Swim course Marker buoy

[Tom Henderson]

Hello all,

Our Tri Club runs a training group every summer targeted at first time triathletes. I coordinated th
training last summer and will do it again this year. One of the improvements I want to make this
year is to get rid of the buoys we have been using and replace them with something that can be
inflated/deflated more quickly.

The old buoys are rounded 6' diameter 4' tall cylinders with little tiny inflation ports just like
the ones you'd find on a raft or a kids water toy. It takes almost an hour to inflate two of them,
and another half hour to deflate them.

I'm looking for the big triangular buoys that can be inflated through a 2" hole using a leaf blower.
Anyone know where these can be found?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Jason O'Rourke]

Tom Henderson <[email protected]> wrote:
>The old buoys are rounded 6' diameter 4' tall cylinders with little tiny inflation ports just like
>the ones you'd find on a raft or a kids water toy. It takes almost an hour to inflate two of them,
>and another half hour to deflate them.

How are you inflating them now? Those buoys are roughly 110cubit feet - you can get scuba tanks of
that size.

--
Jason O'Rourke www.jor.com

 

[Tom Henderson]

[email protected] (Jason O'Rourke) wrote in news:b58cu7$td3$1 @agate.berkeley.edu:

> Tom Henderson <[email protected]> wrote:
>>The old buoys are rounded 6' diameter 4' tall cylinders with little tiny inflation ports just like
>>the ones you'd find on a raft or a kids water toy. It takes almost an hour to inflate two of them,
>>and another half hour to deflate them.
>
> How are you inflating them now? Those buoys are roughly 110cubit feet - you can get scuba tanks of
> that size.
>

An air compressor. The problem is that the inflation prot is just too small. We used tetrahedron
buoys with 2" ports on race day and inflated 8 of them with a leaf blower in less than five minutes.

 

[Jason O'Rourke]

Tom Henderson <[email protected]> wrote:
>An air compressor. The problem is that the inflation prot is just too small. We used
>tetrahedron buoys with 2" ports on race day and inflated 8 of them with a leaf blower in less
>than five minutes.

You can fill a car tire in mere seconds. I think its that compressor. But it may be easier to get
buoys with bigger ports for your leaf blower.

--
Jason O'Rourke www.jor.com

 

[Sherpa Bob]

[email protected] (Jason O'Rourke) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Tom Henderson <[email protected]> wrote:
> >An air compressor. The problem is that the inflation prot is just too small. We used tetrahedron
> >buoys with 2" ports on race day and inflated 8 of them with a leaf blower in less than five
> >minutes.
>
> You can fill a car tire in mere seconds. I think its that compressor. But it may be easier to get
> buoys with bigger ports for your leaf blower.

Tom:

One other thing to try first, if you haven't tried it already:

Compressors put out high pressure, but low volume. A leaf blower puts out low pressure, but high
volume. Go out and spend $20 on the small electric air pump, the kind used to inflate inflatable
mattresses, etc. Even though the port on the buoy is small, because the pump is doing the higher
volume / lower pressure thing, you may still find that inflation time is acceptable. And if it
doesn't work, you can return it... You should be able to pick one up in any dept. store that sells
basic camping stuff, especially at this time of year. Plus, they are often reversible, so you can
use it for deflating too.

If you try it, post an update - I'm curious as to whether the small port or the type of pump is the
bigger factor.

Bob

 

[Tom Henderson]

[email protected] (Jason O'Rourke) wrote in news:[email protected]:

> Tom Henderson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> You can fill a car tire in mere seconds. I think its that compressor. But it may be easier to get
> buoys with bigger ports for your leaf blower.
>

This buoy has more volume than most cars, much less the tires. Sherpa Bob's observations are correct
about the limited volume the pump is capable of. I've also used the camping pump, but it still takes
forever. Got a quote on exactly the type buoy I'm looking for today. $250.00. Yikes. 5.5 foot tall
tetrahedron, inflates with a leaf blower in about 30 seconds.

 

[Jaeger]

[email protected] (Sherpa Bob) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> [email protected] (Jason O'Rourke) wrote in message

Bob email me at home at [email protected] and I will get you the info about the site for the
tetrahedral buoys. Also inflator info for your current buoy. I"m not home and by the time I get
there I will forget. Old age stuff. Brad