www.iFourWinns.com

Ok, everyone knows by now we just brought the new 278 Vista home. We have gone out several times on the Spring Lake, and the Grand River out to Lake Michigan. Grand Haven is a town where many people beach their boats along the Grand River and party. This would be expecially fun during the Coast Guard Festival. I was concerned about beaching our boat and then trying to get it back out into the water. It drops off pretty fast there. It was easy with the skis and I always beached the 17' Chris Craft that I had in Texas behind my house. In fact with the Chris I would ram it up on the shore with the stern drive up and then put the stern drive down to stick it in the mud. I was sure that way no one would take off with the boat. As you can imagine I don't want to treat this boat the same way. Anyone have any experience beaching these bigger boats? Can you back out with the stern drive up without hurting anything? I saw a picture by jvalich where his 288 Vista, Mental Floss looked like it was beached. Any good info out there?

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2006 Four Winns 278 Vista
2004 Ford F250

http://www.wfsites.com

All wett I beach my 268 at almost every outing.How i go in depends on the water depth. If water is skinny i will go bow first and trim the drive as needed. I will just get the bow up on the beach and put out the hook. I dont go too far up just incase of tidal change, i can always let out line and push off if necessary. I also use a stern anchor so i dont sway. If i have deep water i will put the stern in and follow the same rules.

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JPEloian
2000 268 Vista

Ditto what jpeolian said. I also take into account the type of bottom. If it's muddy, I feel better than sand. For the sandy spots I usually stern in and wade to shore. If I bow in I'm getting wet anyway because there simple is no easy wayt o board on the bow, just too high.

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Jvalich
http://www.badcock.com

'04 FW 288 Vista "Mental Floss"

The spot all wet is talking about is less than 100 yds. from Vista Al's marina.
That location, you can just beach the bow, tie it off and your stern will be in deep enough water to just fire it up and back out.
The channel is ridiculous during CG festival, way too many boats at one time for that channel. It will be rougher than any other day there. So you might have to drop a stern anchor to stop the swing.
Good Luck, you won't see me anywhere near that channel on CG festival weekend. Too many crazies for me, and you can get pulled over 2 or 3 times by the Coast Guard in just one afternoon. Not for me, I like to spend my time boating, not answering coasties questions, and dodging boats.

Have Fun.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

For me, we have a place called "Margarita Beach" http://www.margaritabeach.org/ where we all like to hang out. The beach is sand as you can see from alot of the pics but the sand is very rough on boats and mine wont see it even once. I made a stern anchor out of an auger and PVC. I will drop anchor a little offshore, back into about 4' of water, kill it and jump in and twist the anchor into the bottom then tie off on a stern cleat. It seems to work well for me and most of the bigger boats will them tie up next to mine. Just and idea! Happy boating!

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Shane 318 Vista