An interesting day - my first surf landing

Good to see another lesson learnt, but more importantly, 'shared'. Thanks Tony.

I also have yet to come in on a beach that has waves big enough to cause damage. When I do, I think I will possibly tie a rope to the stern, jump overboard and hang on like a sea anchor.

Then sit back and watch as the knot come undone and the AI wipes out half a dozen kids.

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.

I also thought about making myself a human drogue, but having one leg in a plastic bag, I doubted it could keep my leg dry if I jumped overboard. I will eventually try the technique, which I reckon is the way to go. (not the bit about wiping out the kids though )

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

The human drogue method is a terrible idea. Often there are currents that want to turn the kayak sideways when coming in past the break. You aren't going to be able to control the TI this way. Don't over think it. Just do like the boats do, especially if you have a motor. Come straight in and keep the TI perpendicular to the shoreline/break. Having the heavy duty scupper cart in place, before entering the surf zone, helps to get the kayak up onto the shore faster without breaking rudder pins etc.
The only time I could imagine the human drogue method would work well is when just coming straight in is a cake walk.

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Mark
Tandem Island- 2013
2 - Sports - 2014

It is all about juggling the different factors...
(a) my motor stopped just before reaching the breakers
(b) I have no scupper cart
(c) by aiming towards the area designated for swimmers (but obviously avoiding them), I was assured there would not be any rips or adverse currents.

In those circumstances, using your body as a drogue is a perfectly acceptable method of getting the Island to the beach in one piece. Just losing a rudder pin is an acceptable price to pay in my opinion.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Tony, not to contradict you, every situation is different. But just because there is swimmers in the water doesn't mean there isn't some kind of a rip current, especially with high tide coming in. Doesn't have to be adverse to turn your kayak sideways as you float from behind helpless to control it as a drogue. Then you got problems, once you go sideways, and we aren't just talking about a rudder pin breaking from the surf slamming against it.

If I was coming in with, no motor, no rudder, obviously no sail, emergency situation, I would use my pedals for power and paddle for steering. Main thing is keeping the kayak straight, under power.

Tony, obviously your rudder pin broke in the surf just before you began to turn sideways or as you attempted to correct. Otherwise you wouldn't have made it as far as you did under control.

Once you jump in the water, especially if you can't touch bottom, your as helpless to do anything quickly to remedy a bad situation and your just a spectator at that point. I can't stress enough, the human drogue method is not a good idea.

I usually jump out at no worse than waist high, so I can move quickly to the front and pull the TI out of the water while keeping the kayak perpendicular to the beach.

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Mark
Tandem Island- 2013
2 - Sports - 2014

In our situation when around Sarasota fl we typically prefer to launch and retrieve on the intercoastal (back side of the islands), or protected areas (most boat launches). However we do land at some of the big beaches sometimes to meet friends and such. Fortunately the water is very shallow with a very shallow gentle slope (about 30 miles) around here.
Typically when we come in thru surf we try to come straight in under power, the rudder doesn't work without forward motion. If I can't drive straight onto the beach, I'll typically jump out in waste deep water, I have tried to hold the boat from the rear and have had the rear of the boat raise me up out of the water, not a good idea. Having a rope back there to grab onto helps. I have also tried to grab the bow, it's very difficult to keep the boat straight.
I find I have the best leverage if I jump off the side of the boat and grab on to the rear aka bar with one hand and the rear handle with the other hand (yea my older TI has handlles). I can then guide the boat in the direction I choose either in or out.
For a while I had an automatic anchor system mounted to the rear of the boat, where I would drop anchor about 50 ft out, then pay out anchor line as we went in, that works ok if your planning to go back out again, if not, then you have to walk out and retrieve the anchor (pia). That method in bigger surf I feel is pretty safe, many times we leave the boat anchored 30-50 ft offshore and don't attempt to beach ,(preferred). Thats what 95% of our powerboat friends do. Most of us hang out at sand bars, and pretty much everyone anchors offshore in waste deep water, if you pull up on the sand there is a big risk of getting stuck there until the next tide cycle (been there done that with our powerboat (lol)).
It's pretty easy to spot the newbees (lol).
Our TI is our general purpose boat (the only boat we own now), so it's used for anything and everything boating related most weekends.
FE

Haliboo:
My TI is highly modified, so pics won't do you much good.
Here is a quick pic of my stern, you can see the grey safety line, you will need to attach yours to some other convenient spot (doesn't really matter where you tie the ends).


If you wanted you can also wrap the safety line under the gudgeon, similar to the lower joint.

I have a new stern on my boat now, so you can't see the gudgeon, however here is an older pic from yrs ago (before I added the planing hull mod), that you can see the grey spectra safety line at the base of the gudgeon, that is wrapped around the rudder pin at the bottom. The upper safety line (you can't see it in the pic), is also wrapped around the back side of the gudgeon (near the top).


The only purpose for the safety lines is if the rudder pin half breaks at either the top or the bottom, the mod, helps keep the other joint from breaking until you can pull ashore and make repairs (replace the pin). The mod does nothing to prevent the pin from breaking, basically if you bump the bottom you will still break the rudder pin, or if your screaming along at 15-20 mph and crank the rudder hard, the rudder pin breaks, the mod doesn't change or effect any of that stuff, it only makes it possible to now struggle on home with a partially broken rudder (steering poorly).
You don't really need to do anything if you don't want to.

I only did this mod because I've broken dozens of rudder pins hitting coral heads and shallows in the keys, while far offshore and my boat is considerable faster than most stock TI's with the massive sails and big ole engines, widened footprint, and the planing hull mod, all of which exceeds the original design specs for the boat on pretty much everything, (the original boat was designed to travel around .6 windspeed (typically 4-6 mph), my minimum cruise speed is around 8-10 in light winds (under 7mph winds) and the boat tops out at around 20 mph (but you don't want to be in the boat at those speeds (lol)). As seen in this video even at just 10 mph speed in 6 mph winds, sailing the boat is such a handful and so physically demanding, it is simply no fun for anyone. So I only go out anymore in dead calm water and very low wind (which happens to be 80% of the time around here), and pretty much limit my speeds to 8-10 mph, (mostly because of my broken back).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-npwA3izDiw&t=13s
[youtube2]-npwA3izDiw&t=13s[/youtube2]

Keep in mind this is our only family boat anymore (we sold our Searay, and all our other Hobie kayaks). The keys and sw Florida are vast areas. 2-3mph average speed in 95 deg sun for many hours at a time simply doesn't cut it for us, especially in the strong currents around here, (extreme risk of heat exposure, (been there done that)). We mostly use the boat for diving and snorkeling offshore, day sailing only. I'm not about to do somethin crazy like the everglades challenge, we just use the boat as an SUV for anything related to water, (kayaking, boating, sailing, etc), been using it this way for 6 plus yrs now, and are very happy with what we have.

FE

Sorry that's the best I can provide.

FE

Slaughter's contribution is a nice tongue-in-cheek one. A drogue or sea anchor sounds like a useful piece of equipment for ocean going kayakers/sailors. Slows the rate at which you are blown out to sea or assists in surf re-entry by keeping the kayak straight.

Plenty of commercial versions available but it wouldn't be hard to conjure up a jury rig from rope and bags that you have on your yak. I read somewhere on this forum (Stobbo?) that just a long rope with spaced knots can do the trick....

The "human sea-anchor" will work best if the line is just long enough so that the person is about one wave back from the kayak (using a long line turns the person into being just a spectator, which I agree would be next to useless) and probably able to reach bottom in the lulls between waves.)

Maybe Australian lifesavers are different from others overseas, but ours NEVER put out flags in an area where there are cross-currents or rips, so beaching in that area is surely the safest bet, and coming in with a "sea anchor" deployed ensures minimum risk to swimmers due to the slow arrival.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Ahhh, get it now - thanks for thatl...

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