BoatBanter.com - Annual Crisfield Boat Docking Contest

On 12/31/2014 11:20 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:28:30 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/31/2014 1:31 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2014 14:20:25 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:34:01 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

The rudder has no effect in reverse.

===

The trick is to give it a quick blast of power in reverse, get the
boat moving, and then shift back to neutral. I used to do that in
sailboats all the time. They have enough momentum that they'll keep
moving quite a while once you get them started. The rudder will work
as long as there is water flowing past it.

That is one thing I like about outboards. You get thrust and
direction, either way. I have mine on a shortened operating bracket so
it turns faster and farther. It makes close quarter tricks easier.
(like turning around in a tight mangrove hole)

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Yamaha%20quick%20steering.jpg

An outboard or a inboard/outboard drive is a totally different animal.
You have vectored thrust working to your advantage.

Not very practical on a larger boat although pod drives like the Volvo
Penta IPS are slowly becoming more popular.

I am old school in this regard. For larger boats I like diesel engines,
a fixed prop and a rudder, be it a single or twins. Every boat responds
differently depending on displacement, length, size of props and rudders
but with a little practice a halfway competent skipper can maneuver the
boat around in close quarter handling.

The best lesson I learned was "neutral is your friend". With twins, let
the boat respond to short applications of forward/reverse and set up to
the accompanying affects of wind or current. I rarely used throttle to
maneuver and when it was used it was only to make minor corrections such
as getting the stern precisely lined up between finger piers. The
Navigator displaced over 40,000 lbs loaded, so over zealous
docking could result in some serious damage to things like finger piers,
other boats or to it itself. Fortunately it responded well to simple
forward/reverse adjustments at idle due to it's 30" by 30" props.

The Grand Banks was a bit more challenging to back into a slip being a
single with a little 120 hp diesel and relatively small prop. It took
some practice but the trick was was size up wind and current conditions
*before* setting up and turning the bow away from the slip. Here,
rudder and throttle is used in the "back and fill" method using short
jabs in forward, then reverse relying on prop walk to line the stern up
and into the slip. Several iterations are usually required.

I am seeing boats up in the 36-38' class with outboards these days.
It may just be a Florida thing tho.

I think they are popular with the hard core fishing crowd. Usually they
are large center consoles that can get out to popular fishing grounds
and back quickly. I took a ride in Buzzard's Bay a few years
back in a friend's 36' YellowFin with quad Merc Verado outboards.
I think they were the 275 hp versions. Very fast and smooth but not
anything I'd be interested in.