Drive up beach and fiberglass boat

[Anthonym2]

Hi all
This is my first year with a boat and I have a question about a beach on the lake I live at. There is a sand beach (freshwater inland lake)which is called "boaters beach "where you are allowed to drive your boat up onto the beach. Is this ok for an i/o fiberglass boat? I trimed it all the way up the one time I did this but was nervous, there is wake from other boats, and I had to dig out a couple inches of sand from under the prop and lift up a bit to get it back out. Just don't want to damage anything.
Thanks!

 

[Woodonglass]

Yes and No. On an occassional basis it's probably OK but if done on a regular basis the abrasion from the sand can and will erode the gelcoat from the bottom of the hull exposing the base fiberglass. And if you did happen to Hit the out drive under power you could damage it. You should really know the area well and understand the workings of your boat to "Beach" her in the correct manner.

 

[alldodge]

Folks use sand paper to sand down gelcoat and fiberglass. Doing this on a beach is basically the same thing. The easier you do it the less will be worn away.

As for the outdrive, if sand is ingested into the motor it will go thru the impeller. Sand will damage the impeller, how much again will be by how much is ingested. So if your going to do it, come up easy enough to get to shore but shut the motor off before you get to where the drive will touch.

Don't run the drive with it much if any above the trim limit switch. Shut motor off then bring drive up the rest of the way with the trailer switch. When leaving, get the boat out as far as you can and lower drive before starting it.

As always, this is my opinion and how I would do it, if I was going to do it

 

[thumpar]

My old boat had a spot on the bow where it was beached. The gelcoat was worn off to where you could see light through it. They do make keep guards to protect from that. With this boat I don't want that to happen so what I do is anchor the bow with an anchor buddy line and tie off the transom to the beach. One nice thing about that is that to get in the boat you have to get your feet wet so it cuts down on all the sand in the boat.

 

[tpenfield]

Not a good thing to bring your boat up on the sand as the others have stated. keep the whole thing floating by a few inches. Use both a bow and stern anchor to keep the boat in place.

 

[H20Rat]

i've beached all of my boats for many, many years. At my lake, there really is no other way to park, the dropoff is very gradual and the water fluctuates quite a bit, making docks more of a chore than anything else.

Anyway, yes, without a keelguard it will eventually wear through. And with that said, i've never worn through a keelguard. Probably not impossible, but just tough.

 

[Anthonym2]

Thanks for all the Info!
I'm always impressed by the knowledge and responsiveness of this forum.
I think I'll tie it off the bow and the stern and keep floating....

 

[H20Rat]

Thanks for all the Info!
I'm always impressed by the knowledge and responsiveness of this forum.
I think I'll tie it off the bow and the stern and keep floating....

Just make sure that your anchoring method is secure enough for that, otherwise you end up with the boat banging into the shore stern first.

 

[JASinIL2006]

We beach on rivers all the time; some bottoms don't lend themselves well to anchoring with the boat floating. A KeelGuard or KeelShield will do wonders to protect the part of your boat that makes the most contact with the sand. If you find your anchoring strategy is hard to implement, you might want to look into a keel protector.