It can be done but you must be extremely careful!
Bobby, What you want to do can be done, but be very careful how you do it. First, do you have enough tidal range to allow the for several hours between the time that you apply the paint at the time it gets submerged again? You need at least the time to allow the paint to become tack free. Interlux ACP claims it will become tackfree in two hours at 77 degrees. The time issue has as much to do with your draft as anything else. Next, what do you have for gear. Three things are vital. First the boat must lie with the deck toward shore or it will fill with water as the tide floods. Ideally you would set out several anchors from the shoreward/uptide side of the boat with the lines attached to the rail as low as possible. As the boat tries to drift out on the tide it will lay down with the keel to seaward. Second, you must have a support tall enought to keep the low side rail out of the water until there is enough water to float the boat ior it will flood and sink as the water rises. Do not count on your bilge pumps to save you from this. Third, the bottom should be sand, not mud. If you lay the boat over into the mud, it may generate enough suction to act as an anchor and may not spring free on the flood tide. If I were going to do this I would do it in a particular spot in our anchorage. We have tides of about 12 feet. The spot I'd pick is about five feet deep at the high tide. Enough to get a Cal25 in I believe. There is a sharp drop off in the sand where a cross current has eroded a channel. This means the depth runs from five feet to about 20 feet in the space of about 6 feet. I would put the boat so it was aligned with the channel, then anchor it thoroughly. I would drop two anchors off each rail, then position the boat so that it is over the shallow part, but only just. As the tide receded, I would take in the anchor lines to keep the boat in position. If I did it right, the hull would lie on the shallow part with the keel on the slope toward the channel. There will still be about eight keet of the water in the channel so you need to do this so that the keel isn't too far down or you'll be painting from your dinghy. The rule of 12's will tell you that you'll have at best three hours on the sand so you'll have to work very quickly. As the flood comes, release the inland anchors, and kedge out on the seaward ones, and the keel should pop into the channel, and the boat upright, saving you from further worry of flooding. This technique will shorten your working time but decrease the risk. To my way of thinking, its worth it. What I would really do, however, is balance the cost of paying to have the boat hauled against the cost of having it salvaged if its sinks, then have it hauled. Around here it would cost you about $300 for haul, stands for a day, and put in. That's a lost less than a salvage operation. Justin - O'day Owner's Web
