Courses / Gear Prep

Course Content

A Note for First-Year Farmers
Plan a Farm. Plant a Garden.
Buy & Source Your Gear
Bring Your Farm Design to Life Create a Gear List Purchase Equipment Store & Organize Your Gear
Prep Your Lines
Identify Different Lines Measure & Cut Your Lines Splice Connection Points
Assemble Your Arrays
Lay Out the System Learn Your Knots
Connection Points
Anchor System Overview Anchor to Chain Anchor to Line Anchor to Tag Line Chain to Anchor Line
Tensioning Buoy Anchor Line to Growline Anchor Line to Anchor Buoy 5-Line Array Anchor Line to Bridle Spreader Bar to Growlines Spreader to Vertical Bridle Growline Buoys to Growline Mid-Line Spreaders to Growline
Resources & Tools
Farm Design Forum
Farm Operations Forum
Lesson 5 Connection Points

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Tensioning Buoy

One additional element you can add to your anchoring system is a tensioning buoy.

The tensioning buoy adds upwards force to your anchor line and helps keep the array under tension at low tide. Ideally, the tensioning buoy should sit underwater at high tide and be just barely visible at low tide. One advantage of using a tensioning buoy is that if you drive by your farm at high tide and see the buoys on the surface of the water, it gives you a visual clue that the system probably needs to be tensioned.

Tensioning buoys are connected along the length of the anchor line to keep the system under tension, even at low tide.
Tensioning Buoy Video

Watch this  overview video to understand how to tension your anchoring system.

When the system isn’t under tension, the tensioning buoy can be seen from the surface. In this image the green cork marks the loop at the end of the anchor line, the white buoy is the tensioning buoy, and the black buoy is at the end of the tag line attached to the anchor.

When the system is properly tensioned, the tensioning buoys should only be visible at the lowest tides.