Beaching with Sterndrive

[IMP-ish]

I've never had a volvo sterndrive, so maybe I should keep my mouth shut. But with mercs my other nagging worry would be having the bellows so exposed by resting the drive on the bottom in the full trailer up position. Depends on the seabed I suppose. And what the consequence of breaking down is where you are boating.

[yipster]

@ CDK forgot about alfa's on bravo legs for the technical interested this is what i meant Increase Trim-in on Bravo 3 Sterndrive but guess Frosty and hoytedow have the wiser answers

[fritzdfk]

The drive is at it's highest, the top of the Volvo 280 drive hits a rubber bumper and can't go higher. The boat is on a swinging mooring, two anchors with the boat in the middle. The support legs is an interesting idea but that would put the boat's weight on two points, forward under the bow and on the legs aft, probably not a problem. Perhaps a weighted block with a V shaped wedge out of the top that I can lower into the water and secure under the transom.

[anthony goodson]

I am not familiar with your climate ,but here it would be wise to consider that most boats are designed to drain rainwater aft.

[FAST FRED]

Some of the units have 2 heights ,

One is for beaching , the second is higher and used to increase clearance for road travel.

Read Da Book?

Usually a second pump switch is used for the road setting.

[fritzdfk]

The drive can't go any higher. The top of the drive hits a rubber bumper. I can raise the drive slightly higher and compress the bumper a little but I think that is bad for the hydraulics.

As far as rain goes, yes it rains a lot here, Southeast Alaska. The boat of course would float twice a day and rainwater would be pumped out then.

I don't understand why a system would be designed like this. Perhaps on my boat the transom assembly was placed too low? I'll have to look at that the next time the boat is on it's trailer. I would assume that the cavitation plate should be placed slightly below the hull? Is there a standard?

[Deering]

How about installing a short beaching skeg on your hull, just deep enough to take the load off of your outdrive while at rest?

Might need to reinforce the hull to handle the skeg load, and watch to make sure you don't create cavitation issues on the props, but I've done similar successfully.

Originally Posted by fritzdfk

The drive can't go any higher. The top of the drive hits a rubber bumper. I can raise the drive slightly higher and compress the bumper a little but I think that is bad for the hydraulics.

As far as rain goes, yes it rains a lot here, Southeast Alaska. The boat of course would float twice a day and rainwater would be pumped out then.

I don't understand why a system would be designed like this. Perhaps on my boat the transom assembly was placed to low? I'll have to look at that the next time the boat is on it's trailer. I would assume that the cavitation plate should be placed slightly below the hull? Is there a standard?

[anthony goodson]

Strictly speaking it's an anti ventilation plate and is normally slightly above the bottom of the transom.

[IMP-ish]

What is your hull shape fritz?

[fritzdfk]

The boat is a 23' Clippercraft. The hull is shallow V planing type.

[yipster]

Sounds like a simple solution such a skeg Deering
better a double skeg than also becouse sterndrive instal manuals want a unobstructed free meter bottom in front of the leg