Hi guys I'm new to boating and would like to know a few things about putting the boat into the water ...like when is the best time... tide going out or tide coming in ? any help appreciated ...weman4u
It depends where you're launching from.
Some slipways you can launch ok at any tide state, some, well, you can't, you have to launch at specific times, you need to find the info on the slipway you intend to use, if not, you could arrive to find there isn't enough water to get launched, or, you get launched with just enough water, only to find you're out for half an hour, get a problem, but there isn't enough water to recover the boat and have to sit out the remainder of the ebb and a load of the flood tide to get the boat back onto the trailer.
There isn't an answer to the best time to launch, it's all dependant on the slipway and what you plan to do, work this out for yourself the best you can, then suck it and see
I'm also pretty new to sea boating and learnt pretty quickly that you need to be very careful with your launching plans / times etc, on my second launch, if i had left it literally another 10 minutes before coming in, i would have missed the recovery window and would have had to wait about another 4 / 5 hours before i could get the boat recovered.
HTH
AL ..