CHAPTER 6 Power craft
There is no special magic about drying out most power craft, but it is vital to understand the nature of rudders and stern gear. Both may be vulnerable. Indeed, they may deter drying out at all. On some boats, however, the rudders are strongly mounted and protect the screws.
• To induce a slight heel, run a halyard to the shore and take up all the slack. Alternatively, stack weight along the side deck nearest the wall. A deep-keeled motor fishing vessel type of yacht may not have adequate halyards, but much can be achieved by shifting anchors, cable and water cans into the right place.
• As the tide falls, keep taking up the slack on the halyard and tend the lines to hold the boat tight against the wall. If she lies too far off, she will incline in too much when dry.
• As soon as she touches, crank up the halyard and keep watching the lines. Most boats change their fore-and-aft trim as they dry out, so you may have to ease bow or stern. Maintain that close-in position. You’ll get plenty of heel later as the fenders begin compressing.
Vulnerable Bilge-keeled sailing yachts
Make sure the bottom is clear of obstructions, check that you can get ashore once the water has gone away, and that’s it. The worst thing that can happen is that one keel finds a soft spot and you end up heeled over a little way.
Drying out alongside
Deep-keeled sailing yachts With legs A deep-keeler with bolt-on beaching ‘legs’ is essentially the same as a bilge-keeler. Both can settle on any ground that is reasonably flat and of uniform firmness. However, the legs are there to keep the boat more or less upright on her keel and many prove inadequate to carry her full weight if she should lean hard over onto a single one. So long as care is taken about where to lie, this should not happen, but if you dry out beam-on to a steep slope, or with one leg in soft ground, the worst may come to pass. Wherever possible, it pays to inspect the bottom at Low Water before committing yourself. Without legs Drying out a yacht leaning against a wall looks frightening, but in practice there is surprisingly little to it, given a strongly built craft with a long keel or reasonable fore-and-aft length along the base of the fin. The trick is to ensure that she leans in at a safe angle. Not enough will render her potentially unstable. Too much, and her weight will crush her toe rails and stanchions. Step-by-step, here’s how it works: • Bring the boat in near the top of the tide to give yourself time to prepare.
• Secure fore and aft; rig plenty of strong fenders. Protected
• If the boat has a fin keel, there is a chance now that she will either ‘pray’ by nodding forward, or ‘squat’ by lowering herself aft onto her rudder. If this looks like a possibility, take lines up to the dock from a suitable strong point and bowse them bar taut. The loads will be substantial, but so long as the lines are set up onto something whose strength is above suspicion, all will be well. Fortunately, praying and squatting are by no means common.
• The boat should end up securely heeled at not much more than 5°. Keep the halyard made up for security, and stand by to tend it and the docklines as she floats off again, because they will have tightened them as she went down.
MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP | 57
Boat handling
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