Maxingout
1st November 2008, 04:54 AM
For all of my sailing life, I've heard sailors say that they plan to beach their boat to work on it.
In fourteen years, I have beached our catamaran only two times to perform work while the tide was out.
I beached the cat once in the Hatea River in Whangarei, New Zealand in order to remove encrusted tube worms growing on the hull. This beaching went off without a hitch since all I was doing was scraping heavy growth off the hulls.
When I beached Exit Only in Mooloolaba, Australia, a representative of the regional council showed up within an hour, standing on shore telling me that I could not paint my hull while the boat was beached. I told him that I was not painting the hull, but was replacing a broken through hull fitting. He either did not believe me, or was hard of hearing, because he again insisted that I do not paint the bottom of the catamaran while beached. I again explained to him that I had no intention of painting the bottom, and that I was simply replacing a broken through hull fitting. He paced the beach for an extended period of time keeping me under surveilance, and finally he left when he figured out that I wasn't going to paint the bottom, and that I was replacing a broken skin fitting.
I have seen drying grids in New Zealand, but by the time we left Kiwi land, the word was out that it was illegal to paint your bottom using a drying grid. I didn't find out if they had any restrictions as to the type of work that you could do when drying out. Perhaps some Kiwi sailors could update us on the use of drying grids in New Zealand.
Before we left Australia, the word was out that it was illegal to do bottom painting while beached. That didn't stop one catamaran sailor from beaching the boat and painting the bottom while we were at Scotty's Anchorage on the backside of Fraser Island in Australia.
The boat in this picture illustrates one of the problems of trying to work on a beached multihull. Both times that we beached the boat, we sunk down in the mud, especially in the heavier stern area of the hull. If you want to work on the saildrive or the bottom of the keel, it may not be accessible, or you may have to dig in the mud to create a place to work. Working conditions can be extremely messy and far from ideal for serious problems.
118
I have never tried to beach the boat in order to paint the bottom, and I have no desire to do it. Aside from the fact that it may be bad for the environment and illegal, I haul our catamaran every couple of years to deal with accumulated problems that are best solved in a boatyard.
1. Where on the planet is it still legal to beach your boat to work on it?
2. Are there any places left on planet earth where you can legally beach your multihull and apply a coat of bottom paint?
3. Has anyone actually beached their multihull to perform serious work on the props, shafts, cutlass bearings, saildrives, or anything else?
In fourteen years, I have beached our catamaran only two times to perform work while the tide was out.
I beached the cat once in the Hatea River in Whangarei, New Zealand in order to remove encrusted tube worms growing on the hull. This beaching went off without a hitch since all I was doing was scraping heavy growth off the hulls.
When I beached Exit Only in Mooloolaba, Australia, a representative of the regional council showed up within an hour, standing on shore telling me that I could not paint my hull while the boat was beached. I told him that I was not painting the hull, but was replacing a broken through hull fitting. He either did not believe me, or was hard of hearing, because he again insisted that I do not paint the bottom of the catamaran while beached. I again explained to him that I had no intention of painting the bottom, and that I was simply replacing a broken through hull fitting. He paced the beach for an extended period of time keeping me under surveilance, and finally he left when he figured out that I wasn't going to paint the bottom, and that I was replacing a broken skin fitting.
I have seen drying grids in New Zealand, but by the time we left Kiwi land, the word was out that it was illegal to paint your bottom using a drying grid. I didn't find out if they had any restrictions as to the type of work that you could do when drying out. Perhaps some Kiwi sailors could update us on the use of drying grids in New Zealand.
Before we left Australia, the word was out that it was illegal to do bottom painting while beached. That didn't stop one catamaran sailor from beaching the boat and painting the bottom while we were at Scotty's Anchorage on the backside of Fraser Island in Australia.
The boat in this picture illustrates one of the problems of trying to work on a beached multihull. Both times that we beached the boat, we sunk down in the mud, especially in the heavier stern area of the hull. If you want to work on the saildrive or the bottom of the keel, it may not be accessible, or you may have to dig in the mud to create a place to work. Working conditions can be extremely messy and far from ideal for serious problems.
118
I have never tried to beach the boat in order to paint the bottom, and I have no desire to do it. Aside from the fact that it may be bad for the environment and illegal, I haul our catamaran every couple of years to deal with accumulated problems that are best solved in a boatyard.
1. Where on the planet is it still legal to beach your boat to work on it?
2. Are there any places left on planet earth where you can legally beach your multihull and apply a coat of bottom paint?
3. Has anyone actually beached their multihull to perform serious work on the props, shafts, cutlass bearings, saildrives, or anything else?