Who beaches stern first?

[Aaron]

I have always had a stern drive boat...now with the Yamaha I know you can beach the boat stern first...does anyone actually do this? Should you really only do it if there is only sand? If there are small waves and the boat is rocking around a bit is there anything that could get damaged?
I want to do it because it would be awesome to use the back area of the boat when I am camping next weekend.
What do you guys think?

 

[Magic]

We do......

The water levels up here vary quite a bit during the day and especially at night so we set a box anchor out in the channel and use an elastic cord from the anchor to the front of the boat. There is a shore spike on land with a static line tied to it. The boat stays in about 6 feet of water until we pull her in stretching the elastic, and bringing the boat to shore. We can keep her tied at any length we wish, or let her float out via the stretched elastic return to the deeper water.

Pulled in to shore.........

So one quick re-tie and we can be close in to shore, or out further in the deeper water....

Helps when the bottom is mostly sand......

 

[Aaron]

where is that? Saguaro?

 

[Magic]

where is that? Saguaro?

Yep, top of Saguaro at "The Beach"...... Over Spring break....

 

[Aaron]

cool. I am assuming that keeping it beached stern first would probably not be a good idea?

 

[ToddW850]

Same here. I enjoy sitting on the back of the boat. But also I won't crank the engines this shallow, for fear of sucking something up. I'll push it out a bit first.

 

[Aaron]

Guess I am just worried that the back of the boat will hit a rock or something.

 

[Magic]

cool. I am assuming that keeping it beached stern first would probably not be a good idea?

We stayed overnight 3 nights up there so we wanted to be protected if the water level went down as it does very often up there.... We left her tied in close during the day when we could keep an eye on her, but at night let her out into the deeper water in case the water level went out while we were asleep. We never actually "beach" the boat, just keep her tied close in for convenience.....

I have been "unintentionally beached" up there, and found this out as the boat listed over to one side during the night, but by then it was too late and you are stuck until they release water back into the lake the next morning to float you free... Even so no damage was done... An inboard or I/O would not fare so well.....

The Girl likes the convenience of being able to pull the boat into shore during the night in case she needs to go on one of her Midnight Owl Hunting Expeditions..... Hopping off the back of the boat close in puts you in less than a foot of water, well within the cold water tolerance zone of The Girl.

I see nothing wrong with stern first beaching as long as you keep an eye on the situation, and the bottom......(the lake bottom, not The Girl bottom, that's my job! )

 

[Aaron]

awesome!

 

[Magic]

Guess I am just worried that the back of the boat will hit a rock or something.

If you are worried about a rocky bottom, set an anchor off-shore (be sure to mark with a float so other boats don't foul your gear)

Purchase off the anchor at the bow, AND set a stern-tie into shore, then adjust bow-tie to get the depth you want below stern. That's what we like about the elastic anchor buddy in the front...... It allows us to set our depth by adjusting just the stern-tie...the elastic takes up the slack and keeps the boat at whatever depth/distance from shore we want.......

 

[Magic]

Same here. I enjoy sitting on the back of the boat. But also I won't crank the engines this shallow, for fear of sucking something up. I'll push it out a bit first.

Great Point! Yes, we NEVER start the engines until we are out into the channel, in at least 5 feet of water...."Impeller Polishing" is best left to others....

 

[Aaron]

awesome! I just bought an anchor buddy I also have a keel guard

 

[Magic]

awesome! I just bought an anchor buddy I also have a keel guard

Great! When are we going?

 

[jdonalds]

Same story as Magic. Anchor Buddy and Shore Spike.

I believe I've only beached bow first one time in August of 2009. Every other time is stern first. That puts the bow to the waves, boarding and exiting the boat is dead simple, and while the Anchor Buddy pulls the boat away from the shore it isn't being beaten up. The only problem I've had is bending my Cobra fins twice.

Lake Havasu July 2010 (117 degree air temperature)

Whiskeytown Aug 2013

Pyramid (off HW5 in Southern California) July 2010

 

[Wayloncle]

I have only beached bow first one time, but usually I'm on the gulf side of Shell Island so I go stern first. Twice my boat has moved back and bent my original fin, but it was during pretty rough waves and I shouldn't have let it get that close anyway. Pure sand though, I wouldn't do it in a rocky area, let it get that close I mean.

 

[Rigger]

Yep thats the only way we do it - stern first - but never beached! I've never beached the traditional way either but then again I don't have a keel shield or guard.

 

[Lspeedss]

Anchor Buddy out front. Shore spike out back..pull it in to load using the shore line. Let out line to set her in deeper water at night or if it starts to get waves. You will like the Anchor Buddy. Just remember to hook it into your anchor locker before you let it out. The line gets short fast..

 

[Julian]

I've beached in both directions, but never all the way stern first cuz I don't want to bend fins - and only in sandy areas.

 

[JetBoatPilot]

We only Beach stern to and when we do we leave the boat in about knee deep water to allow for tides to shift and for wave action.

 

[KXCam22]

Stern first is very convenient plus you can't do it with any other type of boat. Everyone's picture pretty much sums up what we do, boat close to shore and all the family & stuff on shore relaxing and having fun. I even go stern first into the dock when picking up people. The only hazard I have found so far is that you can bend the fins with wave action if you get to close. Cam.

ps one thing to note is that sometime your boat acts like a decoy duck. I was moored close to shore once and a wake boat mistook me for another wake boat and charged it to moor in the "deep" spot. He got a surprise.