutions.

I have houseboat at Powell all my life.  We currently do around 5 trips/year, 2 or so where we bring the houseboat out of the slip.

My method is to find a spot that is somewhat sandy, secluded, and with good tie offs.  Ropes off the cleats of the houseboat at a 45* angle, to large boulders.  Ropes off the next cleats up  at a larger angle to more boulders.  Ropes off the front of the houseboat to shore spikes to keep the bow from walking.

Malibu gets either tied to the dock whips attached to the back of the houseboat, or else it gets tied to the side of the houseboat with multiple large fenders as well as a hull guard.

Never had an issue with this method.

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I hate dealing with anchors since we usually move to different coves throughout the week. I usually have a bow line attached to the stern of the house boat. And two shore spikes attached to the stern transom hooks of the boat. 

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Every time we have gone out this year we have beached it and tied the stern to the trees on both sides.  It's easy and gives the kids a place to explore.  Take into consideration where the wind typically comes from and how boat traffic (wakes/waves) will be hitting the boat.  We seek out secluded coves which is nice.  More than one way to skin a cat for this but this is how we do it.  Beach the boat, keep it in gear while securing the lines, one person stays on the controls and makes adjustments if needed,  one person runs ropes up to larger/sturdy trees and loops the tree(s), try to get as much angle on the ropes as possible - where tie points are could determine where you beach it,  swim or float (on a tube) the ropes to the stern of the boat, tie to the 2nd or 2rd cleat up from the rear - this will allow you to get your boat to the rear patio, secure one side then thrust (if you have thrusters) or maneuver the boat to make that rope tight, secure the other side and get as tight as you can.  Consider putting a second line out on the side getting hit by the wind....  Wind is your enemy on a houseboat!!!  

 

We have tied the boats to the houseboat directly AND we've gone the other route and utilized a box anchor with an anchor buddy.  Both work well.  If I had just the one boat to worry about then I'd go right to the side at the rear patio.  This makes getting on and off a breeze.  

side tie

image_zps7wcukrms.png

 

Dual box anchor and anchor buddy

image_zpsxdf8xkyh.jpeg

dual side tie AND dual anchor buddy and box anchor...

image_zpsecwf1lt9.jpeg

 

 

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  • 7 years later...
Blake2dablizzo
On 7/7/2016 at 12:49 PM, sabre said:

Thanks everyone for the replies. the lake is a large lake with a lot of traffic in the main channel but there are a ton of coves and a few islands.  My biggest 2 concerns are boat damage and theft.  I think based on the comments, we can avoid damage easily by using one of the mooring lines and an anchor buddy or something similar.  As for theft, it sounds like it's not a big deal and we shouldn't stress.

This is an old thread so I'm late to the game....  We houseboat at Lake Powell in UT/AZ.    I tie my tow boat to the stern anchor line of the houseboat.    Get a 4 to 5 ft piece of docking or anchor line and tie it in a loop using a square knot.   Then using that loop a use a Prusik Knot (you tube it).   Tie one on the houseboat mooring line where you can tie off to a bow cleat, and one on the mooring line where you can tie off to a stern cleat.    The Prusik knot will slide along the mooring line so you can adjust it, but when tension is added it will bite and wont slide.    Then a couple of fenders to prevent the mooring line from rubbing against your gelcoat and you're golden.     As long as the mooring line holds you won't have a problem.    if your mooring line breaks or anchor comes loose in heavy wind you'll have double trouble, but if you have secure mooring lines this method works great.

Edited by Blake2dablizzo
Confusing mis use of mooring and anchor lines
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