Beach launch and recovery

[RogerLennard]

Hello everyone,
I am just back from Anglesey, where I took my BR20. I tried to launch from a sandy beach, where the friend who invited me, regularly beach launches small dinghies from trailers.

The sand is firm enough to support my VW Golf estate and I could drive the boat and trailer almost to the water's edge. Once there, I tried to turn and reverse the trailer into the sea. This was where things started to go wrong. The trailer wheels became bogged down in the sand before we even got to the water. I tried to pull forward and then the car front wheels started to sink in the sand. At this point, I decided to abandon the launch, uncouple the car and drive the car to safety. This was successful.

Thankfully someone with a small 4x4 offered to pull my boat and trailer to a firmer part of the beach, where he had just launched his RIB. This worked.

We had a fantastic sail, marking the first time I had taken my BR20 on the sea and used the 6hp Yamaha engine that some of you had recommended previously.

Recovering the boat also had its difficulties: I was able to reverse the trailer (without the boat on top) to the sea and bring the boat onto it. However, as soon as I tried to pull the boat up the beach, my car front wheels sank in the sand.

Thankfully, I uncoupled the car again and was able to drive it away from the trailer and boat. Next I took my anchor line and attached it to the trailer and car towball. Success! I good tug from the car enabled me to drive the trailer and boat up the beach to a firmer location, where I could couple the trailer directly to the car.

The trauma of this prevented me from launching again from the beach at this caravan site for the rest of my stay. I felt that I'd got away with it and was lucky to come away with boat, car and trailer intact.

I'd like to ask forum members for their advice on beach launching. I am wondering about: towball winches, traction boards, trailer extension bars. Is the only option to buy a 4x4?

[Graham W]

Roger,

I used to launch my boat on to the hard dry sand of Abersoch beach on a rising tide and wait for her to float.  Recovery was the opposite - wait until the tide had gone out and then recover.  This was at the beginning and end of a week moored on an SCYC buoy.  But it would be a terrible faff to have to do that every day.

If the Anglesey beach is gently shelving, the whole process could greatly speeded up with inflatable beach rollers.  Very much cheaper than getting a 4WD!  Launch on to the rollers and roll her down to the sea. To recover, get the rollers underneath and push her back up the beach.  Remember to empty the ballast tank!  If you have a 12V battery and decent air pump, inflating and deflating is a relatively quick process.  On recovery, a neat time-saving trick is to put the first uninflated roller under the boat and then inflate it.  This makes insertion of the other rollers much easier.

Attached a photo of my BR20 on her rollers - removed from the trailer so that it could be serviced.  They are very robust (900kg capacity each), imported from Duckworks in the US https://duckworks.com/beach-rollers/.  See the useful video on that page.  Cheaper ones with 400-600kg capacity are available in the UK https://www.force4.co.uk/item/Force-4/Inflatable-Boat-Roller/TG3.  I think that three rollers are better than two, especially if they don't need to come with you on the boat.

[RogerLennard]

Thank you Graham, that's very helpful. I hadn't considered boat rollers as an option for something the size of a BR20. I own two of the smaller ones you gave the link to. I had them for my old Wayfarer. My efforts to find the more robust type have turned up a few distributors. They link to Amazon and seem reasonable until you arrive at the checkout. The cost of a couple is phenomenal, when you add on various taxes, shipping and handling charges. I suppose I still must compare the cost to a 4WD as you say.

[Graham W]

One of the reasons for my robust Aeré rollers is that our garden has Pyracantha bushes which leave vicious spikes on the drive, ready to puncture the unwary.  I think that the 400-600kg rollers as sold by Force 4 would be fine on a sandy beach, especially if you have three of them. 

There is an old(ish) thread on rollers here https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1390.0.html.  The video on the Duckworks link (above) is full of helpful hints about how not to get squashed by runaway boats on steep slopes.

Two or three of these rollers tied together might make a usable liferaft!