Recovery of RIB straight from the beach

lauchiemb · 02 December 2010, 13:23

I have been considering building a trailer that can recover boats straight from the beach for some time. I was inspired after a trip to Jeffreys Bay in South Africa where the big fast fishing boats run through the surf and straight up the beach. They are then winched onto the trailer using a breakback system and a pulley attached to the tow bar. You drive the vehicle fast up the beach and the stationary trailer has the boat gently dragged onto it.

Has anyone used this method in the UK or seen them in action. I am aware that driving my Rib straight up the beach is not an overly sensible option but where I do my boating it is an option. With a large tidal range, you just drop the anchor when the tide is in and when the tide is out, just drive onto the nice hard sand with a car and pickup the boat. The reverse is also great since you drive onto the beach at low tide, push the boat onto the sand, anchor, and then wait for the tide to come in.

This system allows the trailer and car to avoid submersion in sea water.

It is not a solution for everyone but would be for me.

Any suggestions/comments would be very welcome.

9D280 · 02 December 2010, 13:29

Sounds like a variation of a swing beam rioller trailer to me.

You may need to muck about with the rear swing beam & add a few more rollers to make it more user friendly, but if you put a big inflatable jockey on the frontand maybe a couple of launch trolley wheels at the back end then you could maybe leave the boat stationary & winch the trailer underneath it? I did a variation of that to get mine onto some grass to do under hull maintenance.

Kernow Buoy · 02 December 2010, 13:40

Have a look at Gullwing trailers, lots of rollers and they claim you can recover straight off the ground, no swingbeam so the boat does pull on to the trailer rather than up and then on.

http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?...light=gullwing

Pikey Dave · 02 December 2010, 20:02

I've recovered this way several times when we've beach launched at Beadnell & then been caught out with the weather. If you get an onshore wind, it's dodgy trying to get the boat onto the trailer in the surf. The way we do it is get the boat as far up the beach as possible using the waves to "hop" it up the beach. Position the trailer in front of the bow, & detach the trailer from the vehicle/tractor, winch the boat onto the trailer. The weight of the boat on the rear of the trailer (it's a swing beam SBS) causes the draw bar to raise & line up with the hull. Keep winching & as the boat is pulled onto the trailer the draw bar lowers until you can hitch it back onto the vehicle. Simples!