Beach launching ???

[waterbouy]

Gidday,
There is not too many post about on beach launching.
I live in SEQ. And have done it in the protected bay of D.I many times.
But am doing a trip to Straddy and Fraser this year and would like to hone my skills.

From strady this will allow me to dodge the bar option.
And from both Islands will be hoping to launch from the prodominant gutters (Waddy pt/Cylinder Bch)

Things to do, not to do, dangers, helpful tools/ equipment, trailer features etc etc.
Any tips would be bliss.

Tight lines and cheers in advance.

[Linedropper]

I have a fair bit of experience. What size and type of boat and what car have you got?

[Captain Seaweed]

there are some videos on youtube of Waddy gutter and boats launching. Have a look at these, you can learn a lot from them. I have launched at Waddy before in a 6.2m Seafarer but not Straddy as the gutter isnt always deep enough. At straddy the local choose between Flinders and Home beach depending on the gutter BUT you need a permit for home beach. As linedropper said need to know the boat as a tinny will have no problems but larger glass boats will struggle at Straddy. Fraser has a more prominent gutter in my opinion. The hardest thing about Fraser for me was coming back in and also loading boat onto trailer at high tide as the waves roll over the sand bar and onto the beach.

[cormorant]

Extended drawbar so you have more options and less chance of truck in the water. Fast winch can save a lot of hassle as well.

Depends what boat you have but consider beaching as then no waves can sink you over the transom. Either run it up the beach or send someone ashore with attached strap and just drag above waveline with vehicle and then load on trailer off the sand. Depends a lot on conditions but it doesn't take much to damage boat or trailer with swell and waves about. I have seen a few hands , legs damaged, trailers , boats and a few sunk in the shorebreak. Yep wrong conditions and wrong boat or little experience.

As usual the most important thing is common sense and a decision on exactly what your options are early and stick with the decision.

[Captain Seaweed]

I have a video of our beach launch at Fraser but it goes for ages however it has an important lesson to lear in it...

lesson- Waddy can be flat on low tide so we always get into position, disconnect cable and reverse close to water on just shackle and chain. In this vid the driver of my ute drove forward first instead of just reversing , this fouled the boat on the chain and w had to winch up again....all in front of the camera crew.

Anyway here is the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D62wnW9e_Tg


feel free to ask me any questions.

[Linedropper]

The process I use for my 4.5m plate tinny single handed.

Launch: Reverse down to the waterline, tilt up outboard, bung in, scuppers closed. Disconnect winch rope and safety rope. Jump in car, reverse back quick and hit the brakes. Boat slides off, jump out of car turn it around into the waves and get car and trailer parked.

Bit of quick action and experience to get it right.

Retrieve: I have about 4m of 20mm rope attached to the bow eye and I reverse the trailer down to the boat. The loop on the end of the rope attaches to a large D shackle that is welded under the main trailer frame (see pic). If it is steep or a particularly boggy beach then I pull the boat up the beach at about a 30 degree angle to the water. If the beach is flat and firm then straight up is ok.

Reverse trailer up to the boat and line the bow up with the last dropped roller (see pic) and reverse back. The transom of the boat will dig into the sand and the trailer will roll under the boat. I can usually get it about 30% of the way onto the trailer. I then connect the winch and winch it on the rest of the way.



We used to do a 6m Kevlacat with an extendable drawbar and ramps under the trailer wheels to stop them sinking then drive it on. Some very hairy moments doing that if you misjudge the approach to the trailer in the surf. The ramps were attached to the back of the trailer with ropes and when you drive the trailer out of the water the ramps would come with.

[Jarrah Jack]

I beach launch my 4.2 mtr tinnie about twice a week over summer. There are a few other things I'd like to add to the previous posts.

Don't muck around on retreive if the trailer is in the water. Get out of there quick, you can even drive up a bit with the boat half on.

Reverse out of the hole first then go forward. Wave action will put sand in front of trailer and car wheels so reverse then take off. It has saved me many times.

If the wheels start to spin stop. Don't dig yourself in further as it will make things much more difficult.

Watch the locals for a while and have a chat to them, even offer to help as you learn more by being directly involved.

[cuzzamundi]

Great thread.

Cuzza

[waterbouy]

We use a 24ft ali long boat, so is much longer than wide. Whole set up weighs between 1-1.2 tonne (Boat, trailer, outboard). I use a Land Rover Defender. Id give a dry winch I go. Cpt Seaweed would be interesting to see the tubs coming back in (the retrieval). Keep the advice coming. Cheers

[cormorant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FVF...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUl6lwiGzM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgW_4...eature=related



Couple of other things. If you do it on a regular basis make sure the next trailer is built heavy with extra rollers as they bend pins etc with the shore break and you bend trailers a swell. make sure your tow point on the boat is super tough.

I'm sure there was a thread ages ago with some classic links to stuff up videos

[Captain Seaweed]

I wish we had access to all the fraser fishing comp videos and stuff ups!!

[Captain Seaweed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBRCr...eature=related

here is a funnny one

[rainbowrascal]

Hi have a look at the attached links supplied, this is how we do it in South Africa, it will give you a good idea, watch for the vehicles reversing on launch and the run up the beach for retrieval. Hope this helps and enjoy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWoyc...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u7UC...eature=related

[Linedropper]

That first video posted by cormorant of Ledge Point was my boat's home town for 10 years before moving to QLD. What a windy place, hard to get a good day for fishing in a small boat but the fishing is excellent.

Similar process in that video to what I described but we didn't have a tractor with an adjustable height tow ball. We just had an old SWB 1972 Landrover and a trailer built for beach retrieves.

[Lucky_Phill]

waterbouy, if you use the " search " icon field here on Ausfish, you will find a couple of threads that go indepth on this subject.

Anyway, from my experience and IMO.

Extended drawbar is essential.

Prep boat with skipper aboard. Reverse and brake or unhitch boat. The trailer should not be in the water for any more than 10 seconds or so.

If launching at high tide, jack-knife the trailer into the water keeping the vehicle tyres on as much hard sand as possible.

To retrieve, ready the trailer, as vehicle is reversing, start moving forward with boat. Retreviel should only see the trailer in the water for less than 30 seconds.

This is what I do for a 6.2 mtr boat, drive on and off.

If tyres start to bog while retrieving, reverse a tad and then go forward.

cheers LP