Beach landers and beach landing tenders

A beach lander is a tender designed to drive its bow up onto a beach, drop a ramp or door, and let guests step off onto dry sand. The format is uncommon below 9m and rare above 14m, with the mainstream sitting in the 10 to 12m bracket. The boat exists because conventional tenders cannot get within 30m of most beaches without grounding the propulsion or stranding guests in waist-deep water with their luggage.

This page covers what makes a beach lander different to other tenders, where the format earns its keep, and the spec inputs that drive cost and capability.

Three features in combination:

1. A bow ramp, door, or split-bow opening. Either hydraulic (most common at 11m+) or manual (sub-10m). The ramp lets guests, kit, even a wheelchair or bicycle, step off bone-dry.
2. Shallow draft, typically 0.4 to 0.6m at the propulsion. Achieved with waterjet drive, surface-piercing props, or shallow-draft sterndrives. A conventional shaft-drive boat is not a beach lander.
3. Forward-trim hull geometry that lets the bow plant on sand without slamming the running surface. The forefoot is rounded or armoured, the keel line is flat or near-flat for the forward third, and there is usually a sacrificial bow shoe.

Without all three the boat is just a tender with shallow draft, which is a different and more limited proposition.

Three programme types use beach landers well:

• Mediterranean charter with frequent beach lunches, where guests want to step off into shallow water onto sand rather than be ferried in by a second tender or jet ski.
• Caribbean and Bahamas private, where the cruising pattern is anchorage to anchorage and most "marinas" are a sandy spit with a beach restaurant.
• Expedition and remote programmes, where the beach is the only landing point and the alternative is a wet inflatable transfer that nobody wants to do twice.

A beach lander is not the right second tender for a yacht that mostly visits commercial ports. For that, an open guest tender or limousine tender is the better answer.

The hull is usually a flat-floor, shallow-vee design with substantial forward buoyancy, which costs ride comfort in chop above one metre. Most beach landers cruise comfortably to Beaufort 3 to 4 and become uncomfortable beyond that. They are coastal-day-boat tools, not all-weather machines.

Propulsion choice:

• Twin waterjet (Hamilton, Castoldi, Doen, Marine Jet Power), the dominant choice. Zero exposed underwater geometry, instant reverse, dries out cleanly. Cruise 25 to 32 knots, top 35 to 42.
• Twin surface-piercing drive (Arneson, Trimax, France Helices), occasional. Higher top speed, more sensitive to debris.
• Twin outboard, on smaller (under 10m) beach landers, with tilt to clear shallow water.

Sterndrives are sometimes specified but rarely the right answer because the lower unit takes the grounding load.

The dominant sizes:

• 9 to 10.5m, semi-custom, eight to twelve guests, no overnight, often a convertible roof for sun cover. Build cost 600,000 to 1,400,000 EUR.
• 10.5 to 12.5m, semi-custom or custom, twelve to sixteen guests, hydraulic ramp, larger refrigeration and storage. Build cost 1,400,000 to 2,800,000 EUR.
• 12.5 to 14m, custom, sixteen guests plus, often with limousine-grade interior aft of the ramp deck. Build cost 2,800,000 to 5,500,000 EUR.

For the full pricing context, see cost of a superyacht tender.

The beach lander segment is more concentrated than the open or limo segments. The names that come up consistently:

• Wajer Yachts (Netherlands), the Wajer 38 BL and 55 with bow access
• Ribco and Sacs for RIB-format beach landers
• Castoldi Jet (Italy), jet-tender platform with bow access door
• Hodgdon Yachts (USA), custom beach lander variants
• Pascoe International (UK), custom limo-beach lander hybrids
• Vanquish Yachts (Netherlands), the VQ models with optional bow access
• Goldfish (Norway), shallow-water hulls in the 9 to 12m range
• Iguana Yachts (France), an unusual amphibious beach lander with retractable tracks for self-launching above the waterline

The amphibious format is a small and specialist sub-segment. For most yacht programmes a conventional waterjet beach lander is the right answer.

1. What is the bow-ramp deployment time and the maximum sea state for safe deployment?
2. What is the bow-shoe replacement cost and the expected replacement interval given the planned beach pattern?
3. What is the recovery procedure if the boat grounds with guests aboard and the tide is falling?
4. What is the engine-cooling intake configuration when the boat is sitting on sand with the engines idling?
5. What is the cradle clearance with the ramp stowed, against the garage door height?

The cooling-intake question gets missed often and matters. A waterjet that loses cooling because the bow is on sand and the intake is sucking grit will overheat in five minutes. Most builders solve it with a high intake or a forced-cooling auxiliary, but the answer needs to be documented.

Compare to open guest tenders, jet tenders, and limousine tenders. For the broader picture, see the boats hub. For the buying process, see tender buying process. To talk through a project, get in touch.