My DIY sandbar spike anchor

[drewkaree]

I built mine last night - too much of a hurry to take pics though - will do this weekend. Made two 37" pipes out of 1 1/2 pvc, added a T connector to the top, cut two 2" pipe piece for the handle, added caps to the end (looks nice as pipe isn't visible but still seems to allow for ample purchase for digging). then I cut a long angle about 6" from the bottom, one side to the next to allow it to be "shovel-screwed" into the sand. Added two stainless steel eye bolts 3" below the T section on the "open" side of my point cut.

Best part about it though? I'm going to leave the handle part separate from the spike itself which allows me to store both of them in my clean-out hatch port! That'll be the first time I've found that "wet storage area" useful for anything!

Testing on Friday - will take pics and show results.

I like the cleanout storage area! I never really consider that "storage", since it seems so shallow to me. The only thing I use it for is to stuff a Nerf football down into one of the cleanout ports to take to the sandbar. Are the bolts for tying off to?

 

[anmut]

I like the cleanout storage area! I never really consider that "storage", since it seems so shallow to me. The only thing I use it for is to stuff a Nerf football down into one of the cleanout ports to take to the sandbar. Are the bolts for tying off to?

Correct, eye bolts + carbiner (spelling?) + bungee dock line.

 

[drewkaree]

strolling through the Forum, I realized that strolling through the Forum, I realized that I forgot to post these from the past weekend. I have the biggest umbrella I could find, 68 in, and it looks like it is pretty useless.

I also I also realized, with screwing in the taller handle, that I need to take a shorter handle to get that started, and then just before it goes below the waterline, remove it to swap out the taller one if it is needed

 

[anmut]

My design is near perfect - holds the boat, stores in the wet storage area. BUT, because my handles come off, i'm going to need to add some quick release pins to them, as the handle tends to spin if you're trying to dig in.

Otherwise, I had my first "hey buddy, can I ask you about your sand anchors?" conversation last night.

 

[212xcarbon]

I used 2". About 42" long with fitting on top. Drilled holes for d ring. Drop looped end of now line in from top and put d ring through. Works great so far! Thanks for starting this thread and ideas.

 

[anmut]

I used 2". About 42" long with fitting on top. Drilled holes for d ring. Drop looped end of now line in from top and put d ring through. Works great so far! Thanks for starting this thread and ideas.View attachment 131710

Nice - I'll get pictures of mine tonight. Made one more modification today to make it perfect...

 

[drewkaree]

Drilled holes for d ring. Drop looped end of now line in from top and put d ring through

Are you saying that you dropped the eye of your line down the pipe and then run the pin through the eye? If that's what you meant, that is a great idea, and a super easy way to attach it to the spike! Awesome idea!

 

[212xcarbon]

Yeah exactly. Works very well and I think looks super clean.

 

[Dean P]

Pictures?

 

[anmut]

Here’s my spikes. The removable T handles allow for storage in the otherwise-useless "wet storage area" and honest, if I'm in just sand, I can push the spikes in with just my hands, no need for the handles. Thus far this is the easiest and fastest way of deploying an anchor - holds great too. Next modification to them will be added some thread locker to the nuts - they vibrate loose when they're stored in that area.

 

[TimW451]

"GET THE HELL OUT HERE AND GIVE ME A HAND, AND I'M NOT MAD AT YOU, BUT I CAN'T STOP xxxx AND I DON'T HAVE TIME TO BE NICE ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!"

I need this on a shirt.

 

[drewkaree]

For anyone who wants to color theirs like @anmut but wants something more permanent, it can be done. Acetone should take off all manufacturing stamps, make sure to use clear glue and primer, and for the coloring, you'll need some specialized stuff. Clear PVC cleaner (I think acetone can be used to do this as well, IIRC) and some dye coloring. Rekhaoil® Dyes for PVC Stains | RekhaOil® ALL of this is added cost, so the only reason you're gonna color yours THIS way is because it's longer lasting and far more permanent than paint.


Mix the dye in with the acetone/cleaner, and paint it on. That's it. It's really more of a stain for PVC than a paint, because once you use this stuff, it's NOT coming off without some sort of abrasive. You shouldn't need much of this, the 1oz size should be enough for doing two sand spikes, depending on how deep of a color you're wanting.

 

[Jason Kloehn]

I just finished making my sand anchor a couple weeks ago. Have no idea how it will work yet. Excited to try it out this spring. Cleat can be adjusted depending on depth of water.

 

[anmut]

I just finished making my sand anchor a couple weeks ago. Have no idea how it will work yet. Excited to try it out this spring. Cleat can be adjusted depending on depth of water.

FANCY Yamaha Blue and everything!

 

[BeauSko]

@drewkaree I got my auger so I'll head to Home Depot to get the rest of the supplies this weekend. Since you've had some time to put it through the ringer, any improvements or suggestions you have?

 

[RobbieO]

Since there have been enough comments on this, I'll finish it up in this post, and edit the one above to direct to this one.

After swapping out the wrong cross piece, I finished it up today. Improvements may still come once I get out to test it. I didn't spray foam the upright piece, the handles were foamed, and that was enough to keep it afloat. I will probably add some spray foam to the end of the long piece just to keep the whole tube afloat - it points straight down and only the cross pokes above water.

View attachment 130338

I have also decided to skip the short cross handle. My thought is that we won't use the umbrella if it's 5' or deeper, and the longer section will work for both depths. If that changes, it's easy enough to build another one, or fix the existing one.

The Procella golf umbrella fits perfectly, but I'll be looking for a 60" for the boat. This one is 48", and it will do until the replacement is found

View attachment 130332


View attachment 130337

That’s all, it's "finished", pending testing and umbrella results! I'll post pics when I plant that flag in the water, and how it looks with the umbrella.

Any questions, throw 'em out

It's not a Sand Shark. That's the best I can do....

 

[RiverRat]

I purchased two augers earlier this summer in anticipation of building a set of sandbar anchors. Then @SCP1 and @OB WI told me about a guy that had some pretty cool ones and how they were probably cheaper than the parts to build them myself. Checked em out and ordered a pair from www.sandbaranchors.com . Color matched to my boat and couple of koozies shipped to my house in a few days. Very happy with them and for maybe a few bucks more than if I were to buy the parts myself, I’m glad I went this route. About $75 for the pair.

 

[drewkaree]

@drewkaree I got my auger so I'll head to Home Depot to get the rest of the supplies this weekend. Since you've had some time to put it through the ringer, any improvements or suggestions you have?

@tdonoughue was right with his thinking that a boat might need something more substantial, and for a breakdown/modular version, your boat weighs too much for my measurements/configuration to work out. The modular version, IMO, is useful and will work for a jet ski, but a wasted effort for a boat - a neighbor uses one for his jet ski with zero issues over several months. My 1-piece versions have caused zero issues over a similar time frame, so I'd say stay away from the modular versions for your boat.

@Redneck_4Play was also right to be concerned about the hitch pin (wire lock pin), but not for the reasons he was thinking. The wire came off the pin way too easily. The pin would never break, IMO, so perhaps a bolt with a wing nut might allow a breakdown version, but then you have more parts to keep track of when disassembling them. A glued-together solid 1-piece version works perfectly - tested over several excursions, @WiskyDan can attest to mine working to hold his boat, my boat, and the neighbor's pontoon in line, with some help off the bow from his box anchor. I've since switched over to 3 solid 1-piece anchors, as swapping out the handles like I originally envisioned was a gigantic PITA, and forced me to be the one to do this all the time, since it was hard to explain, and cumbersome to say the least.

Make yours 5 1/2', anything much longer than that will be too hard to stow, will tend to bend more than you'd like, and if you're in water deep enough to need something taller, then you're better served by an anchor. These will work even if the top is slightly under water, as you can get them darn near directly under the nose of your boat, so you won't have anchor line issues like a typical anchor. Stow it in the ski locker, it's the best and easiest place to run these. I keep all 3 of mine in there along with 2 emergency oars/dock hooks.

Spend the time/effort/money for the clear primer and cement. Acetone will remove all the other markings.

Use a chop saw for nice square cut ends, if you've got one.

Get short bungee lines with clips or loops on both ends, or some other method that will make these easy to deploy, even by those who might not know what they're doing. The type @anmut posted above work great, although I wasn't a fan of those when we were tied up in a line. In that situation, I prefer to use the orange lines shown in a few of the pics I've posted.

Skip the 1 1/4" PVC to slide through the T-fitting, just make handles and cement them into place. They don't even need to be that large, 4-6" on each side will be sufficient, you just need something to hold onto when turning them into the ground.

In the first pic of this thread, you can see the "notches" that keep a space between the auger and the PVC. On Amazon, MANY doorknobs modify their PVC (and ding the product for their own stupidity) to have the augers fit snug to the PVC. That space allows water to drain easily and also allows you to clean off any debris from the augers.

Thanks to @anmut and his idea, I added a U-bolt to the top of the T-fitting - stainless, 1 1/4" wide. Before you glue up/assemble the T-handle, drill holes for the U-bolt, run the included nuts all the way to the top of the threads on the U-bolt, then add the plate, and run it into the holes. Use some nylock nuts for the inside to keep everything together, and after everything is sufficiently tight, then glue the handles on. I've seen a few examples of a larger U-bolt ran completely through, but I wasn't a fan of the scratch/gouge potential while stored.

If you don't want to add the U-bolts, figure out the best knot to tie off the boat - "if you can't tie a knot, tie a lot" makes these a pain. U-bolts and bungee lines with clips on both ends makes this quick and simple for those who might be a bit harder to train

Another of @tdonoughue's tips, use something to mark off each foot (or at least the top 2'). Masking tape will work if you don't want to mark it up. Once you're aware of just how deep you want to bury these, you can remove the tape, vs trying to remove sharpie. It proved quite useful for my wife, and now she's gotten it down to where I felt comfortable removing the tape.

 

[drewkaree]

Here’s my spikes. The removable T handles allow for storage in the otherwise-useless "wet storage area" and honest, if I'm in just sand, I can push the spikes in with just my hands, no need for the handles. Thus far this is the easiest and fastest way of deploying an anchor - holds great too. Next modification to them will be added some thread locker to the nuts - they vibrate loose when they're stored in that area.

View attachment 132088

In looking through this thread again, I just noticed your T-fitting handle design. I gotta say, that's one of the more clever methods, and it's really slick looking to boot! Yours is an example of a modular design that wouldn't seem to suffer the same issues I had with the taller top section (wire piece on the hitch pin kept popping open with wave action). I'd consider doing what you did if I was looking for a way to break it down for storage.

As to the nuts vibrating loose, another alternative is to use nylock nuts. It's just a nut with a nylon insert, I haven't ever had an occasion where one has come loose.

Is that eye bolt stainless, and what size is it?