[PCW] Beaching a Large Cat?

[Robert Deering]

I occasionally beached my 28 ft cat, and here in Alaska we don't have the
silky white sand you see in the sales brochures.  My boat was aluminum, but
in either case you're more worried about scraping off your antifouling paint
than damaging the hull.

Bottom line - very possible provided you exercise reasonable caution.  You
don't want waves grinding the boat on the beach, etc.  And my cat had
outboards which I could raise - with the PDQ's shafts you'd have to find a
pretty steep beach that prevented your props and rudders from damage.

But in reality, beaching a big boat is a pain.  You constantly worry about
getting stuck due to tides or waves or wind.  You're appropriately nervous
about other damage occurring and will be constantly fussing with it, but
none of the rest of the beach party will share your concerns and will find
you annoying.  Boarding the boat from the bow isn't practical w/o a ladder,
and you won't want to bring it in stern/prop-first.  Hauling the cooler of
beer and umbrella and lawn chairs to the beach means you have to hump them
around to the bow on the narrow side decks.  You won't find it nearly as
relaxing as it looks in the brochures...

Of course, there are places where people just wade to the beach I guess, so
'close' is good enough.  We don't do that up here in our 45 degree water.

Better to just get a very capable tender with a convenient launching system.
Then anchor your big boat in front of the beach and enjoy the view of it
floating in the water where it was meant to be.

Bob Deering
Juneau, Alaska  


On 1/21/09 3:17 PM, "Pelchat Family" <pelchat at charter.net> wrote:

> Bill's reply to me the other day took me (reasonably enough) to the PDQ
> website and while there I saw a picturesque scene of a 34-footer beached on
> a lovely warm beach.  After momentary thought of wishing I was there (OK . .
> . OK, it was many moments), I wondered about damage to the gelcoat to the
> bows that doing such a thing might cause.    My father routinely beached his
> 25 and 28 foot Bertrams with no apparent problems, but I wondered if doing
> the same thing with a 34 or a 41 power cat would be a good idea.
> 
> 
> 
> Assuming that we don't play LST (Landing Ship Tank) driver when we do it and
> that we faithfully avoid rocks and coral, is there a practical upper limit
> on the size of a boat when it comes to beaching?
> 
> 
> John
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "bill" <wcz4399 at yahoo.com>
> To: "Power Catamaran List" <power-catamaran at lists.samurai.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [PCW] PDQ's in Miami?
> 
> 
>> Looks like just the 34 will be on display
>> 
>> http://www.pdqyachts.com/power/
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
>> Any word on the PDQ power cats being at next month's Miami International
>> Boatshow?
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