Thanks guys for your input.
Regarding the anchor idea, I had though about that but I'm not sure how well it would work for me for the following reason: I have to launch from a beach which has only a few feet of clearance on each side and I have to get the boat out about 30-40 feet to reach open water. At that point it's 30 foot deep water. My thought was to paddle the boat out of the channel with the sail down, drop an anchor or hook up to a bouy, raise the sail, and go sailing. So I checked how hard the boat was to paddle (using a small paddle). When becalmed (sail up), it's quite easy to paddle. In about 12 kts of wind with the sails down it is quite a struggle, not only to keep the boat from drifting downwind but also to steer it while paddling. So the idea of paddling the boat to a staionary bouy in any amount of wind wouldn't work at all. It might be possible to paddle out while drifting down wind and then set an anchor. In any amount of waves it's not that easy to raise the sails on the water. As for returning, even if you pull the anchor back onboard after raising your sail and then set the anchor upwind on return it wouldn't be easy to reliably paddle back into the channel once the sail is down (and if you missed it you'd really be screwed). There is also the concern that a small anchor will drag in moderate wind while raising or lowering the sail. If I were launching from a wide open beach the anchor would probably work fine. If there's a way to make the anchor work with my constraints I love to hear any ideas.
Regarding thinner hulls on newer boats, I was referring to the fact that I've heard the fiberglass on the BOTTOM of older beach cats such as H16 is quite a bit thicker than on newer designs so they tolerate beaching better. I've never heard of pebbles or rocks denting the bottom of H16's from just the weight of the boat but have heard this is common on all newer boats using thinner fiberglass on the bottom.
Wouter, thanks for the input on how you approach this problem. Some wear and tear is unavoidable but I'd like to minimize it. If you find any better ways please update us. Speaking of reinforcing the bottom to protect it from wear, I've recently seen a product that is designed to protect the bottom of hulls from repeated beaching. It's a strip of some kind of nearly indestructible plastic which is shaped like a V in cross section. Using a special adhesive it's applied to the bottom of motor boats, PWC, and monohull sailboats. They claim that although you might think it would increas drag and reduce performance that when actually tested it was found to have no impact or actually improve performance slightly. You can see it advertised in West Marine catalogs (probably also on their web site). It comes in many colors in an attempt to keep it from looking too ugly. Another drawback is it's fairly pricey. It sure would be nice to be less concerned about hull damage!
Jerry
