Beaching the Boat

[Berber Boy]

For a person who has owned a for 5 years this may sound a strange question but I have never beached my boat. I am about to spend a week on Windsong with a mate of mine and may have to use that option during our sail on the Gippsland Lakes system. What do I need to know?
Should I carry a short ladder? How do you adjust tidal variations? etc.

Thanks to those of you who have so much experience in doing it

Dave

[Tempus]

Hi Dave.

Hey, join the club....we bought our in 2012 and have yet to beach her! We've talked about it a number of times, but never have actually done it. One thing I've read somewhere in this forum is to be careful of the gradient you dry out on. If it's too steep, as the tide comes back in the water will flood through the rudder mount posts before the hull becomes buoyant.

That's all I've got! Good luck.

Graeme

[Mac26Mpaul]

Flat bottomed boat for beaching was one of the check boxes on our list of must haves when we bought the M 5 years back. In fact, I thought of calling her "The BeachHouse" because we tend to turn our boat into one pretty much everywhere we go. There is nothing to it and nothing to be concerned about if you take a few things into consideration.

If you are on the larger of the two tides for the day, don't dry at the very top of the tide, or on a King tide

If you are in a very protected spot where you are not going to get any large waves, you can just go bow in up to the sand. You will need a ladder to hang over the bow. We have a plastic pool ladder bought from Kmart which we store on the bulkhead in the head when not in use. You just nose up to the beach, cut your engine and raise motor, walk forward with your ladder. hang her over the bow, and climb down and put your anchor on the beach and wait for the tide to go away.

Yes, I have learnt that you should not dry out on a very steep beach (see photo below). I got caught out by a fast running tide in a creek on Frazer Island and ended up with a lot of water in the boat which came in through the rudder dam drain holes. (They don't have them on Xs). But this is NOT going to happen anywhere where you would normally be drying out as it means the boat is going to be on a very uncomfortable angle. Your average sloping beach, It just isn't something to worry about, but if you still are, make yourself a couple of little plugs that you can stick in the rudder dam drain holes.

However the most common and sensible way to "Dry Out" and the way you wont have to worry about water in the boat, is stern in, which of course, gives you some protection from waves and makes climbing into and out of the boat through the stern much easier, with no ladder required. Protected areas, you can do this anywhere. But if its a fairly open stretch of water you are on and you may end up with a 30 knot onshore breeze later on, you should give it a miss or if giant gin palaces like to scoot by at 30 knots, once again, this isn't a place to dry out.

So all you do, is get someone on the bow ready to drop an anchor. When you are about 50 metres or so out, start reversing in. Raise your helm seat about now. Don't forget to put your rudders up ( I'v done it once and had to rebuild one of the cracked rudders ). Depending on the beach, I often put a fairly long anchor line out so I can pull myself out away from the beach when the tide floats me again but that isn't really needed.

About 10 or more meters out, get your partner to drop the anchor and pay out the rode. When you are getting shallow, raise your motor as much as you can and keep coming in and when real shallow, cut it, raise it, and step off into the water. Shout to your partner to cleat the anchor line off. I keep my stern anchor in the motor well ready to just pick up and walk up the beach with it, or you can just take a line and tie off to a tree or whatever. Then go adjust the bow anchor line if needed.

Wait for the tide to go away and you have your beachhouse. It really is a simple process and not something to be concerned about. I would not recommend it if its a very tight area you have to reverse into, until you have done it a fair bit and got used to it.

[Mac26Mpaul]

[


Here you can see the bow ladder I was talking about. They have them at Whittworths, but I got mine on on special at Kmart. I found I needed to beef up the arms that fold out. I put little bits of broomstick inside them and its been fine.

[bartmac]

We prefer to anchor out from the shore a little way and then put out another anchor off the rear quite often using our dinghy and slowly pull the Mac so she's just floating off the beach...nice to just step off the rear and go for a walk (its funny how quickly your senses adjust to the movement of the boat and how dry land doesn't stand still after only a couple of days)....the idea of getting caught on dry land doesn't appeal.My parents did the big round Oz trip towing their TS and were amazed by the tidal movements up North but their Investigator TS had centre skeg so dry land meant sleeping on an angle...luckily a mac sits well

[marcopolo173]

Great feedback guys, thanks.

Do you leave the water ballast in, empty it or doesn't it matter??

Cheers, Marc

[Mac26Mpaul]

Doesn't matter, Iv done it plenty either way without issue, If you want to float a bit faster on the next flooding tide, you could just let your ballast water drain.

[Berber Boy]

Thanks for your really good input and examples. Tide will be not much of an issue on the Gippsland Lakes so it is a good place to experiment. Will let you know how it goes. Have purchased the ladder but have not thought much about the second anchor. How necessary is that. Do you use the same size or a smaller one just to keep the stern steady?

BB

[Mac26Mpaul]

If there will always be trees etc to tie to then you wont need one at all. On most beaches you will. Unfortunately I don't know the sizes but my boat came with a fairly small sand anchor as the stern anchor and I learnt that it was not enough as it dragged out several times in windy conditions. I bought a plough as my bow anchor and now use the old bow sand anchor as my stern one and it has been all good.

[bartmac]

The second anchor problem was solved easy.....the anchor that came with our 26X was much too small and insufficient chain so it became our second and bought a BIG new one as primary....like to sleep and wake up in the same place

[Berber Boy]

If there will always be trees etc to tie to then you wont need one at all. On most beaches you will. Unfortunately I don't know the sizes but my boat came with a fairly small sand anchor as the stern anchor and I learnt that it was not enough as it dragged out several times in windy conditions. I bought a plough as my bow anchor and now use the old bow sand anchor as my stern one and it has been all good.

Do you keep your plough anchor on the bow roller or store it? If so, where? The sand anchors fold and can fit in the anchor locker with rode chain (8 metres) but agree in a big breeze they would be hard pressed to hold a 2.5 tonne boat (3 tonnes with the Admiral on board) What kind of plough did you buy and what weight or size. There are a lot on the market, many of them extolling their various virtues.

Dave

[Mac26Mpaul]

It is 11.56pm and I sit here with sand between my toes and a wet backside! - I will explain in a second

Nothing fancy for me. I have one of these
https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_item ... lutePage=2
sitting on the stock anchor roller on the Mac. All I did was drill a hole through the anchor so I can put a stainless eye bolt through it to hold it on the roller, and I then hook the chain over the cleat and into the anchor locker.



There are more expensive options for sure, but we are tight and wife doesn't give me many boat dollars .. I will probably upgrade my bow roller sooner or later to one of the ones with the pin in it.

My boat came with the largest sand anchor that would fit in the anchor locker and it dragged on us a number of times in different bottoms which is why we upgraded to this and now use that sand anchor as the stern anchor. We have had no issues with dragging in several years,,,,, until now!!

In an effort to get more use out of the boat, we are leaving it on the hook out there a bit this summer. I had both anchors running out from the bow until about a week ago and had no problems.... Even though I had two anchors out, I was worried because they both only have six metres of chain and so the rodes are rope and I have heard stories of boats being cut loose.

So two weeks back, I bought 12 metres of short link 8mm chain and I went out there and shackled it to the other 6 meters (will put a proper joining link on when I bring the boat in in a few weeks). The boat is only in a couple metres of water so I figured 18 metres of chain warp and a 27 pound plough hook would be fine. As a temporary snubber, I have used some cheap 4mm crab pot line doubled over.

I thought all would be good so just left it like that out there - wrong! There was a bit of a blow the other day and she dragged a bit. So I went out there in the kayak and moved her into even shallower water assuming all would be okay..

Well I just came home from work tonight and checked her (shine my high beam on her from the boat ramp) and it has been blowing hard today, in fact still was an hour ago when I got back, and she has dragged at least a hundred metres and was extremely close to another yacht I raced home and got my kayak and went down there and paddled out. Started the engine, pulled the rode in and the wind was blowing me straight towards that very close yacht. I bounded back to the cockpit and gave it some stick and nothing happened! Thankfully I was able to putter away (and realized there was no fuel in that tank...). Anyway, I moved her a few hundred metres away.

Needless to say I put the second anchor out , so all should be good now I hope... I really don't understand why the boat dragged with 18 metres of chain and a 27 pound plough in a sandy/muddy bottom in 2 meters of water, but sure enough, it did!

By the way, I do not trailer with the plough anchor up there. My anchor and rode are in a milk crate in the back of the 4B on road trips.

[Berber Boy]

It is 11.56pm and I sit here with sand between my toes and a wet backside! - I will explain in a second
Nothing fancy for me. I have one of these
https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_item ... lutePage=2

Very interesting. I have a mate who has a 36ft Conway Westerly moored off Bum's bay near Southport. He has loads of chain and a huge Bruce plough anchor. He has been having to sleep on board during the Ola blows because the anchor has been dragging. Had some near misses like you did.

That's a lot heavier anchor than I thought you would need. I have 8 metres of Rode chain on WS. I have drilled mine out too with a quick release pin.

Thanks for sharing

Dave

[Mac26Mpaul]

That's the correct size anchor. Actually thinking I should have got the next size up, but if I did, the missus would never be able to weigh anchor

I had made sure to dig the anchor in well with the motor. I'm at a loss why it would drag in such shallow water with that much rode out. I'm wondering if my 4mm nylon crab pot line temporary snubber stretched and wasn't doing its job of absorbing shock - and maybe with the Mac all over the place in the blow, the constant tugging ripped the anchor out the bottom ....?....

As to the chain: I wanted more chain because a) I wanted to leave her on the hook without worrying about the line being cut, but also b) because we are looking to head further afield in the next few years (hopefully a month in the Whitsundays next year) and 6 metres of chain just isn't going to be enough with stronger tides and coral rubble bottoms....

Cheapest L grade quality 8mm short link chain with only $10 postage any length, is here:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/380376859819 ... 1439.l2649

[Berber Boy]

I have been stewing over your why question. . I am no expert but I wonder whether the anchor dragged in shallow water because of the angle of pull. In deeper water the angle would be vastly different and I think I have read somewhere that the angle is quite important in setting the rode. in the same way if you have too much out the angle would flatten it as well. Just a thought.

David