A haul-out at Bira is a tide-driven operation on an open beach. The hull is floated over prepared ways at high water, drawn up as the tide falls, seated on a cradle or blocks, and shored to the topsides. The whole sequence is planned backwards from one number: the height of water at the moment the vessel must be over the ways.
Why the foreshore method still dominates this coast
Bira has no graving dock and no travel-lift basin. Hulls come up the sand. For a region whose principal product is traditional timber vessels, that is not a limitation so much as a match: a timber hull designed to take the ground is entirely comfortable on a beach, and the labour, skills and materials for working it are all within walking distance of the waterline.
What the method demands in return is planning. A basin haul can happen more or less whenever the yard is free. A foreshore haul happens when the water says so, and the consequences of getting the arithmetic wrong are structural rather than merely inconvenient.
Step one: the numbers before the boat
Before a slot is offered, the desk needs loaded and light draught, displacement, keel profile and any history of soft areas or previous repairs. These are not administrative box-ticking. Draught determines how far up the beach the hull must travel and therefore how much of the tide is usable. Displacement determines the specification of ways, rollers and cradle. Keel profile determines whether the vessel can sit on its own centreline at all, or whether purpose-built support has to be constructed first.
A deep, narrow fin keel is the hardest case on a sand foreshore: it concentrates enormous load on a small footprint and gives almost nothing in the way of natural stability once the water is gone. A long shallow keel of the kind common on traditional hulls here is the easiest. Most vessels fall between, and the assessment is honest about which end of that range a boat sits at.
Step two: preparing the ways
The ways are the track the hull travels on. Preparation means checking the ground for the whole length of travel, laying and levelling the timbers, and positioning rollers or a cradle to match the hull’s shape. Ground on a working beach is not uniform — it settles, scours and changes between seasons — so preparation is done for the specific haul rather than assumed from the last one.
At the same time the blocking plan is drawn. This is where the vessel’s structure is mapped against the support points: load routed onto frames and floors, away from any plank run known or suspected to be soft. Where a previous survey exists, it is read at this stage rather than after the hull is already sitting on something.
Step three: the draw-up
On the tide, the vessel is floated into position over the ways and secured. As the water falls, she settles onto the cradle or blocks and is then drawn up the beach. The critical moment is seating: the hull must land evenly and on the intended points. A hull that touches down on one bilge first, or lands off-centre, is corrected before the tide falls further rather than left to settle where it happens to be.
Watch the ends
Long overhangs at bow and stern carry weight that the middle of the hull was never designed to support alone. Support under the ends is not optional on a heavily-ended traditional hull; it is the difference between a fair sheer and a hogged one.
Step four: blocking and shoring
With the hull up and seated, shores are set to the topsides to hold her upright and prevent movement. Shoring is snugged, not driven hard — a shore hammered tight into a hull’s side is applying a load the planking has to carry for the whole time she is on the hard. On a hull that will be up for weeks, shores are re-checked regularly, because timber shrinks in the sun and the ground settles under load.
The blocking arrangement is recorded photographically. If plank work is later required in a blocked area, the support has to be moved, and that is a planned operation with its own sequence rather than something done ad hoc with a crowbar.
Step five: wash, look, and only then decide
The bottom is washed as soon as the hull is up, while growth is still soft. This is the first honest sight of the vessel’s condition, and it is the point at which any pre-arrival scope should be treated as provisional. Percussion sounding, probing and fastening checks follow, as described under survey and condition reports. Only after that does a quotation become firm.
Owners often expect this the other way round — a fixed price first, then the work. On timber, that ordering produces either an inflated quote that covers the worst case, or a low quote that will be revised upward. Neither serves the owner. The haul-out and slipway process is deliberately structured so the price follows the evidence.
What the sequence costs in time
The haul itself is a matter of hours inside a tide window. The useful question is how long the hull stays up. A wash-inspect-antifoul cycle is short. Anything involving plank, frame or fastening work extends the stay because timber must be worked dry, replacement stock may have a lead time, and the take-up period after relaunch needs to be planned for rather than discovered.
And the way back down
Relaunch is the same operation in reverse and deserves the same care. Seams are checked, skin fittings and shaft seals verified, anodes confirmed, and the hull put back on a tide with someone aboard and pumps working. A hull that has been dry will take water for a period afterwards — normal, expected, and covered in the article on relaunch and take-up.