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Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval #38514
09/27/04 02:58 PM
09/27/04 02:58 PM
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 186
rbj Offline OP
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rbj  Offline OP
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Posts: 186
Lots of the discussion on a recent thread pertains to launching/retrieving techniques from a trailer with a crew. I'd like to hear how singlehanded sailors rig, launch, and retrieve from the beach (no trailer) when there aren't any helping hands around to hold the boat into the wind, assisst with beach wheels, etc - particularly when the hulls are thinner and more susceptible to pebble/rock/sand damage (ie, Nacra 17, F16, A Cats, etc). I'm currently sailing a H17 but planning to upgrade in the future.

Once the boat is floated, I haven't found beach wheels that easy to put on or take off the boat by myself (made worse by only a few feet of clearance and lots of waves where I launch); and even if that were easy there's no one to hold the boat while going to stow or retrieve the beach wheels.

The only way I've been able to launch/rig a cat singlehanded on the beach once it's floated is to drag it so it's half in and half out of the water pointing into the wind (so it stays put while the sails are raised). This works ok on thicker hulled boats like the H17, but I'm a little worried about doing this with thinner hulled boats since the hulls get pounded on the shore by waves while rigging and all that dragging over the sand/pebbles will take it's toll.

When beaching without a crew, I currently have to run the boat onto the beach since there's not enough room to stop the boat short of the beach in waist deep water. Again, this works ok on a thicker hulled boat but I'm worried about doing this with a thinner hulled boat.

So how do all you F16, N17, ACat etc sailors launch, rig, and retrieve your boats from a beach by yourselves without damaging your hulls (and how do you get your boats back onto shore when there's not enough room to stop the boat near shore in waist deep water without running it onto the beach)?

Thanks for the input,

Jerry

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Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: rbj] #38515
09/27/04 10:23 PM
09/27/04 10:23 PM
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 395
LA
Acat230 Offline
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Acat230  Offline
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LA
I sail an A-cat and launch and retrieve by myself all of the time. An A-cat being what it is, I never sail it up on the beach as I do not want to scratch my hulls (it is not good to sail any boat on to the beach if you want to maintain your hulls).

Go to West Marine and buy yourself a small folding anchor, about 20-30 feet of nylon line, and a 6"-12" styrofoam buoy. Before you launch, set your "mooring" buoy out in the water. After you get the boat in the water, tie off a bow with a bow line to the mooring buoy and take care of your dolly. Do the same when you come back in.

Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: rbj] #38516
09/28/04 10:16 AM
09/28/04 10:16 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 778
Houston
carlbohannon Offline
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carlbohannon  Offline
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Houston
I would like to 2nd Bob's comments about an anchor and line. It works well.

I would like the comment on the perception of "thinner hulls on new boats"

After many years of watching boats break and looking at the remains I have not seen any catamaran whose hull was significantly thicker and tougher than any other. They all seem to break at about the same point and the remains look a lot alike. They all seem to be strong at the bows, bottom, and hull/deck joint. They are all weak at the sides.

Granted some boats are heavier than others but it's by 10-30% not 100-200%.

Personally I would not want to drag any boat that I have to maintain on the beach, unless I have to. I saw a Marstrom A sailed up on a sand beach in 2 ft surf , last Sunday. The rudder had to be fixed to finish a race. Other than worn paint there was no damage.

By the way in the 70's, Hobie 16's had a reputation for being fragile. The problem was mostly the rigging, it broke a lot. But compared to the beach boats of the day, monohulls with replaceable wooden rub strips on the bottom, they were fragile.

Perception is a funny thing

Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: Acat230] #38517
09/28/04 10:22 AM
09/28/04 10:22 AM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,114
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MauganN20 Offline
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^ that wouldn't work on the outer banks

The simple fact of the matter is that I haven't found a good way to launch and land without beaching it in any kind of surf. Getting some carpet to lay down under the hulls would help during launching, but deploying them when landing could get tricky.

Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: rbj] #38518
09/28/04 11:38 AM
09/28/04 11:38 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 9,582
North-West Europe
Wouter Offline
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Wouter  Offline
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I sail an F16 and am focussing on the same issues. Haven't found a solution yet but this is where I am now when I can anybody to help me..

-1- Mild to no surf or light winds.

I Launch by laying the boat in partly in the water face to wind; take the dolly out. Than I drag the boat further in till she floats and launch. These few meters don't wear down the boat much as, afterall, she is only slighly over 100 kgs. Best is when the bows face the surf. Then I lift her up and drag her in one her sterns. I found that these wear down a lot less because the force is spread over a wide area. It is the shells and pebbles you need to look out for, not so much for the sand itself.

Landing : I just sail up and drag a foot or leg in the water to slow down. As soon as I hit the ground (all sandy where I sail) I drop of and turn the boat head to wind. Than I wait for a wave to pass and I push the boat onto the beach as far as I can while floating on the wave. Often this is enough in mind surf and mild winds. The boat will not sail away that easily.

Than I get the dolly and put it under the rear of the boat; just in fron tof the sterns. This is easier to do singlehanded. Just put the cradles agains the sterns, grap the rearbeam and lift it sligtly than with one foot pulls the dolly under the sterns. About right under the rearbeam. Than I walk to the front and lift the boat up by the spinnaker pole and push or pull it out of the inch deep water to higher ground. Again this is easy to do as she only weights slightly more than 100 kgs. A lot of time I leave it there and walk her back to the parking as well.

2. Strong winds and big surf.

Lauching : I lay her right on the edge of the surf past and shellsbanks or rought patches. Often at a location that has a passage between sandbars. I return the dolly and I just drag her over the sand for a few meters. I use as much of the waves as I can. I wait when the waterlevel is low and drag her in a few more meters with each passing waves. I cut down on wear like that.

Landing : Sometimes you just have to land her and accept the wear it causes. I still try to slow her down as much as I can right before hitting ground and I get off immediately. But apart from that just do it and put a layer of protection on each few seasons.


In my case I have Timber hulls and a paintjob. The paint is unbelievably tought and holds out to continued sandblasting very well. However it is also only 1/10ths of a milimeter thick so that is not much layer to wear down. Gelcoat is less tough but there you can wear down a few millimeters before it need repair. I therefor need to be really carefull, gelcoated baots can be handled with less care. Dragging baots a few meters is not that bad. Just never drag them when the hulls are pressed against the ground by weight or sailpower. Wearing down of the hulls is directly proportional to the distance of dragging it AND the amount of force excerted on the surface. Reduce the last as much as possible (Lifting it by the mainbeams for example) and try to minimize the first without being paranoid.

I currently looking to put a small layer of hardened epoxy on the most stressed area's just to get some thickness in the wear layer just like the gelcoat. I'm thinking about epoxy mixed with grafite. I hear of a fellow homebuilder that grinding that down is alot hearder than plain epoxy with filler. He tried the grafite to get a dark coloured seems in his timber hulls instead of the very white epoxy with filler. It was a failed experiment as the particular seemwas impossible to sand afterwards as required by the building plans. Just the thing we are looking for ?

Wouter


Wouter Hijink
Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild)
The Netherlands
Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: rbj] #38519
09/28/04 01:56 PM
09/28/04 01:56 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 917
Issaquah, WA, USA
H17cat Offline
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H17cat  Offline
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Posts: 917
Issaquah, WA, USA
We use a pad made of 1 inch PVC 10ft long sections, tied about 12 inches apart with 1/4 line, and total system about 12ft long. System is easy to roll up and transport on the trailer. Another option is to have old tires on the beach, and pull up the boat on the tires. But, then again, that is why we love the rugged Hobie 17.

Caleb Tarleton

Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: Wouter] #38520
09/28/04 02:15 PM
09/28/04 02:15 PM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 778
Houston
carlbohannon Offline
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Houston
Wouter

By grafite I assume you mean graphite or carbon powder

Adding 5-10% carbon to epoxy produces a hard slick surface.
Adding 30-40% carbon to epoxy produces a soft plastic

The biggest problem with carbon/epoxy is it is messy. You seem to get black powder everywhere.

This was the Gougeon Bros. suggestion for the bottom of a trailer sailed race boat.

I prefer 5% aluminum powder and 5% silica. It is a light grey. It seems little harder and it is not as messy


Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: rbj] #38521
09/28/04 02:35 PM
09/28/04 02:35 PM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 778
Houston
carlbohannon Offline
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carlbohannon  Offline
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Houston
I forgot - Marstroms funny looking 4 wheeled dolly for the A-Class

Drag the boat and dolly out to an anchor or mooring. Climb on the boat and sail off the dolly (the dolly floats). When you come back you can sail onto the dolly if you are real good or push the boat onto the dolly. Release the mooring line or pull up the anchor and drag the boat and dolly ashore.

I hear it works well in calm water. I have used a similiar trick myself by leaving my trax's tied to a post.

Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: Wouter] #38522
09/28/04 02:43 PM
09/28/04 02:43 PM
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 186
rbj Offline OP
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rbj  Offline OP
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 186
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

Re: Singlehanded F16/N17 beach launch and retrieval [Re: rbj] #38523
09/28/04 03:00 PM
09/28/04 03:00 PM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 12,310
South Carolina
Jake Offline
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Jake  Offline
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Sounds like you need to investigate more beach cat friendly launching areas. While it can probably be launched from there - it will not be easy and you risk souring your on the water fun and/or damaging your boat.


Jake Kohl
Thanks carl ! (nm) [Re: carlbohannon] #38524
09/29/04 03:28 AM
09/29/04 03:28 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 9,582
North-West Europe
Wouter Offline
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Wouter  Offline
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Wouter Hijink
Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild)
The Netherlands
Re: Thanks carl ! (nm) [Re: Wouter] #38525
09/29/04 07:08 AM
09/29/04 07:08 AM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 3,528
Looking for a Job, I got credi...
scooby_simon Offline
Hull Flying, Snow Sliding....
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F16 - GBR 553 - SOLD

I also talk sport here
"(nm)" means "No message" (nm) [Re: scooby_simon] #38526
09/29/04 10:11 AM
09/29/04 10:11 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 9,582
North-West Europe
Wouter Offline
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Wouter  Offline
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... (something must be typed here or else the script won't except the post)


Wouter Hijink
Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild)
The Netherlands

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