Beaching

[markbatey]

Now it not exactly seaside weather at the moment, but I can't help thinking how cool it would be to sail up the coast from the Tyne, land on the beach at Cullercoats, nip out for an icecream, then sail off. I was talking to my seriously experienced yachty friend about this (the sort who properly knows what he's talking about, he's an examiner for Ocean Yachtmaster instructors, gulp...). He didn't fancy it at all, worried about grounding the outboard prop, getting stuck, scraping the bottom on rocks etc etc.

I know lots of you do this - but what's the routine? Do you drop an anchor off the stern? Paddle? Hope for the best?

I have a BC23 with a 6hp outboard and a pair of wellies. This is the North Sea after all.

[charliea]

Hi Mark

I'm not really experienced enough to give you an informed answer but I can tell you what we do, I'd be very interested to hear if others consider it sensible.

We sail as a family in a BRe and beach stops are large part of the appeal for my kids, so here's the drill:

We only consider a beach stop if it's really sheltered with minimal swell, my biggest worries are rocks and getting pushed broadside to the surf so I'm very cautious.

If we're planning to stop overnight I need an evening high tide , but if we're stopping for a swim and an ice cream an hour or so before low tide is ideal as it means we're not stuck for too long.

Assuming all the above I fill up the ballast and then motor slowly in, keeping a look out for rocks as best we can.

Assuming the beach is shelving nicely I drop the anchor 20 or 30 metres off shore, take down the sails and take up the centreboard and rudder.

We then pay the anchor out as I motor slowly in, looking for rocks all the way.

We put the outboard in neutral and one of us drops over the side (in tevas) when it's around waist deep.  Whoever is left in the boat pays out the anchor while the other walks the boat in, feeling for rocks with their feet. 

At this point we'll probably decide against it about 30% of the time, get back in the boat and pull ourselves out on the anchor before starting the motor and trying somewhere else.  But hopefully  we'll decide we've found a suitable spot, pull up the motor and beach the boat.

When we've pulled the boat up we let the tide run out a little and then let out the ballast.  This makes a surprising difference to how long you'll have to wait to float off when the tide comes back up again.

We seem to have got away with it so far, but I've only tried it in conditions that seem forgiving and in weather where we're happy to get a bit wet.

Interested to hear how other people go about it.

[Ged]

We always sail somewhere and beach for lunch. We generally just run gently into the shore and then climb over the foredeck and onto the beach, no need for wet feet!  But my boat is more akin to a dinghy than a yacht so it may well be better suited to this kind of behaviour.  With forward planning you can generally tell what the conditions will be like at your proposed stopover but sometimes plans need to be changed if the swell is too big or it turns out to be a lee shore but it's never posed a serious problem.

What's a days sailing without an ice cream or bag of chips at lunch time?

[Rory C]

For use in reasonable conditions I greatly appreciate my "Anchor Buddy" bought I think from www.boatworld.co.uk which is in effect a bungy rated at 4,000lb capacity that streches from 14ft to 50ft. Set with your anchor (in my case the trusty Fortress FX-7) as you approach the beach/(rocky edge in Hebrides) you land with  a firm grip on your bow line and the elastic takes the boat back out clear of shore or minor surf hazards. Pull her back in when you a ready and you are retracted to where ideally you can lower outboard and/or centre board for onward passage.
Works well for my BRe and I guess in suitable conditions a BC23.
Rory C BRe 25 Gobhlan-Gaoithe

[Ged]

I've looked at anchor buddies several times but they seem to have reliability issues so I've not bothered, has yours been OK?

[Tim Riley]

I once had a new crew who was very good at actually doing as told (quite rare?).
I sent him onto the bow and said as we ground just jump off and pull the boat up. Unfortunately I didn’t realise that I had only partially lifted the keel. As the keel grounded he duly jumped to discover that the keel goes a lot deeper than one might imagine....