Pulling a boat off the sand.

[William_H]

Yesterday was our last club Winter race. It was quite nice day and with m,y boat at home I manned the club rescue boat. It is an 18ft Al boat with mercruiser 140 stern drive. (yes the shame of being in mobo)

Anyway one of the fleet a Whiting 31 keel boat got stuck in the shallows so we went over to haul him off. Actually on the first visit he was still determined to extricate himself but later was glad of a tow. He uses an outboard but didn't have on this occasion. Note the tide is insignificant and a bit unpredictable so it was no good waiting for hight tide.

We took a line to bow and started pulling. The bow came around but the keel seemed to be very stuck. Eventually, fortunately it came free.

On thinking about the rescue. One of the difficulties was that he didn't have enough crew or wind to get the boat to heel over to free the keel.

Now the question. Could we have taken a rope to a halyard (jib) (at the top of the sidestays) and simply hauled the boat with the rescue boat towline off sideways. By pulling the mast the boat would heel over till the keel was free and the keel would drag across the sand sideways like a paddle. At very low speed the hull should slip sideways easily for the few metres to deep water.

Has anyone done this. If it was your sail boat would you sanction this method or do you think it would just rip the mast out?

olewill

 

[damo]

The usual recommended method is to swing the boom out and dangle crew or other weight off the end. Your idea seems sound, except that I would use 2 lines - one from the mast halyard to heel the boat, and another from the toe-rail (or perhaps the base of the mast, as when backing up a tow or sea anchor) for the pull.

 

[tritonofnor]

have done similar when a UFO31 got very stuck on the mud ten feet away from the wall here on a rapidly dropping tide - the owner was coming alongside to dry out but had mistimed his approach - i had our tug at its stern pulling it off the way it had stuck, with the owners rib attached to a jib halyard heeling it over as far as possible. It took all 320hp of the tug, and a 50hp outboard on the rib to achieve release!

 

[sailorman]

have achived with a mast hd haul with the spinni halliard. it must be done hauling sideways

 

[DanTribe]

I've been been the recipient of this method and it is very effective but pretty unnerving. In my case I used the spinnaker halyard [on a 3/4 rigged boat], thinking that would be less strain on the mast than the main halyard.
You need confidence in the tug driver and a certain way of releasing the tow if it all starts to go tits up.

 

[Salty John]

I've used most methods of getting a boat off a variety of bottoms mainly, but by no means exclusively, as a result of having done the US East coast Intracoastal nine times. I once earned the nick-name Capt'n Kedge!
See here for my experiences with running aground in the article 'Don't be a stick in the mud'.
http://www.saltyjohn.co.uk/cruisingresources.htm
A masthead tow is very effective, if a little disconcerting for those on board.

 

[William_H]

Thanks JS48 I enjoyed your bit on running aground. I will enjoy your site even more at leasure.

On the second page of running Aground you mention being hauled off by a tow from the mast head. It was successful
l "more by good luck than good measure" That was the very basis of my post question. If the towing boat can keep precisely abeam the boat then it seems to me it would be a very good way of extricating from the mud.
I guess an additional tow rope attachment to bow and stern would alleviate some of the concern about rig integrity.

It seems like the method might appear to be quite 'orrible but actually quite successful.
I will feel brave enough to get opinion from others in our club. Obviously it is the decision of the stranded boat skipper but we might find with the courage to give it a go.

It is not a concern for my own little boat which is easily heeled by a stout crew of 4 so mud banks hold no fear.

Thanks for all the comments olewill

 

[Salty John]

Thanks Olewill. In that case the rescuer was so anxious to get the job done quickly that he didn't attach bow and stern lines. Normally the masthead line is only to heel the boat whilst the bow and stern lines apply the lateral pull to the now floating boat. However, I think the rig is really quite strong and, certainly in my case, no damage was done.

 

[Avocet]

I've seen it done with a RIB pulling on a spare halyard. The stranded sailing boat wasn't very big (<30' I'd guess) and had a short, stout masthead rig. It heeled over about 30 degrees and came straight off. I didn't see the keel (I assume it was a plain fin). It might not have worked if it had been a "winged" keel - might have made things a lot worse in fact! The RIB was pulling pretty much athwartships but as the boat came off it started to spin round. That didn't seem to be a problem as the RIB skipper throttled back as soon as the boat started to move.