"Roger Long" wrote:

Would have worked great too except that I let the RPM's drop too far
while distracted trying to explain to the bow line handler that you
only have to untie one end of the doubled line to slip it (previously

This is YOUR fault. You need to explain IN ADVANCE exactly what you
are going to do and what the line handler is going to do, and have
their hand on the line that you want them to be doing something with -
make them repeat it back to you, or whatever it takes.

Bob has learned (and so have I) that it isn't enough for him to say
'you cast off the bow spring' to me. He has to articulate the whole
plan, and I have to repeat it back to him EACH TIME. He can't take it
for granted that I will be able to make the connection if he doesn't
articulate it.

Also if I understand what he is going to be doing with the boat,
sometimes I can help in ways that he has not anticipated.. Like if he
is counting on prop walk to move the stern to the port, and it isn't
doing it, I can pull the bow over to starboard.

Sometimes, even if I let go of one end of the doubled line (we don't
have both ends tied when we are casting off - we just have one end
attached and I hold the other end in my hand, pulling the boat in or
letting it out as necessary), it will bind or stick on something (like
a crack in the boards on the dock or it will get caught around a
piling) so it is necessary to flip it off. Since I don't flip well, I
have to have a boat hook close to hand, just in case.

explained but it didn't stick) and the engine quit. (I'm coming to
hate the shutdown with throttle arrangement. An eighth of an inch of
travel is the difference between idle and quitting. The engine should
remain on line until you explicitly want it to stop.) By the time I
got to the starter button and back to the wheel, the wind had us and
the anchor on the roller had gone through the phantom window of the
imaginary powerboat next door.

It probably would have worked fine if I'd been alone. I'd have cast
off the boat and then given my full attention to the rest. This
business of teaching line handling while learning docking is tough.
Nothing like, "You mean this line?", as the kid puts his hand on the
roller jib sheet, to kind of freeze your mental processes at a
critical moment.

See - you didn't explain it well enough.


grandma Rosalie