Originally Posted by pepin
Turn upwind 50m or so from the beach, remove the daggerboards and raise the rudders. Uncleat all the sheets, release the downhaul. Then go stand at the extreme bow of one hull. If you have a crew get him/her on the other bow. With the transoms out of the water, the bows way down and nothing to trip the boat over you're going to glide down straight backward onto the beach.

This method will work with any cat, in any condition as long as you can get the transoms out of the water. I've used it in Santa Cruz to get back to the beach in a swell with a hobie 16, surfing backward, I used it in Bandol where the harbour is narrow, long and right in the Mistral axis with a Hobie 14 and 18, and I used it two days ago to get back ashore with my Stealth at Datchet.

Make sure you are really upwind of the place you want to go to, because with this method you don't control where you are going, the wind is... Also, if you are alone, you need to figure a way to make your wheels accessible in the front of the boat. A Datchet I leave them on the pontoon, but you can also leave them anchored for easy access.


I use this all the time and you can steer a BIT.....

When forward, crouch down and drag a foot in the water, this slows down the hull you are standing on and the boat will trun a LITTLE around it. Boats with deep V hulls or little volume up front can be saild at around 155 to true wind angle in lighter winds and a "few" degrees of DDW in big stuff. THe stealth that is alwost flat all the way along the underside of the bow cannot be steered much as there is little grip up front as I cannot sink the hull much!

It is enough to get around mooring bouys and not much more; I would NOT try it in surf as you want to stay Bows on to it.

It is critical to get all foils out and the downhaul off so the mainsail does not create too much power.

If you have a jib, you can take the jib sheets with you and hard back the Jib if strong enough - I've done 10kts backwards on a Hurricane 5.9 with this method.

F16 - GBR 553 - SOLD

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