Beach Rollers

The June issue of Small Boats Monthly went live today and I wanted to make sure you saw my From the Editor piece:

http://smallboatsmonthly.com/2016/06/air-lift/

Best wishes,

Chris
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Chuck:

The beach rollers are great. I've got a small d-cell powered air pump that blows them up in about 30 seconds each, although it doesn't have the power to get them really tight. But Gary and I still managed to pull Oaracle out of the water using nothing but muscle power. We turned it around and put a roller under the bow and got it launched the same way. Takes some oomph but it's still the quickest the boat as been beach launched. So nice not to have the boat fall off the rollers as it does with fenders. (Did the testing at Lake Hall -- wonder if I'll ever go there without thinking about helping Mike Monies launch the second Laguna there in 2010 prior to the EC.) This week will rig the lines to lash the rollers along the cabin topsides -- much better floatation than the fenders! Will be trying inflation with an old foot pump from an inflatable boat.

Gary Blankenship
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Hi Chuck and Sandra,

Very excited to receive Gloria's three beach rollers and swaging tool today. They arrived in perfect condition. The rollers are far better quality than I expected and will be perfect for landing her on our shores at Lake Macquarie (New South Wales, Australia). Again, thankyou for your assistance.

Regards,

Ross Harrigan.
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Julie and I finished the Watertribe North Carolina Challenge!

The Aires rollers were fantastic. We got a number of admiring comments from the other challengers. The roller diameter is small enough to keep the boat from tipping and the material is not stretchy so they stayed inflated, even with 800-900lbs of boat sitting on top. At night the boat was stable and level. In the morning the boat rolled down to the water like it was on rails.

Frank and Julie
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Thanks for the Beach Rollers. I have yet to use them for beaching but that will come soon enough.

Meanwhile, my First Mate Mary sewed up some 1" webbing to make two joined loops (about 27" circumference each, both identical) that fit around the slightly inflated roller. Then, after inflating, the roller can be hung from deck cleats to make fine side fenders for raft-ups and difficult docks.

In the photo showing a roller hung in the aft position, the trailer vertical guide bunk is interfering with the hang.

Simeon Baldwin
SCAMP #11, "Noddy"
Port Ludlow, WA
A Village in the Woods, by the Bay
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Chuck

The dinghy rollers I got from duckworks are fantastic - much better than the vinyl one's I used to have. I'm looking forward to trying them out on the beach in Sept.

Frank San Miguel
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I rowed out to Snake Island yesterday with my dog, Lucky to collect some interesting pieces of drift wood for my oil pastel projects. We arrived on the island with with tide going out. I brought my two inflatable boat rollers to help me move my boat back down to the water. after the tide had receded. This helped prevent the bottom of the boat from being scratched and gouged from the rocks and shells on the beach. I actually brought the two rollers out to the island uninflated. I used a battery operated air pump to inflate them. They worked flawlessly!

The versatile Beach Rollers continue to surprise us. In addition to being used as rollers to move small boats up and down the beach, they are regularly used as fenders, and frequently used as supplemental flotation. Recently we even heard of someone using them between cockpit seats as filler cushions for an inflated berth. Now comes this photo from Steve Haines who says that in addition to serving as fenders and saving his boat during a hurricane (he says they never lost air after 9 months in the water and growing barnacles), a friend borrowed them to stabilize a canoe for his 6-year-old son to play with.

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We have seen these beach rollers put to a lot of different uses - not just rollers, but fenders, outriggers, flotation, jacks, but the one used as a whisker pole below is a first.

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I will use the D-Rings to help lead the lines I need to use around the beach rollers so that I can pull deflated rollers into place under my boat while still on the water. It's fun, especially in a breeze. Later, at lower tide, I inflate them as much as I can.

The boat -- an 18' Swampscott Dory -- goes up on rocky sand in the area below the house we rent near Wooden Boat in Brooklin Maine. The house is great, the beach is trouble. Last summer I had only two rollers, but I recently bought a third.

Phil