DIY sand anchors for net system...thanks Kristian

[Todd <tdh@vbref.org>]

On 1998/05/27     Kristian Milec <kmilec@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>One thing also, don't buy the sand anchor kits, like I did. All you
>need are some (4 or 8) 5 gallon pail lids, and some 1/2" rope (nylon,
>again Home Depot) with 4 or 8 quick snaps. Take a look in the latest
>Nashbar catalog at the Park & Sun anchors to see how to attach it. In
>fact, a distributor here used the very same "bucket" anchors, since
>he said the anchor kits are pretty much a waste of money. Best of
>luck with the return.


What a great piece of advice Kristian...I just returned from a week at
the beach along with my trusty Park and Sun net system.  In
preparation for the trip, I fashioned a set of sand anchors using
5-gallon bucket lids per your advice.  They worked perfectly...and my
cost was under $2.  


I drilled a 5/16" hole in the center of 4 5-gallon bucket lids.  I
then doubled up 6' of plasticized cable-core clothesline to make a 3'
loop.  I pushed the end of the loop through the hole, added a 5/16"
and 11/16" washers to distribute the load off of the hole, and tied
the clothesline in a knot under the lid.  This left a 5 gallon lid at
the end of a 3' loop of clothesline.

Since I decided not to use quick snaps, I made sure the loop of
clothesline was long enough easily encircle the bucket lid.  In this
way, you can feed the loop of clothesline though the guy line ring,
and open the loop to get it around the lid.  The downside to this
approach is that, without the quicksnaps, though, you do need to pull
the anchors out of the sand to unloop the anchors from the guy lines.

Finally, I used 2 extra lids under the net posts to keep the posts
from pushing down into the sand.  These small platforms also allowed
me to anal-retentively fine tune the net height by adding or removing
sand under the lid.  ;-)

If I had to do it again, I'd consider smaller lids.  The 5-gallon lids
buried 12" down provided more than enough tension.  Smaller lids would
take up less space in a suitcase, or may even fit in the net system
bag.  I was only able to fit 2 of the 6 5-gallon lids into the net
system bag.  Smaller lids, however, would still have to be rigid
enough to take the tension.


Thanks again, Kristian for a great tip.


--
                  Todd H.   tdh@vbref.org
USAV Regional Referee, Great Lakes Region, Palatine, IL
Todd's Volleyball Referee Page http://www.io.com/~tdh/vball/
"So you're a Ref and an engineer? Oh that explains it...."