For those who keep their boats on the beach

I'm lucky enough to live within walking distance of the beach and my boat although it is a hike of several hundred yards. I'm jealous of the guys with booms that stay on their boats or the boomless Nacras and others. Have any of you guys developed a means of not having to lug this anchor of a boom along with the sails? (short of just disconnecting and leave lying in the sand) Wonder why Hobie never improved this terribly cumbersome (and lethal) boom design for the H16?

Can't you just take the sail off the boom and leave it on the tramp? I leave mine attached to the sail and bag it. Some guys in RI that leave their 16s on the beach just coverthe boom, sail and all, and tarp it. Admittedly, they are older boats and kind of beat. I too am lucky enough to have beach 3 minutes from my house but still break the boat down and stick it in my driveway. People tend to mess with things and i don't want a broken mast because some chowderhead wants roses what happens when he pulls my forestay pin!!!


Blair

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Blair T

I love these calm moments before the storm, it reminds me of Beethoven...


'02 Hobie Tiger USA 1152

Yeah maybe that is the answer. Just drop the mainsail and tarp over it. At least through the weekend. I'm just trying to think of options for not having to lug twenty pounds of boom around with ten pounds of dacron. By the time I horse my sails to the beach I'm too hot and tired to rig the boat. I'm old.

Build a sailbox for the beach. With a lock. It'll keep the casual thieves at bay.

Or rig a dolly, like a golf bag dolly, so you can wheel the sails down with you.

On my old 16 - way old, like 25 years ago, I had an easy way of doing this. Here's how I'd store my sails and boom on the boat:
1. Roll up the main snuggly against the boom (main left attached to the boom).
2. Roll up the jib and toss it inside one of the last rolls in the main.
3. Using the main sheet, make several hitches down the length of the boom/main and tie off near the gooseneck. Leave a couple feet of slack in the sheet between the block and the first hitch.
4. Attach the main halyard (the end that attaches to the head of the sail) to the clew plate using the hole that your outhaul line attaches to.
5. Pull the other end of the halyard as you would if you were raising the sail. Pull the boom/sail a couple feet above the trampoline (remember the slack you left in the main sheet?) and cleat it off. Done.

Note: I did this in fresh water environment. I didn't have concerns about exposure to salty air. Even then, I'd only leave the sail out for no more than a few days at a time when I knew I'd be sailng frequently. I wouldn't leave it exposed on a sea shore too long. If you try this and you like it, you might consider having a cover made to fit around the boom and sail. It would be pretty simple. Put a few snaps down the length of an appropriate size piece of canvas. It would go a long ways towards mitigating exposure to the elements.

MVD

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28