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Beaching question...

Ouch for sure. The wife always gets on me for wearing water shoes to prevent hooks etc. Maybe I should start listening to her. Rocks or hooks, why take the chance.
 
My daughter stepped on a broken beer bottle that was laying in about a foot of water when we were beached once.  Fortunately she didn't get cut.  We wear foot protection now.
 
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Yeah, the cuts bad enough, but I'd be more worried about the infection that could follow. We have tons of geese on our lake which equals tons of goose poop. Better safe than sorry. Also I never "jump" feet first and hit bottom, just in case.

It's bad enough I dive off not knowing if there's a tree down there .....
 
I've owned boats for 40 years and I've never beached one of them. You see it all the time though. Guys run their boats up on the beach and then drop their motors in the sand to hold them in place. The waves roll in and the hull shifts back and forth on the sand and the rocks, the sand works it way up into their lower unit just like it works its way into your swimsuit when you sit on the bottom. NO offense to anyone who beach's their boat but I now own a Bennington (electric anchors on bow and stern) and it deserves better. Besides, when you anchor just off the shore, It makes your boat stand out...


One more thing... next time you go to the lake, Pull up towards the shore, turn the motor off, get out and walk it towards the shore while someone watches the depth finder to see how shallow you can go until the motor touches the bottom. Sorry to be so long winded but there is 12 inches of snow on the ground here and this just seems to get me closer to the lake. :)
 
Definitely walk your boat up the first time on any particular beach to know what you are landing on.  That is good advice.

I can't believe someone would use their motor as an anchor...
 
I didn't beach last year ,don't plan on it this year either .

Reason being , wouldn't the sand work as an abrasive and wear the shark hide  sooner ?

I have no way to reapply it being at a marina and no trailer .
 
I look at it like this, you don't see the bottom of the tubes.
 
Yup, I agree with Carl. There's a point at where you don't use your toon for its purpose and you worry too much about "taking care of it". Don't get me wrong, I'm super anal about taking care of my baby, but I also treat it for what it was made for.
 
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I used to beach my boat, but my dealer mentioned the burnishing when I had it in last year so I decided it wasn't worth having it being questioned. Now I'll get close to shore and let someone out with the working need of an anchor or just toss it onto the beach and then back out about 50', and drop an anchor buddy. Then I just pull myskef back into shore until I'm sitting just above the sand, then strip out a few extra feet. That way I'm clear of sitting on the bottom, and I can always pull my boat back in when I want to board or get off. I have really thought about putting in a telescoping under deck ladder between one of my side and center tubes, just for boarding ease.
 
Hey PDX.........welcome back! How are things in Oregon?   I'm the same way. We have done both but given a choice I would rather anchor off shore and swim to the sandbar to play volleyball than beach it. Less headache. Throw both anchors out and go.........
 
Good to hear from you PDX. We've been wondering where you've been.
 
I purchased one of these before my trip up to Torch Lake (Michigan) last summer:  http://slideanchor.com/store/index.php/shore-spike.html

Made by the same company I bought my box anchor from.  That thing is slick as heck.  Had a ton of people come up to me to ask about it too.  I used my anchor off the back because I didn't want to pay for two shore spikes until I checked it out.  Well, I'll be buying a second one for the rear.  I also bought the Danik hook:   http://slideanchor.com/store/index.php/danik-hook.html

I used a short piece of rope and tied one end off to the shore spike and the other to a floating ball to mark the shore spike so people know it's there (as it is completely under water).  The end result is a safe and highly effective way to 'anchor' your boat without a ton of line out that can get in the way of other boats/people.  This set up is especially useful at sand bars where numerous boats are near each other.
 
In regards to beaching, I ordered the solid keels on our first boat as I thought that would provide better wear resistance when beaching compared to the standard hollow ones. They come solid with sps so I'll be all set with the new one. I also barely come in when beaching, I've seen some come in so hard I think they're trying to dry dock the boat. I always jumped off the bow, lifted up and pulled it in. I would then set the boat down. Very little abrasion that way.
 
Inspiration for beaching a boat...

But seriously, I beached mine on our first trip out. It was easy but in the morning the lake had gone down a couple inches which made pushing off a bit more difficult. Something to consider depending on the lake and how long you'll be there. 
 
I wonder why they are scraping a running boat. Looked cool beaching though.
 
Outlived its worthiness. It's probably a piece of junk compared to newer ones. Probably only holds 500 passengers and they want it to hold 5000. I question when they knock a building down to build a building. For us it's cheaper to rebuild than remodel and try to update to code.
 
you all that beach it in the sand got it easy! I am at table rock Lake which is rocky and i beach and dont have ANY scratches or marks on the 3 hulls at all! LOL I use Big Horse Mats that are about 3/4 " thich with holes so it sinks easy enough.... they are avalible from Some Home Depots or Lowes. We run the boat up on them and it protects the hulls nicely but must be placed properly......

Here is my process.

1 - We look for a place thats got the for the most fine rocks. No boulders. It must have folige or trees to tie off to the aft cleats at a 45 degree angle or so.

2 - OBSERVE the wind direction and strength. AT Table Rock it can verry depending on where you are... (a strong side wind will not be a lot of fun!) i typicaly pick a place with mild to no wind.

3- Once a decent place is picked wife is up front while i creep (creep slowly) twards the shore line while she looks for stumps and boulders. TR Lake is clear for a few of feet or more. I am moving very slow. Slower than idle speed meaning in and out of gear (just like docking)

4 the whole time i am observing depth guage. I have a GSR 2550 so the motor is 27+' back. So generaly if the deepth guage says 4 or 5 then the front is either on shore or close..... I trim the motor up as i get close to shore.

6- once the depth in the bow is about 2 foot i pretty much have the bopat stopped and wife has the 3 horse mats and places them under all 3 tunes. (LOL, the Boat is named "The Tune")

7 - Once the Horse Mats are positioned properly i run the engine very gently up on to them untill the bow just comes up a bit (judgement call)

8 - Trim Motor all the way out of the water! (FWIW the more the motor is out of the water the cleaner it stays inside)

9 - Tie off like a house boat. 2 LONG ropes from the rear cleats at about a 45 degree angle to a treee or shrub thats been observed when deeciding where to beach. (i love those $20 75" yellow ropes from Lowes thet have some play)

10 - 1 rope dead center bow toon to a tree in front of the boat... this one keeps the boat moving backwards and the aft ropes keep it from moving sideways (usefull in a side wind)

11 - Done beaching

to leave reverse the process....

The horse mats and like 4'x4' and we store in the center tube storage but wehen leaving we simply set them on the floor in the front of the boat to dry.

We also use towels on the front gate area for rocks which seems to work pretty good.

That said, we are very picky where we go. There are areas that we cant go. but this can be done IF one takes precausions and has a decent sence of ones suroundings.

Be Carefull and SLOW!

hope this helps.
 
Thanks for posting that, Chris. I've been beaching my boat a lot and I would like to be able to it on rockier shores. I'll check out those horse mats. I spent the last two nights tied up to some pretty course beaches with crazy wind from all angles throughout the trip. The 45 degree stern lines held up great. The rain at 5am this morning without a tent wasn't much fun though. 
 
I have been using a anchor on the bungee cord it works great drop about twenty feet out coast in hold the boat until everyone is off the tie off boat will go off shore safely off the beach and when you want it tug the line. Although once my front line was secured by my first mate and it popped off so I had to swim out for the boat on a very cold day
 
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