Learn the hard way . . . It's the only way.

Let’s set the scene: It’s a lazy Sunday and a determination is made to take the old boat to a nearby sandy beach “Swim Island.” A quick check of the radar on Weather.com shows a little spot that may or may not hit us in about an hour. Alas we still head out, once we get there the skies begin to darken and the power boaters being to bail out one by one. We stand on and hold tight, with the worry beginning to show in the admiral’s eyes, I decide that I’ll pre-reef the sail. Rolling it around the boom and wondering how in the hell is this going to work.

Another 10 or 15 minutes go by and we reel in the deck ape and send her below, yank in the anchor and stow it on the bow. With my reefed sail hoisted we kill the motor and being heading back, the winds pick up and the rain dances across the water on a collision course with us, I ask the admiral if she’d like her rain coat and thrice she deciles, not wanting to look weaker I decide to pass on it myself, but decide the in the name of “just in case” the life Jacket goes on.

The rain begins pelting us and looking windward is nearly impossible, luckily the GPS is leeward and in full view, the old girl handled nice on a broad reach but the man at the helm wasn’t paying as much attention to the channel as he should have, and all at once a nice all stop shoved us both forward. Well shoot, I tried sheeting the sheets in and motoring out but no go. The rain god must have felt pity as the rain stopped shortly after we ran aground. After trying a few things including hanging from the boom, rocking the boat, and trying to back out, I decided to jump in and try to rock us loose a few good rocks and I could see it would bust loose. I put the admiral at the helm and had her put it into reverse, a few min of rocking; shoving, rocking and shoving it budged, and began to back away. Got the old girl spun around and headed home.

Fate would strike again on the way home not a half a mile from where we ran aground before, another all stop. WTF. I check the GPS chart and the contour shows 10 ft. not what the Depth sounder and or the hook pole says. On the starboard side there is 2 feet on the Port there is 7 feet. WTF. Out into the water again shove, grunt, rock, shove, grunt, and away we go. It made no sense it was like a sand bar, only right at the edge of the channel. Well at least the docking went well.

Nice that you can get out & push. I draw 6' so aground is aground. You might try the following: stand on the aft end of the boom & have the admiral swing it out to the side. Sometimes, particularly with a lighter boat, it will buy you the inches it takes to get free. Much better in cooler weather than going over the side.

Thanks Keelbolts, but with a shalow draft as the Ariel is the lil bit of heel a person on the boom can provide only give a few inches, where as a deeper keel would actually yeild more clearence. And should it be cold next time then it's "Boat US tow boat US tow" Paid for it may as well use it :), just cost a little bit of pride.

You're using your boat & that's what counts. Running aground happens. I've done it at least three times when the chart said it wouldn't happen. It almost always makes me cuss for some reason.

I am right now, on the boat in the slip getting ready to go out. I am going to sail over to the spot I ran aground on Saturday during the race to find it again (a high area with good water surrounding it). I will run aground there and get out and walk around it to see how big it is.


My point? I run aground ALL THE TIME here where I sail. Thankfully there are no native rocks in most of my sailing waters, so all that happens is that the bottom of the keel gets cleaned off.

I LOVE these boats. :D

Yeah aground here in the upper chesapeake, should be Amud or beached, no damage done,

Not a bad idea, checking out the area, maybe i can talk the wife into lettin me check it out too. Wonder if it runs out into the flats or just a freek occurance, I sware I had passed the area before more to the "supposedly shallower" area.

In case anyone wonders its just south of the Red "14" comming out of HDG, Md.

Finally a subject where I have vast experience.

Some general thoughts:

Sometimes you get a little warning before you run aground--a subtle bump or dragging as you skim the bottom. Act quick. If you don't know where the deep water is then come about.

OK. Now you're aground. Heeling the boat over may let you sail off. Because of the shape of the keel, putting some crew on the bow can also help.

If the sails are pushing you further aground you need to drop them. Otherwise leave them up. Fire up the engine. If heeling doesnt work, try having the crew move in unison from one side of the boat to the other. It breaks the suction or digs a furrow in the ground. If the engine doesn't get you off quickly then shut it down. You don't want to suck up debris into the engine.

Now its time to go over the side. This gets some weight off the boat. Try to time the pushing for when a wave or wake lifts the boat.

If that fails, its time for a kedge anchor. Walk around to find a path to deep water. Get the anchor out as far as possible. You probably can't get into deep enough water wearing a PFD. Take precautions if there is a current running or you can be swept away.

The kedge anchor rode is run through a bow chock and back to a winch. Winching the boat across the ground this way can be hard work. This is your punishment.

Around here, the bottom is sandy and running aground is just an inconvenience. Still, I'm more cautious if the wind is really blowing. Stick to the windward side of the narrow water. Otherwise you'll be aground on a lee shore and blown into shallower water.

Running aground on rocks may require different tactics. I don't like to think about that.

I first started buying tow insurance about 4 years ago. I didn't like the idea of having to jump into icy water. Haven't run aground since I stared buying insurance (knock wood). Funny how that works.