Northwest Dive Club

I see someone has installed a new float out there. Anyone know who?

The reason I ask is I've been making one to replace the sunk one and want to make sure the one there gets to its proper home.

Here's a photo, I'm waiting for the caulk to cure enough so I can paint the whole thing white and need to do some touchup on the flags.

Looks great.. Id stick it out there anyway

Feel free to replace the yellow buoy with yours. I'll help if I'm free that day. We wired in the shackles so it will require pliers to remove the wire prior to unshackling the chain. Chain from buoy is shackled to itself at roughly 10' and then a few feet further down shackled to the old chain below the crabpot floats. I'll convert the buoy into a down line for shipwrecks if we don't need it in Mul. Nice job on the custom one!

I'll take a look at the setup probably next weekend. Look for a PM from me.

Very nice job! It will make the swim seem so much shorter having such a classy target to aim for!

Thought I'd add some "making of" shots.

The tire is an old oval track one I used on my car for drag racing. Not as good as drag slicks, but consistent. Light and no steel belts to drill through! The signboard is some stainless I had lying around the garage.

Looks nice! Keep an eye on your SS hardware. In commercial buoy work we use hot-dipped galvanized hardware.
SS fittings can corrode in seawater after some time goes by. Strange as it may seem, the HD galv stuff will last longer
(Usually). Are you applying any grade of a hard anti-fouling paint? Good lookin' rig!

Randy what do you know about rigging buoys? I mean come on!

I get you on the SS hardware, that's why it's all heavily covered with caulk. Since the eyebolt will take wear, it's HDG and two coats of POR-15 over that.

If I had some antifouling paint, I'd use it on the bottom; but I can't justify $40-50 for a quart of paint when I'll only use a half pint of it and the rest will go bad.

Very Nice! That is awesome- thank you!

Got some anti-fouling paint courtesy of dive buddy (and boss). Will be finishing it up this weekend, with luck it will be in the water for the poker dive next Sunday.

One more coat of anti fouling paint and it's finished. My plan is to give it plenty of time to cure and install it next Saturday, probably in the morning. When I have time worked out with DB I'll post it here.

The white is Flex Seal Brite (As Seen On TV); I figured this would be a good torture test for it. For anti fouling I'm using Interlux Fiberglas BottomKote with 25% cuprous oxide; for this purpose it should work. The web of ropes is keeping the handles off the uncured paint.

As I said many times in my sailing instructor years, there are no dumb questions.

Anti fouling paint is paint ( ) that has a biocide in it which keeps marine organisms, taking the forms of shell, weed, and algae from attaching themselves to the painted object. The most common type is copper based with cuprous oxide (Cu2O) as the active ingredient. It's not as effective as tributyltin based paints, but those have been banned for anything other than aluminum (copper paints on aluminum boats make the boats disappear...) And copper based paints have been banned in WA effective 2020; if this is still out there in 8 years I'll pull it and remove the paint. (< me in 8 years)

The former float out there had a huge mussel colony on it, which no doubt contributed to its demise and descent.

Outstanding work!

DB's daughter is coming in for the weekend and he may not be available.

So, here's the plan. I''ll be arriving at the site at about 1030 Saturday morning. If I have help we'll put it in place, if not I'll head home. I hope to see you there.

Me and my regular dive buddy will be there to help. This is a great looking buoy. Will be nice to have a flag buoy there again. Thanks for putting this together.

I'll be there to help however possible.

With assistance from Larry McGaughey and Don Bechtold, the float is in place. And the scooter made the trips out and back much better!.

Enjoy it!

Thank you. And Larry and Don. I was the diver cheering you on as you were swimming out with the buoy. My hands were so cold by then that I could imagine how hard it would be to cut the seizing, remove the shackle, and replace it. Good job.
-Curt

Thank you so much guys.

Great job guys!

Now I need to figure out how to get the interim float to its owner. PM me and we'll figure something out.