The Hazelett Conservation Elastic Mooring System is an advanced alternative over traditional block and chain moorings. From the anchor upwards, our system consists of galvanized hardware for attaching to the anchor or block, hard trawl floats to keep the components afloat, one or more elastic rodes, a spar buoy, and a stainless steel swivel.
We recommend Helix anchors or concrete blocks for securing to our elastic rode(s) system. We stock a custom top termination fitting for 1 ½” (3.81cm) Helix anchor shafts, providing the easy connection of the elastic rode to a Helix anchor.
Instead of chain, our spar buoy or a mooring ball is connected to an anchor by Hazelett Elastic Rode(s). The rodes are manufactured of an advanced polyurethane elastomer blend, with polyethylene thimbles pressed into the ends. The design is based on over twenty years of research and development. All Hazelett Elastic Rodes are inspected, serialized, and load tested at our plant.
Hazelett Marine makes two types of spar buoys. The first type is made of 4″ (10.16cm) aluminum tubing with cast aluminum ends welded on. They can be ballasted with steel shot. They are recommended for use in fresh water only.
The second type is made of polyethylene. It is pre-ballasted with concrete and then filled with foam. This type of spar buoy has a pocket molded into the top that houses a stainless steel swivel, and it also has a tube through the center to allow a rope connection from the swivel to the elastic rode.
Single
1-5 Tonne boats
Double
6-15 Tonne boats
Triple
16-25 Tonne boats
Quad
26-35 Tonne boats
Our Single Point Swing Moorings systems can be left in year round, reducing costly winter removal and spring reinstallation. The spar buoy(s) also works as a “winter stick” that can slip under the ice. We recommend yearly inspections and replacement at 10 years under normal working conditions.
Hazelett Elastic Single Point Swing Moorings can increase mooring field density by about forty percent, since our mooring system can be installed with a scope as short as one-to-one instead of the three-to-one scope of the traditional ball and chain systems.
Mooring in twenty feet (six meters) of water requires sixty feet (eighteen meters) of chain (based on the three-to-one scope) with the traditional block and chain mooring system. That length of chain will have about 360 moving metal-to-metal connections that can wear and rust. The Hazelett Elastic Mooring has only one metal-to-metal connection at the anchor. Yearly inspections are simplified with the Hazelett Conservation Elastic Mooring System and fewer repairs/replacements are needed.
Shellfish and finfish need eelgrass for spawning and for protecting their young. However, traditional chain mooring systems destroy eelgrass and other aquatic vegetation when the chain rakes the bottom with the direction changes of winds and tides. With chain systems, water clarity is also diminished when the chain stirs up sediment, blocking precious sunlight to the plants. In contrast, the Hazelett Conservation Elastic Mooring System protects the sea bed because our elastic rodes are floated off the bottom. We have had many reports on the regrowth of eelgrass and the repopulation of lobsters and scallops within two years of replacing chain systems with our elastic system.
Mallets Bay Boat Club, Colchester
Vermont, USA
Transient Moorings, City of Burlington
Vermont, USA