[PCW] Beaching, (was The popularity of Catamarans)

[Candy Chapman and Gary Bell]

<snip>
  ...Hauling a boat is hopefully not a regular occurrence.
  I can also report back on any problems (if the forum is interested)
  we have with access to suitable travel lifts on our trip North if we
  need one at any stage.

  Jonah.
  www.jonah-art.com

Jonah,

Congratulations on selecting a power catamaran that pleases you!  
Nevermind if it doesn't please one or another of us listees, we each 
must all make our own choices, and so must you. 

On a much less emphatic note, don't minimize the ability of our power 
catamarans to dry on a sand bar (with a little help from a friendly tide 
table) for a cheap and dirty haul out.  By dirty I particularly mean 
your shoes, when you set foot on the muck.  Consider disposable shoes.  
Heck, sailboats and sailing ships used to do this all the time, and 
called it 'careening,' and as monohulls they had to do it twice to cover 
both halves of the hull.   I have safely beached my PDQ several times 
with no notable downside, apart from being careful to not suck sand into 
the seawater cooling intakes.   Instead of powering off your selected 
sandbar and risk damaging your seawater cooling pumps,  set a kedging 
anchor in the right position to haul yourself off without starting the 
engines, or plan the tides carefully to give yourself plenty of time and 
water depth to subsequently float off at the very highest tide point.    
Don't forget to include a little margin accounting for Murphy's Law. 

My PDQ, with a beam of 16' 10" fits in the Travel Lift at my favorite 
yard here in Portland by only two inches.   Because of the dock 
structure the Travel Lift extends over the water on, they diminished the 
beam of their lift to suit the dock.  The lift operator quipped (on our 
last lift there) that if we slapped another coat of paint on the boat it 
would definitely not fit.   I have another commercial option nearby, a 
lift with a twenty foot beam.  I am slightly less impressed with their 
offerings for a DIY boater, but may use them whenever beaching will not 
do the trick.  

I am, at this present time, checking my tide tables for a shot at drying 
my bottom to accommodate upgrading the worn out packing in both stuffing 
boxes, without anxiety about flooding a hull.   I need to check zincs as 
well. 

Cheers,
Gary Bell