Cleaning out Beach with outboard

[biglurr54]

I just bought my first house and I am lucky enough to have a house on a small lake. There has been no maintenance to the place for about 10 years. My beach has a nice sandy bottom that gradually gets deeper and deeper. Its a perfect little beach. The only problem is there is about 1 1/2 feet of muck, mud, and leaves. At my Grandmothers lake house we always would rake the leaves and sticks up and then we would use a small outboard to clear out the muck. We would pull the row boat on shore then put our old 8 hp on the boat and start it up. We put it in gear and it would "blow" all the junk out into the deeper water. This method worked great. Im considering doing this at my lake but all I have is my big boat with a 120 outboard. My row boat is at my grandmothers camp which is 5 hours away. Is it harmful to the motor? How do you guys clear out your beaches every year?

 

[JoLin]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

Is it harmful to the motor?

Yes. Could it be that the 8 hp motor you used was air cooled? Your 120 is gonna suck all kinds of junk into the cooling water intakes. Bad, bad idea.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

You will destroy the water pump on the engine nearly instantly. If you shut it down, you will at least save the engine. Keep running it, and the engine goes bye bye. As the previous post mentioned, the old 8hp was probably air cooled.

 

[cdlegate]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

I have zero experience in this but i have a idea that may or may not work, why not take a tall peice of chain link fence and cut it the length you want then you could attach it to your boat and drag it out to deeper water?

 

[roscoe]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

You need to rent a portable water pump. and either rent or make a water jet to blow it out.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

Yea a water pump would do it fine.

 

[rschap1]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

I used to use my Kawasaki jet skis in similar fashion to blast weeds and muck off my beach.
The 550sx's I have now I treat a little better.
I have an old box spring that lost it's coverings years ago.
A few cinder blocks for added weight and I drag it around on a shortened ski rope.
Just doing that and using a regular garden rake a few times opens and cleans things up very nice.
Maintainence is the key. One time won't get it but a couple times a week after a while will help LOTS!!
I have neighbors that pay for chemicals that make things worse.
Another has his weeds and muck "aerated".
He pays a guy that comes out with a glorified shop vac attached to a pitch fork style nozzle.
Each tine on the pitchfork has a little air blast and he just pokes around.
Helps loosen up muck and roots for the area he is doing, but really puts the F to poor sap down wind.
I am next door and it isn't doing me any favors.
So keep your neighbors in mind if you want to get along with them

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

A 120 will do whatever it does a lot bigger than the 8!

Running an outboard against a muddy bottom won't kill your water pump instantly and it is unlikely your 8 was air cooled. Outboards handle mud and sand, and I got off the island this weekend as proof. But that's not to say it's a good idea to do it intentionally, or a lot, because the sand willl wear on your parts. If you do run against muddy/sandy water, then immediately go run in deep (clean) water and the motor will flush itself.

Solution? Use someone else's boat! Or convince someone with a true inboard to come visit.

One method to clear muck is a trash pump with a fire hose nozzle-a super power washer. And I know all about the box spring method; some people used to leave one on a bouy and drag it in or out every trip. There are people with tugs who make side money "surveying" the bottoms. You can use a clam dredge. You can put corn out during an outgoing tide and as the ducks feed on it, they loosen the muck and it washes away (and then you can have corn-fed ducks for dinner).

What I don't know, but question, is how you'd use these methods to clear just the mud and not the sand under it. Also you really need current to take away what you stir up, so I see it as being marginal on a lake, but I'm only familiar with tidal water (Although extremely familiar with the issue and the methods).

But as someone mentioned: for all of these methods, you are stirring up sediment that (a) has to settle somewhere else and (b) adversely affect water clarity which is a big environmental concern. This is why legal dredging has very restrictive "disturbance" standards and never permits you to just blow it around. This includes boxsprings and prop washing, although it's unlikely you'll get in trouble or cause much harm for a little maintenance.

 

[biglurr54]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

It wasn't an air cooled motor. Just a normal outboard. The skeg and prop would be 4 to 5 inches above the muck when it was running so just the water would punch the muck out. The water pick up would be well above the muck and in clear water. The thrust of the prop blows the muck out. I have a jet ski I could do this with if they work better. Its a 97 spx with a stainless steel impeller.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

I have a jet ski I could do this with if they work better. Its a 97 spx with a stainless steel impeller.

Changing the impeller in a lower unit is far easier and cheaper than changing the wear ring in that spx. (I know, I've changed quite a few wear rings!) Chances are you are going to be tossing some rocks around with that mud also, and while tapping a rock with a prop won't do much, running one through your jet pump could cause some extremely $$$ repairs.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

LOL, most of these answers are from folks that have never done it. Yes, you'll be fine doing it. We do it to deepen slips at a lake I go to. They silt in every winter and the first one up to the lake blows the silt back out. Once you're done you want to give it while before you go running through all the silt you stired up but the prop wash is what moves the silt, the water in front of the prop stays pretty clean.

 

[rschap1]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

My latest plans revolve around a trash pump as mentioned.
With my neighbor's aeration service, I am planing to "fight fire with fire".
I am not going to use compressed air and loosen up his own muck to send back, but rather create a slow steady current.
I have a 2 horse 110 volt HD cast iron centrifgal pump. Going to make a pvc manifold and stake it to bottom using fenceing t posts.
Using a ball valve between pump and tee to throttle back pressure and move the manifold around along the width of my beach area. Plan is to splay out the holes so flow will not only head the trash and muck deeper but sideways a bit too (back to where it came from).

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

You can also have a boat anchored/moored and running in gear to create a current to move the suspended solids further along.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

My latest plans revolve around a trash pump as mentioned.
With my neighbor's aeration service, I am planing to "fight fire with fire".
I am not going to use compressed air and loosen up his own muck to send back, but rather create a slow steady current.
I have a 2 horse 110 volt HD cast iron centrifgal pump. Going to make a pvc manifold and stake it to bottom using fenceing t posts.
Using a ball valve between pump and tee to throttle back pressure and move the manifold around along the width of my beach area. Plan is to splay out the holes so flow will not only head the trash and muck deeper but sideways a bit too (back to where it came from).

Don't overthink it. It only needs to be done once a year. Do it with your boat in 20 minutes like everyone else and spend the rest of your time relaxing and having fun.

 

[oops!]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

id say...... go for it.....

when the motor dies.......the forum will be happy to help you repair it !

hmmm.......should i move this to sht?



a boat motor is not the correct tool for this job

 

[johnstonjohnr]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

I would recommend one of these...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLH7NuJxw80

Man I gotta get me one of these.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Cleaning out Beach with outboard

id say...... go for it.....

when the motor dies.......the forum will be happy to help you repair it !

hmmm.......should i move this to sht?



a boat motor is not the correct tool for this job

Overstepping your boundries a little there aren't you.