Next message: Bob Davies: "Re: T&T: A boat handling question"
Steven Dubnoff wrote:
>After a recent demonstration of my incompetence, I am seeking some help on
>how to do better the next time. Here is the problem:
>
>I am in a twin engine boat (no bowthruster), and I want to back down a
>fairway past some other boats and then put the boat at the end, parallel to
>the fairway (so it is not on option to back past and then go forwards into
>the spot). I need to back the stern into the spot and then get the bow
>in. As we all know, it is easy to kick the stern but much harder to move
>the bow. How does one do this maneuver with grace (or at all)?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Steve
>
>
>
How wide is the fairway? If there is room to rotate the boat you could
go down bow first, turn the bow into the middle of the intended parking
spot and rotate the boat around its axis holding the bow just barely off
the dock by balancing the throttles (or the clutch engagement) as the
boat rotates. Less reverse as the turn progresses so that the bow walks
forward almost touching the dock. Watching out that your stern doesn't
hit the end of the fairway of course. At a certain point in the
rotation your position is indistinguishable from a tight bow-in approach
to a parking slot.
If there isn't room to spin, back down and stop with your stern at about
the front of the slot. (I am assuming that there is another boat ahead
of the slot you need, so it is like parallel parking) Rotate the boat
so that the stern points at the middle of the space. Give a shot of
straight reverse and drift, as Peggy said. Once your centre of mass is
aimed at the middle of the space, the rotation you need ( by nudging the
outboard engine into forward and vice versa) to keep the stern away from
the dock serves to rotate the bow in. This doesn't work nearly as well
as it seems like it ought to in anything other than no current/no wind
conditions.
KP
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