Mirage Drive disposition when Beaching

Saturday I beached my TI for the first time. Beach landing and launching is so easy. Beats ramp launching by a mile. Anyway, we didn't remove the mirage drives, we just secured them to the hull with the hooked bungee in the cockpit. Is it OK to drag the mirage drive on the beach a few feet like that? It seemed fine, but I wonder if it will stand up to repeated beachings.

Should be fine depending on the beach. Obviously dragging them across jagged rocks probably wouldn't be good for them, but sand should be fine. I've been doing that way for almost 2 seasons now with no obvious damage.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

My only concern is continually doing this is going to force some sand grains into sprocket and shaft bearing increasing wear. I either pull it before beaching, or just nose it in, hop out push yak back out a bit if necc, or wait till a wave lifts it and pull the drive.

Its what you do most of the time that really matters. The odd beaching is not going to kill it. Make extra sure you rinse the drive thoroughly after use if doing this. sand and moving parts is not a good mix

I never beach with the drive in. It only takes a moment to pull the drive, so why take a chance damaging a critical, expensive piece of equipment?

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

I usually remember to pull my drive, but ALWAYS forget to pull my dagger (2013).
Its not until I start rolling my AI up the beach, or ramp that I figure it out. At this point I have to really lift the front of the kayak and have someone nearby pull it out for me. Doh!!!!

My opinion is it's best to work down a mental checklist when beaching, what I call 'cleaning up' the boat in prep for landing. Because I have a couple extra's on my boat, there is a bit more to do, but working down that check list mentally and doing thing in order help me any way to not to forget one of the important ones.
Actually just common practice helps too. For example a TI has two mirage drives, when not actively using one of them, it's a good idea to put the bungy on the drive, I have remembered to bungy the front drive but totally forgot about the rear one, and damaged the rear drive coming in before (bent the post).
The big one I seem to forget is releasing the lock on the rudder down line. I've broke several rudder pins and snapped a few rudder down lines forgetting to release the rudder cleat.
Yea I have beached with the mirage drive in a few times, but I normally pull the drive just before coming on shore.
Ya know you can still pedal the mirage drive even with the bungy on.
Hope this helps
FE

Yep and cringe when the wave that brought you instarts to ebb and then the yak pushes back on the rudder now embedded in the sand. Which you can't lift due to now being stuck

Or putting the rudder up too soon and the boat goes sideways, like I said timing is everything. I usually end up ramming into the beach way too fast, sometimes jump out of the boat too early into chest deep water, really hard to control the boat from the outside in chest deep water btw. Fortunately most of the beaches are very soft sand around here.
Also unfortunately around here, it sometimes get really shallow 1/4-1/2 mile off shore, and you almost have to walk the boat in thru breakers from way out, then the next day no shallow area, or it's moved a quarter mile, 'like the sands of the hourglass, these are the days of our lives' (an old soap opera tv show lol).
FE