Muddy Berths and Saildrives?

[Baddox]

We're working our way up the east coast and the next stop that we have planned mentioned the visitors' berths are shallow at springs. We'll sink half our 1.8m draft into soft mud which means our saildrive will be in mud.
I'm concerned about the intake getting blocked or damage through leverage. Any thoughts before we sail tomorrow?

 

[johnalison]

Anecdotally, it doesn't usually seem to be much of a problem. It would be worth turning off the seacock before LW. I found it fairly easy to use the dinghy pump to blow-back the inlet of mine by inserting the nozzle at the filter when a blockage was suspected, and you could do this before starting off.

 

[Kwik Decision]

We've kept our boat on a semi tidal berth for 9 yrs now, and had no problems with the saildrive going in the mud. We do turn the sea cock off when moored, and a few times a year I spot lumps of mud in the strainer, which get cleaned out.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Perhaps worth sharing the location so anyone with local experience can chime in?

 

[Baddox]

Perhaps worth sharing the location so anyone with local experience can chime in?

Lossiemouth. I wasn't going to mention where out of respect to the marina who I hear are having issues dealing with silting. We were heading up the east coast to Orkney and beyond but are diverting to Inverness. Two crew are unexpectedly joining us there at half term so are exploring some harbours and anchorages for a while before they arrive.

 

[Ceirwan]

Will be fine.
I had a boat with a sail drive in soft mud for 6 years, I know of others 20 or more, no issues, other than possibly slightly accelerated waterpump wear due to silty water, although that's all anecdotal.

 

[stu9000]

My old jaguar27 loved in an East coast mud berth for years. No issues. At least no mud rated issues.

 

[dunedin]

Lossiemouth. I wasn't going to mention where out of respect to the marina who I hear are having issues dealing with silting. We were heading up the east coast to Orkney and beyond but are diverting to Inverness. Two crew are unexpectedly joining us there at half term so are exploring some harbours and anchorages for a while before they arrive.

The current BA chart shows just 0.2m at CD in the entrance, and 0.7m en route to visitor berths.
When we were last there the chart depth was 0.4m - and there were certainly a lot of very shallow patches in the entrance.
I am no expert in that location but would definitely not want to go in or out without a big rise of tide - particularly if the recent period of north winds has applied down there also.

 

[Baddox]

All went well. We were advised to enter between 2hr either side of HW. The entrance was slightly shallower than our berth which had about 1.0m of water on a 1.0m LW tide. Deeper draft boats were being turned away.

 

[Cerebus]

I have always harboured fears of the seals on sail drives, but after a bit of reading and talking to others have heard that they are robust things ( double skinned in fact if I was informed correctly).

If anyone is still watching this thread, are the seals rubber or hypalon (that is stronger than rubber isn’t it?)

 

[Kwik Decision]

I have always harboured fears of the seals on sail drives, but after a bit of reading and talking to others have heard that they are robust things ( double skinned in fact if I was informed correctly).

Sail drive seals are certainly robust and reliable, as demonstrated by the fact that there are thousands of boats with them happily sailing around without issue. Of the two principal makes of saildrive, Volvo rely on a single diaphragm, whereas Yanmar have two, with a water sensor / alarm sitting in the middle, so you get a warning should the lower one be breached.

 

[Tranona]

It is not the hull diaphragm that is the concern, but the seals on the prop shaft in the lower unit which can wear because of excess dirt. Also the likelihood of water intakes being blocked, although this seems not to be a real issue.