Beach Landing Technique in Onshore Winds?

What CR Yaker said...

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red

What size/type wheels are you using?

I am guessing you carry them with you when sailing.... seems like a challenge for the 30-cm wheels I'm using.... so if I went that route I'd be buying a second set of wheels that are small enough to carry behind the seat.

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

Take the cart and plug it into scuppers behind the seat upside down. Also, when installing when at sea - remove one of the wheels to reduce the bouyancy then simply put wheel back on once installed under yak. Works a treat...

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red

Our "sugar sand" here in Michigan makes it easy to beach our TI, and we do it regularly -- but we furl the sail and pedal in. As we get close to shore we come in head on and get a momentum going, then split and hook the front pedals, lift the center board, then raise the rudder and glide in. We jump out in a foot or two of water at shore and lift out the drives at that point, then fold up the amas. At that point we either drag the boat up on the beach if we're going to sail more that day, or get things ready to load on the trailer. When we're done for the day, we pull the boat along the beach by hand and around the dock, then push it up the loading bay and wait for the trailer.

We haven't yet figured a way to launch or come in without at least one of us getting in a couple feet of water. I just bought some kyak pants and Kokotat launch socks so we can keep our legs and feet dry and tolerate colder water. We'll need those in the spring after the ice melts!

Having said that, we have some young kids in our club who will come up to shore full sail in a JY. I don't see why you couldn't pretty much do the same in a TI. I do worry about pushing sand up into the front drive, or catching an ama at an odd angle and shearing an aka shear pin. I'm no expert, but it would seem to me those are both more likely scenarios than causing any real damage to the hull.

~ Chris

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........~ media1der ~........
............. Chris .............
2013 Hobie Tandem Island
--- Muskegon Yacht Club ---

I have come around to pulling the Mirage Drive and sailing full-bore at the beach - furling the sail and raising the rudder at the last moment.....

Have not yet tried folding down the seat back and scoonching back to sit on the aft cargo area to get more rise in the bow.... but it seems logical and maybe next time there is enough wind...

This is only when there is sufficient wind that, if the boat is not far enough up on the sand, the wind rotates it around beam-to-waves.

The rest of the time I dismount and walk it in backwards holding the bow.

Got to keep an eye on the condition of the bottom.... so time will tell...


Now that I am thinking about this..... Maybe the practice of folding the amas in while afloat would mitigate the tendency to get blown beam-to-shorebreak..... gotta try that one too.

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

On the topic of repeatedly sanding a plastic hull, one of my boats is an Ocean Kayak Sprinter that I bought out of a local rental fleet back in the 1990's. Before I bought it, a friend rented it. I saw the rental staff take it off the rack and slide it down the concrete ramp.

It has lots and lots of scratches from that kind of treatment and I have added even more over the years.

So I'd say you'll put a few more scratches on your boat each time you crash-land on a beach, but you can probably get away with that kind of thing for quite a few years.

(I do actually pick up the boat and carry it down concrete ramps.)

2015 - 2009 = At least 6 years, maybe more like 10-15 before failure...

I'm 75 right now....

Case Closed..... we'll let my survivors worry about the condition of this thing's bottom..... -)

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

This is what I found... When landing in surf, if you get sideways, it is exponentially easier to get the boat straight again by paddling hard backwards from the rear seat and straightening the stern rather than trying to straighten the bow... From the rear seat, you put the hobie paddle in the side facing the beach and "bench press" paddle backwards. Two or three quick hard reverse paddles like this will quickly move the stern in the right direction, and pull the bow straight..... If you keep trying to paddle forward from the rear seat to straighten the bow, you almost never succeed, the angle is not right from the rear seat to straighten the bow while overcoming the forces of the waves.

Think of the physics.. Because you are so close to the stern in the rear seat, by paddling hard backwards a few strokes from the rear seat, you have full control of the pointing of the stern, which in turn really moves the bow around to the right direction... You will be impressed with the maneuverability of the boat using the paddle to both push and pull from the rear seat..

For example, if you look at the "TI Accident" video from 2011 with the yellow TI, as the boat was getting sideways, the pilot was frantically paddling forward from the rear to try to straighten the boat... At that point, I believe 2 or 3 hard "reverse paddles" on the side facing the beach would have pulled the bow around hard and the wave would have smashed the bow into the sand instead of smashing the ama into the sand and bending the aka.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

So here's a question about paddling backwards ...

We learned by accident that if you insert the mirage drive backwards in essence you end up PEDALING backwards. (For my fellow newbies, to test this theory in a TI, try putting in one drive correctly and the other in reverse, and see how fast you can tread water! lol)

So for you seasoned Island sailors - do any of you ever pull the Mirage Drive pedals out and flip them on purpose when coming in to shore to slow or turn the boat?

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........~ media1der ~........
............. Chris .............
2013 Hobie Tandem Island
--- Muskegon Yacht Club ---

I'm not sure of your plan. To have your Mirage drive inserted AND trying to pedal it in a shoaling area or surf landing is to risk damage the drive if the masts strike bottom. If you are simply coming in for a normal beach landing w/o significant surf, I would pull the drive as it began to get shallow and let the wind, with the partially furled sail, drive me ashore. If necessary, I would hop out and pull the boat in. It is not good to drag your AI/TI around on a beach with the drive in.

While you can certainly pedal backwards with the drive in backwards, I've never found any need to do that in 8 yrs of Island sailing.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

There is a really fun diving spot right to the left of ft Zachary park on the south east tip of Key west Island we like to snorkel there. However there are really huge shore rocks and the the current sweeps left to right at around 5mph (the currents around key west are very powerful (just FYI)).
The spot is actually just outside of ft Zachary park (which are of course protected waters).
The only way we found to get close with our TI without getting pounded into the giant bolders is to have one of the mirage drives in reverse as you set and fine adjust the anchor (oh Btw our anchor system is off the stern of the boat). It's a natural trench right there (like an interstate for fish (lol)) with a pretty rocky bottom, and it at times difficult to get our G7 sand anchor set correctly. Actually the anchor itself might be physically in the park (oops).
It's the only interesting spot close to the Island where we see lots of pretty nice game fish go by, for anything else interesting you have to go way out to eastern dry rocks (way off shore).
When its time to leave we pedal backwards until we are straight over the anchor so we can unset it and pull it up.
The only other time I use reverse is at the City Island public boat launch in Sarasota (FL), where the single lanes are too narrow to spin my TI around in.
Reverse is not something your going to use very often, but in the right circumstances it's handy to have.
FE

I believe I once saw a post about a fellow who, in a tight spot with an unfavorable current, put his drive in backwards to pedal out. Around docks, I simply grab the paddle to maneuver my AI 2. Of course, if you have a tandem and 2 drives, it may be convenient to have one in reverse to help maneuver.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Also our TI is kind of our family boat (the only boat we have anymore) so we use it for anything and everything. So we use it to go thru canal systems to get to restarants, and get into crouded lines of powerboats passing thru narrow crouded channels/bridges, and also manouver around in some pretty big harbors. The Honda engines don't have reverse so if we are in a really crouded area we typically flip one drive around so we have some manouvering ability (like you would with a standard powerboat).
A really good example here is the Adams causway in Key Largo (fl) (sails down). It's pretty much the only place you can get from the crappy gulf side (where all the resorts are) to the good Atlantic side (where all the great diving and snorkeling is). It's 2-3 miles of bumper to bumper no wake traffic one boat right after the other boats all trying to get thru. Having one of your mirage drives in reverse and always ready really helps. The TI is a really big and wide boat that is not very manuverable in tight places, especially when kind of overloaded with people and gear, and towing a dingy.
Same applies when in crouded rivers and canals with current, you can't stop manouver or turn if your drifting with the current, this is what I always call driving by the brail method, we have bumped way more boats and docks than we care to admit to.
FE

I use reverse at the boat launches. Most around here are not wide enough or too busy to spin the TI around before launching.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

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