Idea for mooring "system"

[JLIMA]

I have an old 100 lb mushroom style mooring anchor laying about taking up otherwise useful space, and a older as in not new year unknown 30' aluminium "barge" (best name I can give it more or less a rectangular box with a raked flat "bow"). My thought is to use the barge as a sort of mooring buoy meets floating dock with the barge hooked directly up to the anchor and moor the boat to that just like you would to a regular slip. So thats the idea anyway now the questions i have are": 1 where would be the best place to attach the chain on the barge, the obvious one (to me anyway) would be to the tow bit but that would in my mind anyway leave the whole rig at an odd angle when the boats there, 2 is the convenience of such an arrangement only in my head or is there actually any benefit to speak of.
I got the idea from my a recant experience where there were 2 boats rafted on my mooring which seemed to work out ok.
I also was thinking about putting a small deck house on the barge to store things I'm not currently using for the boat (to get the wife off me for all the "clutter" in the basement. Its all just a thought right now so any opinions are more than welcome, even if it's just a "thats about the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Originally Posted by JLIMA

I have an old 100 lb mushroom style mooring anchor laying about taking up otherwise useful space, and a older as in not new year unknown 30' aluminium "barge" (best name I can give it more or less a rectangular box with a raked flat "bow"). "

One or the other picture would be helpful to comment on that.

[capt littlelegs]

I think the general idea is ok and the anchor chain position is not really going to be an issue unless the boat moored to it is significantly bigger causing it to broadside the wind and tide putting extra load on the anchor and chain but then a solution is not difficult. Allow for storm conditions with strong enough chain for two boats.

You don't say where your mooring is, river, lake, tidal, drying, how deep or what the bottom is etc. and that would influence the anchor type and method. A heavy weight, preferably dug in with plenty of heavy chain and a swivel is better for swinging moorings to avoid anchor drag when the wind or tide changes. You could completely dig in the mushroom anchor upright for this.

In a river you might also be better off with a fore and aft mooring with the current where the mushroom anchor or two is generally better in mud or sand with chain on the bottom to keep it dug in, although I'm not keen on any anchor for permanent mooring, unless very heavy and with plenty of chain they can easily drag in the wrong conditions.

[JLIMA]

Tides yes but no real tidal currents to speak of as it is pretty far up the cove in about 8 feet of water for the low tides and about 15 feet for the highs. I want to put it more or less where my current mooring is now the location is pretty close to ideal, completely sheltered from prevailing winds dense mud bottom easy launch site for my dingy (which is across the street from my house so luckily for i can keep my dingy safely in the drive way). I kinda like the fore and aft idea btw and the boat that will be mooring to it is actually 3' shorter than the barge (I found doing some research on it today its an old fuel barge from the early 80s that was used across the harbor in Fairhaven for the fishing fleet) I'll see if i can't take some pictures tomorrow before i go to work.