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Old 06-02-2015, 05:11 PM   #1
pukeanddie
Veteran Member
 
City: Boston
Vessel Name: Mooncusser
Vessel Model: Rosborough RF28
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 26
Boat Maneuvering with Separate throttle and Shift

I have a single screw diesel trawler. It's a small trawler, but it has a lot of windage and maneuvering is always tricky. I've had the boat for about 8 years and I'm getting the hang of it, but one thing continues to mix me up, and that is the way the throttle and gear shifting work.

There's two levers on my boat. One for the throttle, and one for the transmission. The throttle does not have a stop. I shut my engine down by just pulling the throttle all the way back. I can't shift unless I keep it at 1100 rpm or less. So in tricky docking situations, it's really mentally taxing. For example, if I'm approaching a dock and I want to stop way I have to pull back to idle, shift to REVERSE, then push FORWARD on the throttle to apply force BACKWARD. If I want to stop going BACKWARD I then have to pull the throttle Backward to find idle so I can then shift to FORWARD where all the throttle mapping is then reversed. If I'm shifting in and out of gears adjusting thrust around a busy marina in dicey situations this configuration really makes me sweat.

Does anyone else have such a setup? Is there a trick to mastering this?
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