Small powerboat beach launch and retrieval

[beachcraft]

I'm looking for different ways to launch and retrieve small powerboats from a shallow sandy beach single-handed.

I have been searching for lighter boats to make dragging them in and out and up the beach easier. Maybe what I need is a better way to move heavier boats.

[CatBuilder]

Originally Posted by beachcraft

I'm looking for different ways to launch and retrieve small powerboats from a shallow sandy beach single-handed.

I have been searching for lighter boats to make dragging them in and out and up the beach easier. Maybe what I need is a better way to move heavier boats.

If these boats are stored on the beach, how about a slide? A pair of PVC pipes or something of that nature attached to a frame that is angled to allow you to slide the boats down in the water?

You could winch them back up later, or... maybe wax the slide so the boats could even be easily pushed up by hand.

Not sure about the weight or size, but for small boats it could work.

[Mr Efficiency]

Is it a surf beach ? Presumably not. A lot easier if not. In days gone by we used inflatable rubber rollers, ( cylinders about 3' long and about 9" diameter) which will work with relatively heavy boats, but is easier with one person pushing the boat and another cycling the rollers ( need 3 at least) from back to front as you progress up the beach. Needless to say, going down the beach you won't need much pushing ! If the beach is steep, it becomes hard work.

[beachcraft]

Thanks for the PVC idea. I thought about buying or building some small temporary boat lifts. Anything I put in I have to take out every year because of ice. Also some years the beach shifts and buries walkways and the water has gone down making it shallower. I made the mistake of leaving a 16' rowboat too close to the edge of the water and a storm took it while I wasn't there. Now I move boats up on the beach further.

[Richard Woods]

An electric winch anchored in the sand (the winch can be on boat or on land) might work if your boat is too heavy for rollers (they work up to about 1000lbs)

Check out the coble the traditional fishing boat used in NE England and which launches off sandy beaches in Newcastle etc. Also see how the fishermen do it in Sussex and Kent UK. They launch off steep shingle beaches

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

[cor]

Where I live we launch and land our boats (16' to 20' outboard skiffs) using a few pieces of plastic pipe for slides (they don't really roll). You can push them down the beach by hand. To go back up you need quite a few people to pull or a small electric winch (normally on the front of an ATV.


C.O.
http://www.rudstrom.blogspot.com/

[michael pierzga]

Very difficult to beach launch, single handed. A mooring set offshore with its permanant mooring line dead ended onshore works. Go bow first , once wet, use the mooring tail , hand over hand, to haul off.

Sleds and rollers work but are impossible to handle singlehanded.

Local fishermen use " railways"

[pistnbroke]

I have an extendible ramp about 4 m long built into the boat trailer ..pulls out so you dont need to get so near the water ...then you have a winch which pulls the boat OFF the trailer into the water ...just wind and off it rolls ....another winch to pull it back on ...EPLS

[beachcraft]

Have to take another look at a used ATV and a trailer.

I've used a hand winch to get boats out and up the beach, but didn't think of putting a mooring to pull it in with. That is a good idea.

I don't think my neighbors would complain about an ATV and trailer, but I like keeping the beach more natural if I can.

[pistnbroke]

mount the winch on the drawbar ..cable goes under the boat around a cebtral pulley as far back as possible then back under the boat against the hull and to the front winching eye thing on the bow.....I have seen boats loaded on the trailer bow to the rear to aid launching into the sea .....ahh but this is australia ......

[Mr Efficiency]

Originally Posted by pistnbroke

mount the winch on the drawbar ..cable goes under the boat around a cebtral pulley as far back as possible then back under the boat against the hull and to the front winching eye thing on the bow.....I have seen boats loaded on the trailer bow to the rear to aid launching into the sea .....ahh but this is australia ......

Getting it on the trailer again, for the next launch sounds difficult ?

[michael pierzga]

Also important to chose the correct boat design for beach launch. Study the classic PANGA.