Do Cat Owners Actually Beach Their Cats ?

[Sand crab]

That's one potential minus with some daggerboard cats. The rudders might have to be reinforced to carry the weight. The cat might sit at a skewed nose down position with the weight on the rudders and a small portion of the hulls. Skegs, props, saildrives etc come into play as well. Keels provide a good stable platform and I've seen lots of cats parked this way on the hard with no stands at all. FWIW That new Neel 50 tri is also beachable and there's pics on the website showing it.

[Capt.Don]

Originally Posted by Lowcountry

Well, this fella here beached his Lagoon 42 at Turtle Bay during last year's Baja Ha Ha, much to the entertainment of the 200+ people ashore at the time. Pretty sure he didn't do it intentionally

It was hilarious - obviously didn't have a clue about the tide change. I put this up there with the radio chatter: how do I anchor? how do I fly spinnaker?.......

[smj]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

It costs - in cash and weight and likely also impacts on the overall design / performance (as does every choice). Not to say that boats can't be beachable and perfectally fine in every other dept, just that it isn't a no-brainer.

I would not say that being able to beach a boat is "better" - if you are in a locale where that is not an option or simply not desirable why would you want that capability, especially if it costs elsewhere?

I would think if the boat was built with the intention to be beach able it would also handle a grounding better. Also the yards love us as they set our keels on blocks, drop the straps then place a couple of stands under her to steady the boat.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Old Soul Wayne

I'm wondering if any owners actually beach their catamarans?
I did a search and it never came up. Of course the only right condition would be a sandy beach. Many advertisers use this to "sell" thier boats to the dreamers. Is it structurally sound to do this? Or cost preventittive due to loss of bottom paint? Just been wondering for a while.

Cheers,
Wayne

Only very cautiously.

IMHO it is irresponsible and inaccurate of builders to use the this to sell boats. Sure, most cats can be beached, but you can do a lot of damage also -- some of which may not be obvious till you get her back in the water. At least two easy ways to do bad things when beaching a cat: One, any kind of small hard obstruction, like a rock, can exert an awful lot of focused pressure in one spot if you park a typical cruising cat on top of it. Two, if a cat is just barely aground and wake comes along then it can repeatedly lift and drop the boat onto the bottom -- not good (like the pic posted by Lowcountry).

I don't like to beach my cat, but It is handy however when the tide runs out -- cats just sit nice and level on the bottom.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Old Soul Wayne

Thanks for the input. I'm thinking that you hear about so many people's anchor getting fouled that it might be so much safer to beach yourself often.
Now, I can get and idea of the pros and cons.
Just putting it out there- would a cat that can be beached be a blue water boat?

Maybe, maybe not. There certainly are Water boats">blue water boats that can be beached, and there are beachable boats that were never intended to be blue water boats.

Having a boat that can be beached doesn't mean you HAVE to beach it. I wouldn't ever by choice dry out where there was a chance of surf, or big boat wakes, or rocks.

The places I dry out have always had clear water, so I can see where the boat is going to sit. I always set a stern anchor to limit movement, and prevent the boat from running over the bow anchor on the incoming tide.

IMO some of the very best anchorages on the East coast of Australia are best enjoyed if your boat can dry out.

[quartersplash]

I have a 47 foot Mayotte voyage, one of 18 built before voyage bought the molds and lightened them up. I have no choise here in Bahia de Caraquez other than to beach mine for any work that needs to be done. I do it to bottom paint as far as I can go down to the sand. I called around in Florida when we purchased her and the lowest price was almost $5k, so I said see ya later and decided to wait till we got here. It cost $40 labor and the beach was free. Once I also beached it for 3 months while we sanded, repaired old injuries done before I was owner and then painting the hulls and then bottom paint. Had to deal with surge and 2 tides per day for that time....I will never do that again...But I have good strong keels and I contacted the designer first to see if it was ok, and he told me that yes, they had designed it to be beached and even has an angled keel so that it pretty much sits level on most beaches that drop off significantly.

[smj]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Only very cautiously.

IMHO it is irresponsible and inaccurate of builders to use the this to sell boats. Sure, most cats can be beached, but you can do a lot of damage also -- some of which may not be obvious till you get her back in the water. At least two easy ways to do bad things when beaching a cat: One, any kind of small hard obstruction, like a rock, can exert an awful lot of focused pressure in one spot if you park a typical cruising cat on top of it. Two, if a cat is just barely aground and wake comes along then it can repeatedly lift and drop the boat onto the bottom -- not good (like the pic posted by Lowcountry).

I don't like to beach my cat, but It is handy however when the tide runs out -- cats just sit nice and level on the bottom.

In certain parts of the world cats are beached at least once a day 365 days a year because of the tide. I guess if their built to handle it should be ok.

[Bricky]

Have beached ours a couple of times to clean the bottom as there are no haul out facilities nearby. Not sure if I went the right way about it but gently motored on to sand, left motors idling forward till the tide dropped enough for the rudders to rest. Port Lincoln is the closest and pricey so am thinking of beaching to anti foul shortly.

[Jeannius]

Bricky... I'd like to antifoul my boat on a beach this year. I'm just worried about drying time. Is there enough before the sea comes back? What paint do you use? Is it hard or soft?

I have beached to change an oil seal in the saildrive and that was bit stressful having a 4 inch hole in the bottom of a very expensive gearbox while the incoming tide was lapping around my knees!

[Old Soul Wayne]

Bricky- those are super cool pics! It looks like the boat is flying!
Sweet.
Ps I might try to steel a copy for myself
Cheers,
Wayne

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Palarran

Most production built cats are not designed to be beached. The guys that just said yes have boats that where built to be able to handle the weight on their mini-keels and rudders. I would suspect that if I beached mine there would be a 50/50 chance of the keel snapping or pushing through the trunk.

FP cats are designed to sit on their keels.

[Double-Wide]

We have beached our Seawind on occaision without any serious side effects. One night in the Bahamas in a crowded anchorage when a storm blew thru at 0-dark thirty hours and numerous boats were adrift, including one that pulled our anchor out, we successfully headed for a sandy beach and beached and slept peacefully the rest of the night while the deep draft monohulls continued to play bumber cars for several hours.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Palarran

Most production built cats are not designed to be beached. The guys that just said yes have boats that where built to be able to handle the weight on their mini-keels and rudders. I would suspect that if I beached mine there would be a 50/50 chance of the keel snapping or pushing through the trunk.

I am not aware of any production cats with mini keels that are not designed to sit on their keels. Look in any boatyard and you will see all of these boats sitting on their keels.

Mark

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Double-Wide

We have beached our Seawind on occaision without any serious side effects. One night in the Bahamas in a crowded anchorage when a storm blew thru at 0-dark thirty hours and numerous boats were adrift, including one that pulled our anchor out, we successfully headed for a sandy beach and beached and slept peacefully the rest of the night while the deep draft monohulls continued to play bumber cars for several hours.

It would have been my preference to re-anchor. I think it's risky to beach it in the dark.

[krafthaus]

Originally Posted by colemj

I am not aware of any production cats with mini keels that are not designed to sit on their keels. Look in any boatyard and you will see all of these boats sitting on their keels.

Mark

I'd agree with this comment as cats are typicallly stored on the keels as are monos which are then propped with stands to steady it.

Good sandy beach or mud is needed. No rocks same as mentioned earlier as that would be a potential problem. Also caution with winds and wakes just as the boat is resting on the bottom.