Steering a single

My little Albin was great for rudder controlled backing.

Hold the helm w both hands though.

Britannia said:

What's your technique for backing up in straight line at speeds lower than that where the rudder starts to become effective?

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The basic idea is to use bursts of forward power over the rudder, enough to counteract the effects of prop walk in reverse gear, but not so much that you kill all sternway.

With a left hand screw like your boat, prop walk in reverse will push the stern to starboard. So to counteract that, put the helm hard to starboard and give a little burst of forward power; propwash over the rudder is very effective and will push the stern to port.

Step-by-step would be something like this:

Of course if in doing this you are applying enough reverse power to continue to increase astern speed, rudder effectiveness in reverse will increase, and with the helm to starboard, its effect is adding to propwalk! So at some point you will want to bring the helm past center a bit to port and steer normally. That point is different for every boat, and this transition is also something that's worth practicing.

psneeld said:

Either way...planning on going dead center right down the middle of a fairway in rearward motion is going to be challenging no matter.

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I learned to back a single-engine boat in England with a 60' narrowboat. Sixty feet long, six feet ten inches wide, twenty tons, dead flat bottom, tiller steered, single Lister diesel.

What I learned about in a huge hurry is inertia and how to use it. Inertia, of course, is not just the tendency of an object to keep going but it's also the resistance of an object to get going.

Once I learned to judge and use inertia, as well as the effect of the rudder and the propwash against it, I was soon able to back that boat down a 100 yard channel between two rows of moored boats with about a foot of clearance on either side and not touch any of them. (It's a different story in a crosswind)

This is not an "aren't I great" thing---- every experienced narrowboat driver can do this. But the lesson I learned about the value of inertia and how to use it to my advantage has paid off big time in the single, twin, and tripple engine cruising boats we have run or are running today.

Boaters who are good at maneuvering are using inertia to their advantage even if they don't realize it. But if you actually learn what this force is doing, both for and against you, and then make use of it consciously, it makes a huge difference in my opinion to one's boat handling skills, regardless of the type of boat or how many props it might have.

Backing a twin engine cruiser with counter-rotating props in a straight line is dead easy, of course. In fact, we often spin our twin engine PNW boat around and back into a tight spot rather than go in forward because with differential thrust and power it's no different than driving a car forward and directional control is very accurate.

QB said:

The basic idea is to use bursts of forward power over the rudder, enough to counteract the effects of prop walk in reverse gear, but not so much that you kill all sternway.

With a left hand screw like your boat, prop walk in reverse will push the stern to starboard. So to counteract that, put the helm hard to starboard and give a little burst of forward power; propwash over the rudder is very effective and will push the stern to port.

Step-by-step would be something like this:

1. Throttle idle, gear neutral
2. Helm hard to starboard
3. Gear reverse, a little throttle for sternway until you see some starboard propwalk
4. Throttle idle, gear forward, burst of throttle to counteract propwalk as much as needed
5. Throttle idle, gear neutral, and go to 3.
​

Of course if in doing this you are applying enough reverse power to continue to increase astern speed, rudder effectiveness in reverse will increase, and with the helm to starboard, its effect is adding to propwalk! So at some point you will want to bring the helm past center a bit to port and steer normally. That point is different for every boat, and this transition is also something that's worth practicing.

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Ok - we're saying the same thing. I was talking about backing down with engine, not maneuvering as you describe - which works fine as you say. I'm not sure anyone was misled by my statement though.

Richard

psneeld said:

Backing to me is putting an engine in reverse and only using rudder.

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Boats tend to pivot with rudder, not steer one end while the other end stays put. So simply backing with reverse power only in a single engine boat and trying to hold a straight line with the rudder will very often not work, particularly at slower speeds and especially if one needs to back a significant distance.

The process described by Britannia is the way to maintain a dead straight line going backwards at a consistent speed. While he did not use this term in his description, the process he describes works because it uses inertia to maintain the boat's track and orientation with the brief shots of forward.

Even the skippers in the fabled Chesapeake Bay commercial boat docking contests use this technique. If you listen to their motors while watching the video you'll hear the the quick forward thrust "correction"--- usually just one-- as they back in at a high rate of speed. The boat itself does not slow down, yaw, or vary from its track. But that brief shot of forward stops the stern's swing to one side while the bow swings to the other even before it begins. It's a great example of judgement and intimately knowing the boat's response to propwalk, rudder and inertia.

restless said:

Thanks for all the good info, I talked to the lewmar tech and he said my 150 breaker was toooo small to replace with 250. So I did thruster has not failed, I am staying to the 15 to 20 sec burst which seems good!! Hanks again to all

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Gosh, I'd really love to have a thruster, but I make friends with the wind and current and ease in gently. Sometimes I pivot off of the out-piling. Good crew helps!

Seriously, I check where that wind is gonna blow me and set the boat up accordingly and have no shame in a do-over. I have a sundeck - and have very little visibility through the opaque roof. So I learn the feel of the boat and prop pull and have practiced lots of times.

What is method to stick Regis. # on rubber inflatable dingy??

restless said:

What is method to stick Regis. # on rubber inflatable dingy??

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Well, first you're going to have to learn to back your single engined dinghy in a straight line...

Britannia said:

I'm not sure anyone was misled by my statement though.

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Very good. Just didn't want folks to get stuck with the idea that it's impossible to back a single-screw trawler in a straight line, especially at slow speeds.

Here's a link to another explanation about how to do it. Maybe it will help someone: http://www.his.com/~vann/KrgStuff/360turns.htm

Actually, QB, I was referring to your post #32 in my comments in my post #35. I mistakenly attributed your comments to Britannia because I was reading your backing description off his post.

Sorry about that. I don't like attributing things to the wrong source. It was your description of the backing process which I felt was very good.

Using the wind and current

I have a single screw, 42 foot displacement trawler. One Ford Lehman, on big rudder.

I am berthed with a slip where the current runs up to 6 knots up river or down river depending on the tide. The down river current is faster. The current runs fore and aft, my boat is pointing up river when berthed. The wind is usually blowing on the beam. I am 4 slips in from the open water.

Leaving is easy, I usually leave on a falling tide and when I back up I can just pivot with the current and turn and exit with no problem.

Coming into the berth is difficult. I am always coming in with the tide, although I try to time it at high slack, and the current is pushing me into my berth. This often kicks my aft end away from my dock. I dock port side in when going in forward.

What I find I have to do is line up really straight before entering my berth. When I am positioned out side my berth, lined up and straight I have time to make a better attempt at berthing.

If you have a large rudder driving the boat backwards may be possible but you will need to have some way on. In a calm area try going in reverse until the boat gains some speed then see it responds to the rudder. At first it will turn to port due to propwalk but keep going faster and see what happens. Try shifting to neutral if it doesn't work to kill prop walk.

Soon after buying my Willard 40 I found it difficult to maneuver at slow speed in tight quarters. The Willard is a heavy vessel (20 plus tons) and has a full length deep keel. Cut and fill is a necessary technique for sure but I needed something more effective. The following year I installed an articulating rudder -- wow! What a difference that made. At idle I literally could turn the boat in her own length. Also possible to "kick" the stern (starboard walk) against the dock when a stiff breeze was pushing us away...almost like a stern thruster. But this benefit presented a new problem -- as the stern came in the bow moved away from the dock making it difficult to get a bow line fastened (the Willard hull is curved like a broad beamed sail boat's). Though I had resisted for many years, I finally I had a big bow thruster installed before a trip to Alaska. Again, Wow! Now I use the rudder and (sometimes) the thruster together to do virtually anything I want, regardless of wind, currents, or tight quarters. These "aides" are greatly appreciated, especially as we get older and less agile, but what hasn't changed is the necessity to understand and use the physical laws of nature when operating our vessels. For me, close quarters maneuvering has always been half the fun of boating.