I have to do it by myself every time, and while recovering PWC I drop a light anchor with 5m rope at the back of the PWC, into the sand to help the PWC remaining in the correct direction while I winch it by hand. It works like dragging a weight in order to replace a 2nd person to assist you.
I agree with your method, plus beaching a ski causes the "wear ring" to wear out sooner and is more trouble than its worth as well as other wear and tear... time taken is money saved.
Up here in the Salish Sea the beaches are almost all rock and gravel, so this isn't very relevant to launch/retrievals here - but when I do have to go up on the beach it takes me a long, awkward time to clean the pea-gravel out the intake so my impeller and wear ring doesn't suffer when I'm ready to go again- I'm very jealous of how you can run that thing up on the sand. I could probably do this on the Washington coast, though...
In the UK, you need to get a license to launch on a lot of waters. But something they taught us when launching on a beach, was to carry a tow bar or tow ropes. Strap them to your trailer and then you can pull them from the dry sand an extra 4-5m further up. Massively cuts the risk of sinking your car tyres in the sand
Your tips are awesome man, very relevant to our Australian conditions as well. Just got a FX Cruiser and seeing you actually do stuff is really helpful. Might leave this one for a bit longer lol, but still inspirational
I stood there with a line for about 15 min and pulled the ski up further and further with the waves until I was fairly sure it was out far enough not to get washed around as I'm retrieving it. There's always that one set that will wash up further than the rest
Yea mate but if your trailer has carpet skids then spray it down with Tyre shine whilst the ski is off the trailer, makes them much slipperier and easier to wind up.