Boarding ladders

[randall330]

The Admiral and I like to beach our boat bow first on sandbars on the shores of our home lake. The problem is when we re-board unless we want to swim we need a different boarding ladder that can work on the bow.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

thanks

[NiceAft]

Since i don’t beach Nice Aft, I never really thought about this.

It would seem that you would need something like this.


A rope ladder can prove challenging to climb. Especially climbing over the bow rail.

Ray

[dlandersson]

I have good luck with this. You might want to look at 5, 6 steps also

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-mar ... gL4kvD_BwE

The Admiral and I like to beach our boat bow first on sandbars on the shores of our home lake. The problem is when we re-board unless we want to swim we need a different boarding ladder that can work on the bow.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

thanks

[Chinook]

I tried a boarding ladder early on, and decided it wasn't a good option. With the curve of the hull in the bow area, your weight sways the ladder in toward the boat, leaving you hanging awkwardly backwards. The rigid ladder shown on the second post would be a better bet, however, I much prefer setting the anchor and dinghying in.

[C Buchs]

We've got an over-sized bow line that we tie to the rail to use as a foot hold to climb up the bow rail. Sorry, I don't have a picture of anyone climbing, but in this picture you can see how we have the lines tied on our bow.



Jeff

[Russ]

Boarding from the bow has always been a challenge. We tried bringing a step ladder. That helped. But then you have to retrieve the ladder and store it.

The best I found is dropping a bow anchor and drifting stern to the beach and hopping off with a stern "beach" anchor. The problem I have is my transducer hangs off the back transom and if the boat touches the beach it could rip the thing off. So I keep the boat just a bit off the beach. We can hop on and off with only feet wet.

[Herschel]

I have good luck with this. You might want to look at 5, 6 steps also

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-mar ... gL4kvD_BwE

The Admiral and I like to beach our boat bow first on sandbars on the shores of our home lake. The problem is when we re-board unless we want to swim we need a different boarding ladder that can work on the bow.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

thanks

I use this four step gunwhale ladder which works wonderfully for boardering from a swim, too, at the cockpit, and especially for MOB boarding. At the bow, it takes a little creativity to get it stable and hooked over the pulpit/lifelines, but is doable.

[Starscream]

Boarding from the bow has always been a challenge. We tried bringing a step ladder. That helped. But then you have to retrieve the ladder and store it.

The best I found is dropping a bow anchor and drifting stern to the beach and hopping off with a stern "beach" anchor. The problem I have is my transducer hangs off the back transom and if the boat touches the beach it could rip the thing off. So I keep the boat just a bit off the beach. We can hop on and off with only feet wet.

Ditto


A stern anchor onto the beach helps keep things in place. And with the stern anchor you can let the boat float out a bit, and bring it back in when you want.

[NiceAft]

Just be aware if a land anchor is allowed.

There is a popular bay in the lake I sail on for two weeks every summer where any sort of anchoring a boat to the land is not allowed. Just be aware.

The lake is thirty-two miles long with many bays and islands, but this one bay is extremely popular. Very shallow and calm with a sand bottom.

Ray

[tewharaunz]

Hi,

We launch/retrieve at a shallow boat ramp without a jetty so we needed an easy way to pick up and drop off the car/trailer driver from the bow. I found a folding stainless ladder and welded on some "wings" at the top so it fits (and sort of locks in place) over the bow rail. If we're doing a day sail and don't use the spinnaker, we just leave it there. It's also very handy if we need to secure a backup rope from a swing mooring to the D-ring. I found a blurry picture from Motueka marina but if you are interested, I can take more.

We also use it off the side of the cockpit when we are "camping" so we can leave the LPG fridge/freezer under the helm seat. The second photo (frenchman bay) also shows our anchor and two ground lines that we tie to trees or buried logs when we are in tidal lagoons for a few days.

Motueka Marina
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vY7ZXGqX6wzNzFpD8

Frenchman Bay
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UGJnLsj7xoEvERQv9

Cheers, David