Beachcruising

I've been spending way too much time thinking about boat design lately, but I suppose it's justified, since I'm trying to decide what my next boat will be.  I've been looking at a wide variety of sailing vessels, from heavy, offshore-capable monohulls to small multihull beachcruisers.  Sometimes it helps to get just get out on the water to think, so I spent some time a few days ago paddling my kayak around Deer Island, just south of Biloxi.  Kayaks are just so simple and quick to launch, and easy to pull ashore most anywhere you care to stop.  This is my Arctic Tern 17, one of my favorites that I built about 14 years ago:

While there are some large, shoal-draft cruising sailboats that can go right up the shore and safely dry out at low tide, this Endeavor 37 Ketch that was also beached on the island is definitely not one of them:

This sailing yacht was obviously left hard aground by the storm surge of recent Hurricane Isaac.  She's a good 40 or 50 yards from the water's edge now, and at 20,000 lbs. displacement, will not be easy to refloat.  I don't know where she was before the storm and how she came to break loose and end up on the beach at Deer Island, but seeing this is a good reminder of just one of the things that the owners of small, beachcruising sailboats and sea kayaks don't have to worry about.