Beaching a C-Dory

R

Ralph Wells

New member
Can anyone tell about their experiences debarking onto a gravel beach with a little bit of surge present. We manage this fairly well in our aluminum open skiff, but wonder how the passengers and the boat will fare from the 22 Cruiser which we are planning to buy.
Thanks
Ralph Wells
 
It will depend on the steepness of the beach. We have put our C Dory 22 both bow and stern on the beach a number of times. The disadvantage of the bow first, is that you have to either go thru the foredeck hatch or walk around--hard if you have dogs.

Stern too we put out a bow anchor and then run the boat back until the stern is just on the beach--with the motor all of the way up. We put out two anchors, for the stern--one for each side. We then either stepped of, if the bank/rock etc was appropiate, or we put our "pet step" ashore from the motor well and walked off, keeping the feet dry.

The issues I see with gravel is that there will be some abrasion of the bottom, and that you may have some light pounding on the surface. Where we did this there was minimal tidal range. If you are doing this in Alaksa, you will have to be sure that you don't either get the boat stuck on the beach, or that you will return to find the boat is 50 feet from the bank as the tide came in.

I would consider what we did with our RIB in Alaska--since it was too big to carry up and down the beach. We set the anchor about 100 feet offshore--and had a block on the end of 50 feet of anchor line or chain.
We then had a line which went thru the block, from the bow eye and back to the aft deck cleat. When the anchor was set, we backed the boat to the beach and held bow to the swell, after the passangers got off, a person took the bow line to the beach. This line was at least 200 feet long, and the bitter end was tied to the cleat at the stern of the boat. After all were off, the boat's bow was pulled off an adequate distance so that if the tide went out, the boat would still be floating--and if the tide came in, the aft loop of line was taken to a tree, boulder, sand screw, and secured, so that the boat could be pulled back in when you were ready to reboard the boat. We tried this several times with the C Dory and it worked as well as it did with the RIB.

Hopefully I have described the technique adequately--sort of like the old fashioned clothesline with a pulley on the tree in the yard.
 
Well said, Bob. We have used the stern toward the beach to step ashore, with a bow anchor already set.

You might consider a light weight inflatable -- that's what we use in Alaska or other places with high tides. They can be bought for as little as $100 or so.
 
In the vein of the small inflatable, we kept a 6'7" West Marine (Zodiac) (about 35 lbs) from the C D 22--and decided it is too small for us and the dog--so purchased a larger air floor for the TC 255. So if anyone is interested we will be selling the small one---it will take a 3 hp motor and even the two of us gimpy folks can carry it up the beach...
 
I too moved from aluminum to a fibreglass C-Dory. It took less than a minute (helped by the wake of a Sunday driver who was saving gas by running bow up at five knots!) to grind through the gel coat while beached on a bit of gravel! Figure out a "clothesline" system or use a dinghy. I have had limited success (for as long as it stays put) with a rug scrap under the bow.
 
Awhile back in Overton's, they used to sell a folding little "bow cradel" that you could set in the gravel, then pull your boat up on it. It was aluminum with four short legs and had two carpeted aluminum pads to hold the boat off the gravel. Looked like an old book stand or dictionary stand. I bet a guy could make one of wood or metal.

John
 
Good idea! I saw a picture on this site once of someone who pulled the boat up on a big used rubber tire! If it got black on the hull, it'd be below the waterline...

Charlie
 
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