Beaching an EC-21?

D

dmcinfo

New member
Heading up to local lake to spend the weekend. On one end of the lake there is a nice sandy beach. The boat was bottom painted recently. Can I comfortably beach it or will the keel interfere? I just purchased my 21 so I have no experience with it.
 
I don't have a Ranger 21 but do know that you have a rudder and prop under there. If the keel is made so that it protected the prop and rudder it may be no problem. If not you need to make sure there is enough depth at the rear of the boat not to damage these.

Maybe another owner or dealer will be able to answer.

Steve
 
Getting into shallow enough water to beach it is the issue. I have beached it you might say where the water dropped off fairly deep quickly. As I ran the bow up on the sand it was difficult to climb out and back in the boat. With the full keel and skeg under the prop you just do not run into shallow water. at about 1.9 ft. you feel the skeg drag the bottom. It is nothing like beaching a flat bottom boat that you pull the prop and motor up. Give it a try and you will feel what I am talking about and the difficulty getting in and out without a ladder.
Ron
 
I've found it just works better to back her into the beach to about 3 feet of water and use two anchors, one fore and one aft to hold the position. You can use the ladder and swim platform for easy boarding. The Eagle depth finder is one of my most valued additions to my boat... that way I never have to worry about depth as the alarm sounds when I get into 3 feet of water.
 
I found the best way to do it was to come in bow first and tie up (we had a rock we could put a rope around) and use an anchor at the stern. I kept the bow in about 1.5 feet of water and the stern in about 3 feet of water. It looked like neither the bow or stern touched the bottom nor did I feel the keel slap the bottom when a wake came in.
 
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