Figure 8. Steel mooring buoys at Pearl Harbor with yellowed 

 fiberglass-reinforced polyester coating. 



COST COMPARISONS FOR STEEL AND PLASTIC 

 MOORING BUOYS 



Cost data for purchasing and maintaining components of Fleet 

 moorings are very difficult to obtain because of differences in design, number, 

 type and frequency of use, and maintenance procedures from activity to 

 activity. 



Procurement of Buoys 



The San Diego Bay plastic mooring buoys were fabricated efficiently; 

 the contractor's cost breakdown for each buoy is shown in Table 1 . The 

 Pearl Harbor plastic mooring buoy was fabricated by a contractor who proved 

 to be less efficient; his estimated cost was about $10,000. In all three cases, 

 the costs included time spent on development of a fabrication procedure. Thus, 

 a mass production of plastic mooring buoys should lower significantly the cost 

 per buoy. 



