Eisboch wrote:
"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
...
Although I agree with your technique for other reasons, it has nothing
to do
with the outdrive acting like a rudder.

Eisboch

Well, since that is the way it feels to me, because I can easily
maneuver the boat without the outdrive in gear, why don't you tell me
why it is so easy to back the boat up.


As I mentioned in another post, it's the application of vectored thrust that
is "steering" your boat while backing into the slip. It's not because the
outdrive acts like a rudder.

Think of it this way.... A typical sailboat has a rudder that probably has
50 times or more the surface area that your outdrive has. Yet, even with
that big rudder, it is virtually useless in terms of "steering" the boat in
reverse, bumping or not.

Your technique is a good one, but not for the reasons you gave.

Eisboch

Eisboch,

I knew you would have an engineer's logical and scientific / physics
reason for why it works, and I am sure you explanation is 100% correct.
But, since this is Usenet, and no thread can die a natural death, I
just want to say, that with my runabouts and express cruisers (all with
planing hulls w/low draft in relationship to the depth of the outdrive,
I could maneuver the boat in reverse using the outdrive as a rudder. If
I was going too slow, or the wind was too fast, it would not work, and I
would have to use more power, but with my home dock, where I really want
to have the boat stern to, I have always been lucky to get a wind
protected slip, and I don't have to contend with current. If the boat
is being blown about from a heavy wind, I will have to pick up the speed
and use use more of the gear bumping while the outdrive is pointed in
the correct direction, but that normally doesn't happen in my home slip.

When I am at a courtesy dock, and the wind is blowing, I try to find a
slip or finger that will allow me to take advantage of the wind so the
wind will blow me into or against the side of the dock and don't worry
about backing the boat into the slip. When I had a boat with an inboard
engine, it handled differently then the I/O, but I could back the boat
in and use the rudder to maneuver, I just had to anticipate the prop
walk even more than the outdrive, but I still used the rudder to help
maneuver the boat.

I really don't know what are you talking about with the sailboat,
because I do know many sailboters who do back into the slip, and these
are 36' plus sailboats who are backing into the slip, so I think I am
not following your logic. It definitely seemed to me that they are
using their rudder to maneuver their boat.

Hopefully this thread can become another one of those long threads that
go on forever.