I can rake out about 6 foot and then could throw the rake out with a rope. But i was wondering about making a 10' long 'throwing tube' to speed up the process.

I was thinking of making a hybrid between the 'prickly rope' that is featured on this forum and is a great idea for large areas of floating leaves and lightweight weeds. However, mats of FA get heavy, the zip ties pointing down may or may not be able to pull them in...

I was thinking of taking a 10' piece of 3/4" or 1" PVC. Metal tines might be the best but I'm not sure how to easily fabricate and don't want to add a lot of weight. I have a roll of very stiff, thick wall irrigation pipe. It is called funny pipe or swing pipe. It is not the thin walled smooth stuff that you can buy at big box stores, it comes from an irrigatino supply place. It has a textured outside and is thicker walled, more stiff and takes the fittings so tightly that the pros don't need clamps to hold the plastic sprinkler ends in. I have a bunch left and thought it might hold its curved shape better and may grip the mats of algae and pull them in without bending back and letting go.

I could use small flat head screws to screw them in to the PVC pipe? Not sure if PVC cement would work as I think the plastic properties of the swing pipe is different.

Then a rope on each end of the PVC (or could thread rope all the way through the PVC pipe) and throw out and pull it back in.

If it works well I may thread the rope through the PVC pipe, and then put 2 sections together with a short say 1 foot section in the middle to allow it to be pulled like an upside down 'V' back to shore.

If I need flotation I can add floats or a pool noodle.

The mats get heavy so once they are by shore I may have to still take the landscape rake and rake them up and out on to the shore to dry.

I have a trailer load of dry mats of FA that I dumped in the back woods. That stuff is woven together like steel, my mower can't chop them up, it just kills the engine as the blade wraps in it. As it dries out it doesn't seem to be any easier to work with.

I'm open to other ideas...

Last edited by canyoncreek; 08/12/14 07:13 AM.