Electric or Hand Winch to pull up on the beach?

Has anyone got a system to drag their boats out of the water? I sail single handed most time and our sand is soft and starts to slope up as I move in from the waters edge. It all make for a pretty tough grind trying to get the boat back up even with beach wheels. And electric winch is $500 and a hand winch would be $100 and they would be worth every penny if they worked. Anyone tried it? I need to get the boat up to the start of the dune grass in this photo. I have power at the Hot Tub. But I would need 100ft of cable and possibly a remote to run the winch so I could steer and watch things from down on the beach.

Let me know where the house is, I'll help you pull the boat up the beach...

Nice pad!

sm

Electric with a remote!

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

A couple of things to think about-

- Unless you replace the cable with smaller diameter wire you may need a special winch because ones like you need typically do no have drums big enough to handle that amount of cable it looks like you will need. A quick look at Graingers revealed most winches have 50' or less cable.

- You may want to replace the supplied cable with stainless steel anyway.

- Some Jeep/SUV winches come with little wireless remote controls, but those are 12V DC powered winches.

Here is what I would do- get a cheap (less than $100) Harbor Freight bumper type winch like this one, or this slightly more expensive one with wireless remote - replace the 3/16" cable with 1/8" or 3/32" SS, and get a 12V battery to power it.

What a setup- great beach, water, and a hot tub!!!!!

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Alan
'86 H16, Sail #89057

When I was still into jeeps, the hardcore guys were starting to run synthetic line on t he winches, just rope.

A couple friends of mine and I tried this several years ago to get our boats up the beach and over the dunes. It was more trouble than it was worth though. Most winches and/or reduction gears are painfully slow. It worked but was literally like watching paint dry.

A little low tech, but what about a simple block and tackle? You could attach to some fixed point above, and pull at the cat, guiding it at the same time. Something like a 4:1? Maybe an old main block setup. Would need alot of rope though. Might actually be faster than a winch, which are painfully slow.

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Jim

2007 Hobie Wave

Thanks for the info guys... that picture is my back yard up here on Lake Huron in Canada... i guess it is worth the bucks to buy the electric winch and I'll see how it goes.

The range that the remote will cover on the electric ones is pretty limited. If you go that route, I'd try to make sure you've got one with enough line and check the range that the remote has.

You could probably swap the steel cable out with a rope and get more on the spool. It's only 320 lbs, not a jeep.

You're going to be hard pressed to find one that has more than 25 or 50 feet of line. Some of the big ones will come with 100 feet, but they'll be overkill for this appliation and would pull a humvee. Also the electric ones are usually 12 volt setups. This one could probably be made to work. I know I've seen "Shop" versions of this one at the store that can plug into electric.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=91727

Also, does it have to be electric? Looks like once you get it lined up its going to go straight when you start cranking. I know I've moved my boat in the grass before and it only wants to go the direction in which it is pointed.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... umber=5798



If it were me, I would think about sinking a pole in the ground and using a block and tackle to pull it up. I'll be trailer sailing tomorrow and can try using my old seaway 5:1 to pull the boat up on the trailer. Now that I've got the new 6:1 low profile, I can do dumb stuff with the seaway.

Thanks Trix I read that I should go 1.5 times the weight of whatever I want to pull. So I would need 1000lbs or pulling power and your right anything with enough line (100 ft) is probably way more winch then I need. I can seem to find anything with a decent remote. But i can imagine if i have a winch with rope extension and the steering issues you mention. That if i wasnt down on the beach beside the Hobie I would end up going back and forth all day long while i tried to keep everything on track.

I pulled the boat up on the trailer using my old 5:1 today and it worked fairly well. I could see it taking a while to pull it up the hill.

Though you could sink a metal pole in the ground and attach one of the blocks. Perhaps use a carabiner to attach the pulling end of the set up to the dolphin striker on the boat. At least this way you would be on the pulling end.

I'd be interested to see what you figure out.

Good Luck!

Not sure 500' of line would be easy to manage.

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Sail Like you Have a Pair
Bluish gray 73 - 83 H16
Super Nice Yellow 84 H18

I think the best solution would be a trailer and a golf cart

trailers are heavy and don't roll though the sand very well. I tried a golf cart with a cateez which didn't work too well either. Hard to keep the boat from teetering. Golf carts in sand need to keep the RPM up so its difficult to maintain a steady roll. Lots of yanking. Guess I'll just keep on pushing.

I am wondering how much steering you would really have to do if you tied off to the dolphin striker? when I crank my 16 up on the trailer by the DS, it seems to go up fairly straight. How about tying some connectors to the bridle wire attachments to make a forward point to pull from?

Than you would not have to be so close to the boat and the Remote might work better.

Just some thoughts

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Sail Like you Have a Pair
Bluish gray 73 - 83 H16
Super Nice Yellow 84 H18