Yes, you should.
I did, after several years of beaching my 19' bowrider. I ended up scraping
through the gel-coat and may have developed a leak. I thought I did at the
time, but it may have only been the lost gel-coat.
Anyway, I spent hours learning how to do fiberglass repair and cover it with
Marine-Tex, then installed the Keel Guard. Of course, I ended up being
interrupted by inclement weather, so the whole process took several weeks.
And, lying on your back under a trailered boat while working is not fun.
Installing the Keel Guard was the easiest thing I did! Because of the
limited space to move around under the trailer, I had my granddaughter
support the far end of the Guard for me, and I peeled off only about a foot
of the protective backing at a time. Working that way, it only took a few
minutes to get the Guard in place, then I use the provided scraping tool to
rub it flat and get a good seal. Just to be sure, after everything had
cured, I ran a thin bead of 3M sealant around the edges.

"James Gemmill" gemmilljim@hotmail,com wrote in message
...
Are they necessary?

easily installed?

I beach my boat for camping (lake powell in Arizona on sandy beaches
mostly) and wonder if I shod install one.

21 foot Cobalt