yep & in a BIG way !!!


Your launching from multiple areas isn't doing you any favours at all either, be better to use one or two main areas and get to know those spots much better, even clearing unwanted debris from them will make your life much easier in the longrun

Its also a bit odd to me that "With the old cats this wasn't a huge issue" .... so why is it a sudden issue with a new cat ???
So I take it that you didn't take much care of the old boat and are treating the new one with kid's gloves ???
Just how bad are the scratches etc on the old boats

As for a cure.....

I launch from a couple of ugly beaches too although their issues aren't like your lava lake problems they do have issues that aren't at all 'hull friendly'.....
Might I suggest you head down to the local carpet wholesaler and ask for some old carpet, these companies often do large job-lot replacements, and will 9 times out of 10 simply trash the old stuff, at the lake simply roll the carpet out into the water and forget it, over time the carpet will trap the finer "sands or silts", it will assist with aquatic vegetation growth whilst it makes the sharpness of the volcanic stone much more tolerable to sit a boat on and walk on too, the best bit is it will slowly breakdown over time and wont be an issue to the environment as it does so....

If you cant leave the carpet there for what ever reason, then try for a synthetic carpet,(like they use in outdoor sporting venues) this wont "water-log" as such and once the boat is on the cradle the carpet could be rolled up and stowed on the trailer to do the final draining as you packup

I use a couple of 'strips' of shag-pile carpet, each bit is around 5metres long by a metre wide (~6yards by a yard), it works a treat and is cheap as chips