Drying out a shaftdrive boat

Elessar

Elessar

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Previous boats i used to routinely dry out by lifting the legs.

Now obviously i wouldn't want the weight of the boat on the shafts but it must be ok on soft mud.

Does anyone do it?

Locally Ryde and Newport are places ive dried out before. I wont attempt the medina again for the IOW festival as too hard a bottom (shame, thats fab!)

I also want to return to st Aubins in jersey and thats soft.

So how does one determine how soft is soft? Local hm advice i suppose? Anyway tips please.
 
I would be to worried about the stern gear.
Jsy martini dries his out, it has outriggers that drop down. Only way i have seen it done, and common on boats around CI.
Let me know if you find a solution....
 
It all sounds a bit dodgy to me.
Although the mud might be soft, you don't necessarily know what's in the mud (a rock? driftwood?) and how far down the soft stuff goes. If the answer is "not far enough" then a third of the weight of the boat could be resting on one prop blade. Of course, the shape of the hull will make a massive difference. If the props are protected by keels or some other part of the hull, then it could be fine.
Then when you set off again, you'll have mud drawn through the water intakes for the engine.
 
Explore your local area, at low water, find a clean bit, plot it, then return on the next ebbing tide, anchor up, but kedge her so that she will face the flood tide, generally boats on shafts will settle to one side unless you have the means of chocking her, when she is on the ground dash round with a spade to clear the rudders and props, if you have never done it before the angle can be quite frightening, But she will come up on the tide level providing she is facing the flow. Clear the intakes before moving off.
 
FlowerPower said:
It all sounds a bit dodgy to me.
Click to expand...
+1.
The only shaft boats which I would consider drying out are those with keel(s) enclosed prop(s) and rudder(s).
And even better if keel cooled, though the potential problem of mud through water intakes could be handled, with some care.
Anyway, in other words, not a planing boat of any kind.
 
We had no choice other than dry out in Conway, when the marina silted up. But it was very soft. There was no evidence of any damage.

The yachts dried out as well, still stood straight up.

Would not consider it any where else.
 
[Qshouldnt you be half way around angleseyUOTE=hlb;4715018]We had no choice other than dry out in Conway, when the marina silted up. But it was very soft. There was no evidence of any damage.

The yachts dried out as well, still stood straight up.

Would not consider it any where else.[/QUOTE]
 
There are plenty of shaft drive boats that dry out around the coast of France and the CI but there mainly hulls that have keel protection where the shafts don't protrude the depth of the keel, they also have beaching legs that stabilise the hull from falling over.
I would not attempt doing this around the Solent area.

Plenty do this around the East coast and Essex mud.
 
I totally see the attraction... And certainly wish i could dry mine out on some of the chanel islands beautiful and scluded beaches....
Personally, dont think my rudders would put up with it, my prop blades are ridiculously thin and would definitly not put up with being tamped in to a beach... But, if it could, I would....
 
You can't be drying a boat out if it means putting weight on any stern gear, it's not designed to take that sort of load. I've got a keel and beaching legs, the keel takes the weight and the legs keep her upright. There are some shaft drive boats that don't have a keel, just 2 legs that keep suspend the stern of the boat, the ACM Elite for one. I know of several occasions where, for one reason or another (legs falling off etc), these keel-less boats have sat on the stern gear. Usually results in structural damage around the P bracket, rudder etc, new props, new shafts..
 
Like a previous poster we dried out in soft mud in Conwy Marina in a Sealine 420 for years without adverse effects. We did the same on a visit to Trouts Yard at Topsham on the River Exe but once again it was very soft mud. In both cases the boat stayed bolt upright. I don't think I would want to try it on anything harder.
 
When we first started boating we used to have a berth at a small marina way up the River Itchen. The marina dried out for 3-4hrs every tide and at first I was extremely dubious about berthing our shaftdrive Turbo 36 there but there were other shaftdrive boats in the marina, including the marina owner's own boat so I was reassured. The bottom was soft mud and our Turbo sat happily on it every tide for 2 seasons. The only difficulties were, firstly, timing the tides correctly to get in and out and secondly, not being able to flush the seawater toilets when the boat was dry. One beneficial effect of drying out was that the hull of our boat never seemed to get fouled; I guess a regular dousing in gloopy mud put off the critters
 
Bit of a hijack thread really so apologies, but I have a Fairline sprint obviously with o/d and have thought about beaching/ going on drying out berth (only for day or even hours) is this advisable/easy? just wondered as would be a good opportunity to sluice down/ clean off the bottom and o/d/ props mid season plus not far to walk to beach! Was thinking East head? Stupid question but I assume the boat would tip to one side if not too deep in sand/mud, once again apologies for naivety on this just never done it.
 
Pros and cons of drying out on mud,I've been doing this for years, both with twin legs and twin shaft

The pros,

mud moorings are cheaper, most are extremely tidal, so locally (Solent area) your boat won't sink 16 hours out of every 24 'cause it ain't afloat and no collision damage;) your mooring ground gear is cheaper only about 2 metres of water under the boat at high tide, so no deep water gear required.anodes last longer, it never gets bashed about in rough weather, the putty's soft not like sand/gravel. shafts, blades and rudders discolour but come out clean.

058_zps9e431765.jpg


The cons,

mud ingress into water inlet hull fittings, (heat exchangers,heads) bringing premature changes on impellers/seals, sitting in mud destroys coopercoat,(beentheredoneit) good eroding antifoul on the other hand works a treat, have to work with the tide table to get the most out of boat.

All of course IMHO.
 
Elessar said:
Previous boats i used to routinely dry out by lifting the legs.

Now obviously i wouldn't want the weight of the boat on the shafts but it must be ok on soft mud.

Does anyone do it?

Locally Ryde and Newport are places ive dried out before. I wont attempt the medina again for the IOW festival as too hard a bottom (shame, thats fab!)

I also want to return to st Aubins in jersey and thats soft.

So how does one determine how soft is soft? Local hm advice i suppose? Anyway tips please.
Click to expand...

A previous owner (a few owners back) of our boat (Tigris alba - previously Spotty Dog) had her maintained by Attrills yard in Bembridge and their mooring dries to soft mud. You must be ok if the mud is soft and deep enough so my guess is you need some (reliable) local knowledge. Also, a good tip from Tim Griffin of this parish when I mentioned to him I was thinking of taking her round there was to shut the engine sea cocks before she takes the mud to stop it coming up into the raw water filters and necessitating a round of cleaning.

Our previous boat had been owned by someone living in Guernsey and he had added a keel extension and legs. Only time we used them was in St Ives when taking her to Bristol. I was familiar enough with St Ives that I was confident to use them but I guess you may need local knowledge in some places to be certain the ground is hard enough that one leg will not sink and allow the boat to tilt and crush the stern gear. The legs are just to keep her upright, it's the keel extension that keeps the load off the stern gear.

Hope This helps even if a little long winded....

Paul
 
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