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Old 05-03-2015, 10:35 AM   #75
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
Quote:
Originally Posted by rclarke246 View Post
With 2 screws and a bow thruster I have never used the rudders in docking.
We have a twin and almost always use the rudders while maneuvering. They make the boat vastly more maneuverable. With the rudders, power and a single spring line we can pin the boat to a dock even with a strong wind or current (or both) pushing us off the dock.

The use of the rudders and differential thrust and a bow line ready to slip lets us get off a dock with a wind pushing us hard onto it and boats moored immediately ahead of and behind us.

The rudders and differential thrust let us pivot the boat much faster and more positively than differential thrust alone.

More recently, after observing the maneuvering of the commercial fish boats and tugs in our harbor, we introduced the use of power into our maneuvering, sometimes with both engines, more often with just one in combination with differential thrust. This opened up a hole new level of versatility when maneuvering and is one reason we will never own a single engine boat. Playing with two engines, transmissions and the rudders is way more fun. (We have run single engine boats so know the difference in maneuvering versatility).
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