Moorings with a Concrete block design work best for rocky bottom harbors such as Marblehead and Salem Harbors. While mushroom style moorings work best in muddy bottoms. Houghton Marine works with the local harbormasters and customers to design the right mooring system for each customer.
The life of your mooring equipment can be effected by environmental and other factors. Our estimates of how long mooring equipment will last are based upon our experience over the last 43 years in this business. Please keep in mind that these are estimates and many outside factors can lead to premature wear. Because of this we can make no guarantee on the useful life of our equipment and environmental factors can effect the life of your system. We also recommend routine inspections of your marine tackle with continued maintenance to increase the effectiveness of the system over time.
Top Chain will generally last for three seasons although in rare cases can last as little as one season or as many as four. We inspect all top chain in the fall and replace at the time of the spring start up. If you are a new customer we do an inspection as part of the new service and give you our recommendations on the equipment. When we replace the top chain, it is necessary to replace the top and middle shackles, but will replace sooner if an inspection shows unusual wear and tear that requires it to be replaced.
Bottom Chain can last anywhere from 5 to 10 years depending on the size of the chain as well as the type of bottom it rests on. (Muddy bottoms tend to preserve the chain).
Mooring Pennants and buoys life depends on many factors but can generally last anywhere from 5 to 10 years if used properly. Storms and damage can shorten the life of the pennants and buoys. Because of this we thoroughly inspect both in the spring and the fall and will let you know if they need to be replaced.
Concrete Blocks and Mushrooms generally last at least 15 years or more depending on bottom conditions.