Using beaching legs

[Judders]

My boat came with beaching legs but I didn't use them last season due to the keel being stuck in the down position. There is no need to use them at the marina due to the soft, deep mud, but as we head towards the spring, I'm planning to take advantage of the opprtunity to dry out in some of those less crowded parts of the Solent.

I know the thory. The legs come in two pieces which will click together with robust looking catches. The top of the leg sits on the toerail and a large stainless threaded bolt then goes into the reciprocal hole. I am awar ethat one should lead lines from the foot of the leg to points for and aft to prevent movement. Would these be better on the cleat or the toerail?

What do I need to look out for and what have I missed?

Thans in advance.

 

[vyv_cox]

Like this

I take the fore and aft lines to the cleats. There is almost no load on them once everything has settled down and it is questionable whether they are really necessary.

Try it out on a bottom that you are confident with, to get the idea. You will soon realise that it is very easy and all the myths about not using them in mud, not working on various rocky/weedy/soft bottoms are simply that - myths. I have dried on mine hundreds of times, often with no idea what is underneath me. If there is a strong tidal flow they will still work well but leave about 8 inches clearance so that the downstream leg doesn't try to trip the boat over.

The only rider to this is that the adjustable length type, as shown here, do make life a lot easier.

 

[TiggerToo]

Vyv,
don't you ever worry about the boat tipping over towards the bow?

 

[Judders]

Vyv, thanks for that. Seeing a much larger, fin keel yacht on legs gives me a lot more confidence. The keelbox on the F720 is a lot longer and wider and, of course, shallower, so that it should be even more stable.

 

[Athene V30]

I am always concerned about the boat tipping. Over winter I use a cradle but for the odd dry out for a scrub etc I just don't go forward of the mast.
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Don't do what I did once and drop the bolt for the leg once I was committed! Had to lay the boat over on fenders / mats etc - fortunately no damage. Now when beaching I fit the legs first and then motor in very slowly.

 

[deep denial]

what happens if the mud is very soft, eg Newtown. Isn't there a danger of one side sinking much further in than the other? Or getting stuck in the mud on one side when refloating?

 

[vyv_cox]

<<< don't you ever worry about the boat tipping over towards the bow? >>>>

Not with the Sadler. There is some weight on the rudder skeg in this photo, although that is not always the case. We have had up to four people standing on the foredeck while the boat was on legs without the slightest sign that the bows would tip fprwards. However, my first boat had a very aft-swept keel and the boat was always bows down when dried out. We used to attach a warp to prevent this but the previous owner dried out using a scaffolding pole in a home made fitting to hold the bows up.

So far as soft mud is concerned, the keel and legs will sink equally. In theory a leg on a hard patch could cause the boat to capsize but the last time I spoke to Yacht Legs they told me that they had no record of this ever having happened.

 

[vyv_cox]

<<< I am always concerned about the boat tipping. Over winter I use a cradle but for the odd dry out for a scrub etc I just don't go forward of the mast. >>

We have over-wintered twice on the legs, standing on concrete, with the mast up. The only precaution I took was to tie the legs together under the boat in case somebody or something knocked one away. All usual maintenance carried out over winter. We sleep in the forecabin.

Most concerns centre on the appearance. It just looks wrong to see such a large volume (the hull) up there. When you realise that 30 - 40 % of the weight is in the keel and the centre of gravity is somewhere around the top of it, it doesn't seem so bad.

Although ours is the shallow fin, which is therefore fairly long, there are plenty of deep fin boats with legs. Sadlers used to install the sockets as an option and many deep fin 34s had Yacht Legs. There used to be two Sigma 33s kept on drying berths in Ramsey harbour, on legs. I knew a man in North Wales who kept a long-keeler on a swinging mooring on legs.

 

[ChrisE]

Vyv,
Thanks for your ever helpful reply, I'm quite inspired to get some legs for ours. The thought of spending some time in the little drying harbours really appeals.
Chris

 

[graham]

[ QUOTE ]
what happens if the mud is very soft, eg Newtown.

[/ QUOTE ]

You should only use legs on a firm flat ground such as hard sand.In deep mud the boat will settle in without legs.

The fore and aft ropes from the bottom of the leg need to be strong and attatched to something solid such as a mooring cleat to prevent any movement as the boat settles.

Even on my 22 ftr You could walk right forward or aft without it tipping. (allways felt a bit precarious but never tipped)

 

[ebbtide]

Vyv's contribution, as always, is encyclopaedic. But having owned several boats with legs I do appreciate the widespread fear of getting it wrong. And that shot of a Sadler 34 dried out on such spindly bits of kit does worry me!

I have a pic of a Twister - are you there Ken? - drying out on Emsworth Yacht Harbour's grid. Two guys sanded the forehatch, then started varnishing it - unaware that she was going down by the head. Imagine the panic when they realised - and even more when they couldn't stop it!

I do suggest prudence in this scenario, with substantial legs, big bottom plates, and strong lines fore 'n aft. And no cocktail parties after the water has gone away. Being careless can prove very expensive!

I have an article on Drying Out (and when it went wrong) in YM Confessional style; do PM me for a copy.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Twisters have a rep for kneeling down when dried out. Stay off the foredeck.

 

[graham]

Your absolutely right to suggest being cautious. I once saw an Elizabethan 29 that had snapped a leg then fell onto the remaining bit still bolted to the hull which smashed right through the hull.

Twisters are well known around here as likely to topple forward when dried out.I think the Luke 5 tonner is another nodding dog candidate.

The comment about needing large ground plates is important.I once assisted a friend who had one leg sinking slowly into the sand due to small grounding pad on his legs.

We ended up with a line run from his main halyard attatched to my bilge keel as an anchor. Disaster was narrowly averted .

 

[vyv_cox]

The Sadler 34 is mine. The 'spindly legs' are Yacht Legs, they are heavy walled aluminium tubing with documented calculations that show them to be capable of supporting unimaginably large vessels! There is a square plate on the bottom, something like 12 - 15 inches square. These appear to give similar resistance to the keel when in soft mud, keeping the boat upright.

You can see in the photo (I think) that the bow and stern lines are actually quite slack. I've never known mine to have any significant pull on them, drying out is usually a very relaxed affair and we mostly don't even know it's happened without climbing down the stern ladder to check.

 

[mcframe]

Let's do Bembridge around Easter - I'll bring the bilge-keeler and the camcorder - I'll leave it on time-lapse while we do WB match-racing round the harbour /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[sighmoon]

Can any boat use legs, or does it need to be a V shaped hull to avoid putting too much load on the hull / keel joint?

 

[kingfisher]

Euh, how do you get on /off the boat when she is settled in mud like that? Or do you just order another pint and wait for the water to rise a bit so you can use the tender? But how do you climb on board?

I still don't get the part on how those things are attached to the boat?

I'm assuming you need to install them a bit further forward than the COG so to prevent the boat from tipping forward?

 

[Twister_Ken]

How do you attach them to the hull? The commercial ones bolt through the topsides.

 

[sighmoon]

So a large part of the weight of the boat is on a bolt? How big is the bolt?

 

[Twister_Ken]

So a large part of the weight of the boat is on a bolt?

I think there's a misconception there. The weight of the boat is not on the legs but on the keel. All the legs are doing are stopping the lugger falling over to port or starboard. As such, the strain on the fixings is not very great - you could equally well imagine the job being done by a couple of timber props wedged under the turn of the hull. All the bolt has to do is maintain the leg in position.