Groundings & Founder
Grounding of a vessel can be an intentional situation or occur accidentally.
There are three different types of grounding; e.g. beaching, stranding, or grounding.
Beaching
A vessel may be beached for many reasons, maybe to save it from foundering in deep water or to flood her, at a recoverable location, in the event of an uncontrolled fire, or simply to carry out underwater repairs, inspections, or cleaning of a foul bottom.
Points to consider (during beaching):
select the beaching site carefully (if the time permits, consider the type of bottom, how level is it, obstructions/obstacles present)
check details of tide (tidal heights, direction, tide times)
beach the vessel at 90o to the beach line (level ground)
beach approximately 1-2 hours after high water (to ensure sufficient water to refloat). If unable to beach around this time period. Ballast the vessel to its maximum draft by whatever reversible means needed to refloat it
stop engines prior to making contact (cooling water intake protection)
once vessel has grounded, lay out anchors (fore and aft depending on weather conditions)
if vessel is moving on bottom, add extra weights, if deep keel vessel, consider shoring up (prevent vessel lying into the sea for refloating purposes).