We beach very frequently in the Lake Havasu, Topoc, Needles area. Ease in to the sand, make contact to a stop, then power up a bit to secure. Pulling out is mostly done with throttle. This is the common practice in the area. At times we'll pick up a bit of gravel. Our OJ stainless is super resistant to the little dings. Over the ten years I've cleaned up the leading edge maybe twice without really taking any material off. Still balanced well. More to point, I'd love to switch to ACME for smoothness and speed holding at 22, but really don't want to change our beaching habits or have be extra careful in shallow water areas. Would love to see 6K rpm someday - we too are 5500 at WOT. Don't want to give up cruise (25-30) mileage either. Just seems a given that the CNC NiBrAl would have to be much less ding resistant.