Legs

fisherman

fisherman

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Looking at the thread on bilge keels vs fin vs cat, and wondering what I might one day get to play with.
Does anyone routinely dry out with a fin/long keel and legs?
I use a leg every day in the drying harbour I work from. However, there are areas of soft mud where a leg can be driven down, and there is a danger that the boat will not refloat. I had to unbolt the leg at low water one day because of this.
 
Hermees has been on legs ever since she was built in 1963, with no problems that i have heard off.
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I inherited a set of yacht legs with my Beneteau 285 which has wing keel with a nice big flat(ish) plate on the bottom. Dried out this summer on hardish ground with no problems. Re-did the antifouling in a day and saved a fortune on hoisting out!
 
From observation rather than first hand experience: legs are necessarily not very strong, so that you need to be certain the boat will sit squarely on them every time it takes the ground. If there is soft or uneven ground there is a good chance the boat will come down off balance, which can twist them or even break them.

Problems seem to arise too when legs are used in exposed areas where movement during beaching shifts them off vertical, or in areas where the current runs at all hard when a leg can get caught as the boat is lifting and swinging, again causing dislocation or damage to the leg and possibly to fastening on the hull. I have seen a leg pushed in and trapped under the hull, with dire consequences.

But with a smooth firm bottom to land on, and minimum movement of the boat as it lands, they work fine.
 
This is all very fascinating as while my boat is not equipped with beaching legs, it was obviously designed for them as it has the attachment points on the hull.

I was thinking of finding out how much it would cost for a pair of legs as they might come in handy one day. I keep my boat on the east coast where the bottom is usually soft mud. Would it be worth getting some of these legs do you think?
 
I have owned Yacht Legs for many years and used them often, although always when on board. However, I know an owner who kept a boat on a fore-and-aft mooring on sand for many years, never had a problem. There used to be two deep-keeled Sigma 33s in Ramsey harbour, IOM, on legs, also on moorings.

Can't speak for other makes but Yacht Legs are enormously strong and it is virtually impossible for one to buckle beneath the boat. Speak to the company owner, last time I did he told me that he had never heard of a problem with his product.

The trick on a mooring, according to the owner referred to above, is not to set the leg length too long so that the boat always comes to rest upright. He always kept a clearance of something like 9 inches between the non-supporting leg and the bottom. His keel was a shallow fin, similar to mine on Sadler 34.
 
We only use ours now and then .Ours are shackled at the top to Ubolts in the deck.normally they are bolted through the side of the hull with heavy reinforcing inside.
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boat will not refloat?

There are plenty of moorings where keeled boats sink completely down to the hull in mud, and do the 'onest thing and re-float when the tide comes in.

What makes you think it wouldn't re-float?

You can even lift a mooring sinker well suckered in using the tide and the bouyancy of your own forward sections.
 
Re: boat will not refloat?

[ QUOTE ]
There are plenty of moorings where keeled boats sink completely down to the hull in mud, and do the 'onest thing and re-float when the tide comes in.

What makes you think it wouldn't re-float?



[/ QUOTE ]

Because a 36 footer stayed down and sank.

The trick is, as stated elsewhere, to make the legs about 2 in short of draft, one bolt only, so if the boat is running for and aft the bolts don't split something. This is standard rig for St Ives, where you can get ground sea in the harbour.
 
Re: boat will not refloat?

i now have a sheltered mooring that stays afloat but for years had half tide mud moorings .The only boats i have seen sink instead of refloating were caused by waves breaking over them just before they refloated and then only if moored stern towards the weather.

In a half tide muddy river I had a mooring in years back some times a boat would fail to refloat if it had leaned away from the river bank to such a steep angle that the tide came into the cockpit then filled the boat through gaps in locker lids cabin doors etc.

I dont think I have ever seen a boat dried out fairly level with bows towards the sea fail to refloat.
 
Re: boat will not refloat?

I'm not really concerned about the sinking problem, which is rare. In my case I unbolted the leg rather than risk it. I just wonder how many fin/long keelers routinely use them.
 
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