i550class.org

So my club is going to cede some yard space to the government land authority, and all dry-berthed boats have got to be moored out permanently by end of this November. I am fine with that, but was wondering if some form of implements can be constructed to allow the i550 to "dry out" on the beach right in front of the sailing club, to perform maintenance (hull scrubbing, hull repair, mast lowering.

Appreciate if you can submit some conceptual designs of "beaching legs" for the i550!

BTW, I still have my boat trailer, and the club is still keeping the launching tractor.
I did raised the request to have my boat recovered and parked in the club's parking lot for occasional maintenance.
But the response wasn't quite warm, understandable as the small car park is usually full on weekends.

Hi Loh,

I presume that you would like to have the boat 'keel down' on this arrangement and that you have sufficient tidal range for this. But a couple of questions arise.

Does the club have a fixed crane on its dock? If so, adding a removable set of 'tall' bunks to your trailer would be the easiest approach. A friend of mine did this for his Jeanneau FUN, so he could anti-foul the keel in the down position. These tall bunks were not sturdy enough for road use - just for servicing in the boat yard.

If the tidal range is enough you could build a light cradle to support the boat when the tide goes out. I say 'light' because storing a cradle between use can be problematic.

Putting tall bunks on the trailer and floating the boat onto it is not a good idea since the connectors for the lights won't like the salt water!

Loh, back when I was trying to figure out how to get my boat on to a floating dock, I considered these, just some inflatable cylindrical tubes you can get pretty cheap on-line.

I think 3 - 4 would be enough to roll the boat up on to the beach, keeping three intact and then running the one that popped out from under the stern around to the bow, repeat as far as necessary.

MIght work! For example, here is how some folks beach their boats (and float them, too) for the Everglades Challenge.





[edit] maybe two on each side to let the keel bulb pass through uninterrupted