How do you successfully place mooring posts/cleats?

I am trying to set up a custom venue for paddle boats and such on a lake lot, but I cannot seem to get these posts to set down. It shows them in red, and if I use move objects to place them then the boats act like there is no mooring object to attach to and cannot be used by sims.

Also is it possible to place them on docks somehow and still get them to work? I seem to be having a lot of difficulty with this and was wondering if I'm missing something.

Here is the area so far:
https://puu.sh/zBGXp/0a3e0456c0.jpg

Thank you for your time!

Edit: I did eventually find the solution to this problem.

Lots that start as flat ground with a lake made via the water tool in terrain tools will not work for this purpose. The community lot needs to be over "world water", that was created before the lot was placed.