So many things in docking. People trying to protect the boat. We make it clear to guests to not try to help unless instructed to do so and then do only what they're told. Positively no use of hands either. They always lose vs the power of boat engines.
I was afraid I was going to witness a death this last weekend.
The fairway behind our slip is very narrow. It is an adjacent marina. A guy was bringing in a 20' boat with an outdrive and attempting to dock in a slip opposite from our neighbors boat across that fairway. There was a pretty good breeze blowing, but nothing unusual.
He was having a very hard time controlling his boat. Being an outdrive, he had no helm unless under power and he was applying power in an erratic fashion. He hit three boats that I could see.
What was the most scary is that he was alone, and when he saw he was going to hit something, he would leap out of the cockpit and try to fend off. That is just plain dangerous, but to make it worse he was doing all this without a PFD.
At one point he was aiming for the stern of my neighbors boat and I saw him leap over his dodger, bow, and anchor pulpit to jump onto the finger dock between us and try to fend off. I had run around to that side to see if I could help fend off but when I got there I realized that his boat was still in forward gear. I told him that his boat was still in gear so he leapt back on to his boat over the bow and made a dive for the single lever throttle/shifter. Not sure if he was confused about facing the throttle from forward instead of aft, but he reached in through his canvass and hit almost full throttle.
The boat jumped forward up onto my neighbors swim step and aft transom. I was able to jump out of the way and fortunately the guy didn't fall off the his boat as he was on the forward cabin top leaning over his windscreen reaching the throttle.
He was completely sober, he was just panicked, upset, and over his head. Eventually, the small group of other boaters from both sides of the fairway from the two marinas got him into his slip. It took a while for the guy to calm down and he immediately started to contact the owners of the boats he hit and the dockmasters of the two marinas.
I chatted with him when he came over to inspect the damage on my neighbors boat. He was a young (in his 40s?) guy and mentioned that the only real boating experience he has is his son's small sailboat. He also mentioned that he thinks there is a problem with the gear linkage.
On this last, I think he is correct. I watched him and he would attempt to put the boat in gear (either forward or reverse) and was moving his throttle/shift lever slowly. However, he had to move it a ways before the transmission would engage and by then the engine had throttled up. When he had jumped off the boat when it was still in gear, I remember seeing the throttle/shift lever position and it was straight up in what should have been the idle/neutral position.
Anyway, just some gelcoat that needs to be repaired. Not sure if it is a boat new to him or what, but I hope he gets a mechanic to check out the boat and some instruction on how to operate it. I/O boats have to be the most difficult to dock in my mind. Unfortunately, they are often found on entry level boats purchased by folks with little to no boating experience.
