Backing
- Thread starter Arthur Bricker
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
It is 95% easier to mount the dock in forward as apposed to reverse .This rule was made after several bad accidents and as a prevention this rule has been applied .
Australia has become a bloody nanny control country for control on safety issues there is a massive industry formed just to look after safety either work place or----------
dhays
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I am afraid I still don't understand. "Mount the dock"?
cappy208
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Every one has been chiming in with their thoughts which pretty much concur. I will add one more thing to bring into the equation.
You mentioned 'a slip'. It's one thing if it's your slip, with lines ready, and you know where the downwind pile will be. (So you don't blow down on the boat across from you). But you have to make a quick assessment of its a new slip to you if there is any piling between you and the down wind slip, Or if there's 30' of gleaming topside and plexiglass Windows to crack on the neighbor. Each will help you decide whether to try the back in or head in.
Sometimes it's not what your boat can do, but what's around you that makes your decision for you.
You mentioned 'a slip'. It's one thing if it's your slip, with lines ready, and you know where the downwind pile will be. (So you don't blow down on the boat across from you). But you have to make a quick assessment of its a new slip to you if there is any piling between you and the down wind slip, Or if there's 30' of gleaming topside and plexiglass Windows to crack on the neighbor. Each will help you decide whether to try the back in or head in.
Sometimes it's not what your boat can do, but what's around you that makes your decision for you.
kelbylinn
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Bow in works for us for all the reasons stated including dinghy on stern and privacy. Plus it is just darn easier going in and backing out. I have twins now but did have a single previously and finally figured out the prop walk thing.
markpierce
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Besides the bow burgee, I check the wind-direction indicators of nearby sailboats.
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O C Diver
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I actually prefer stern in. Have a much better view of what's going on because of my stern docking station. Bow seems to follow wherever the stern goes. Access to the dock is usually better off the swim platform than the pilothouse doors.
If I want privacy on my back deck, I won't be in a marina. Privacy and marina are mutually exclusive terms.
Ted
If I want privacy on my back deck, I won't be in a marina. Privacy and marina are mutually exclusive terms.
Ted
markpierce
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My burgee is made of silk, making it a good indicator of wind direction because of its lack of stiffness.
FF
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Stern To makes getting off and on quite simple , at the price of a total loss of privacy.
One is on display in the cockpit , and many boats have glass sliders that allow a great dock view , almost to the anchor locker.
I think the folks down under should require a professional backing pilot for every marina docking.
Would be even safer.
One is on display in the cockpit , and many boats have glass sliders that allow a great dock view , almost to the anchor locker.
I think the folks down under should require a professional backing pilot for every marina docking.
Would be even safer.
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That, I think is the real issue here. There are no Brownie Points from backing in, and as I see it, the only reason not to go bow in which is much simpler, quicker, and easier, would be if you can't access the boat easily from the finger to the stern or side gate. If you can access the boat easily when bow in, then why bother jiggling and wiggling, backing and filling, and stressing oneself out, just to prove you can, because it is not a competition, and you will be extremely unlikely to encounter a need to use this technique when out there and not berthing, especially with a single and no thruster. I'm certainly not too proud to berth bow in, and as PSNeeld says, the privacy is better bow in.
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mbevins
Guru
Simple thing but the first thing I do when entering a harbor is survey all the flag poles I can see.
psneeld
Guru
The problem with any wind indicator that isn't where you are....it isn't where you are 
....
or necessarily the slip if looking too early. Sometimes the wind can be quite different, even 180 if coming over tall buildings.
Another huge mistake is thinking the wind as more effect than the current.
Often I see people ignoring say a knot of current and concentrating on making their approach into the wind of say 10 knots which is where it becomes pretty apparent most boaters. So a line is tossed, made fast and before you know it they are swapping ends and wondering why.
....or necessarily the slip if looking too early. Sometimes the wind can be quite different, even 180 if coming over tall buildings.
Another huge mistake is thinking the wind as more effect than the current.
Often I see people ignoring say a knot of current and concentrating on making their approach into the wind of say 10 knots which is where it becomes pretty apparent most boaters. So a line is tossed, made fast and before you know it they are swapping ends and wondering why.
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dhays
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Yesterday I embarrassed myself. I was coming into a yacht club outstation and the wind was blowing about 15kts. There is a narrow entrance between a couple docks then a square area. I wanted to come in, and then turn around to starboard and then dock. Plenty of fellow club members came off their boats to catch a line.
The wind was coming directly towards where I stood to take this picture. You can see the entrance on the left. My boat's is stern to the camera.
I came in and started to turn to starboard. Normally the boat turns nicely that direction backing and filling, but as I got beam to the wind, it really didn't want to swing all the way around. The wind was blowing me towards the dock where I stood to take the picture. With a bit of patience, a bit more throttle than I like, and a lot of backing and filling it finally was able to get to bad into the wind so I could dock where I had wanted, where you can see me now. Not the smoothest, and with an audience.
The wind was coming directly towards where I stood to take this picture. You can see the entrance on the left. My boat's is stern to the camera.
I came in and started to turn to starboard. Normally the boat turns nicely that direction backing and filling, but as I got beam to the wind, it really didn't want to swing all the way around. The wind was blowing me towards the dock where I stood to take the picture. With a bit of patience, a bit more throttle than I like, and a lot of backing and filling it finally was able to get to bad into the wind so I could dock where I had wanted, where you can see me now. Not the smoothest, and with an audience.
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No need to be embarrassed. Just disembark declare it an unannounced yacht club lesson and ask who took notes.
Xsbank
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Having read this thread, I would also like to add that sometimes, what you want to do is just not possible with a single and no bow thruster. My boat has a very light bow and if the wind is blowing, without sufficient way the bow will swing across the wind quickly and I need lots of power to try and save it. Once, departing a fuel dock, I couldn't catch it (25 knots wind) and the bow came across and smacked a steel piling that was anchoring the barge. The combination of a aluminum boat and a steel piling connecting got the crew out of the fuel dock in a hurry and they helped fend me off until I could get pointed where I wanted to go. I could not control the bow and should have departed with a larger handful of power.
Fortunately, no dents. None of the dents on my boat have my name on them yet but it shows how hard you have to hit something to leave a mark. My old lump has had a hard life.
Fortunately, no dents. None of the dents on my boat have my name on them yet but it shows how hard you have to hit something to leave a mark. My old lump has had a hard life.
dhays
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Lol, I like that approach.
Hurrying Nowhere
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Clearly you're not Canadian, because you didn't add the necessary 'Hold my beer EH'.......
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Another thing to always keep in mind, David Hays and Hurrying Nowhere, is the amazing sideways kick you can get with a single by getting just a bit of stern way on in reverse, then, by putting the helm hard over in the direction you want the bow to go, slipping it quietly through neutral to forward gear, then giver her a good old rev-up. The sternway momentum gives the prop then something to get its teeth into, and the deflecting effect of the rudder hard over kicks the stern around beautifully. If that's not enough to then get in the direction you want to go, then you just repeat the above x number of times, with another quiet reverse, (you don't even need to alter the rudder because it will have no effect in slow reverse), then another burst in forward gear, and Bob's yeruncle, you're good. That is why bow in berthing is so much easier, because you are more manoeuvrable going forward into a berth, but backing out into the fairway is just that - one direction backwards, then some of what I described above. Once I twigged to that manoeuvre, all thoughts of needing to go to the expense of a thruster went out the window... 
Another thing to always keep in mind, David Hays and Hurrying Nowhere, is the amazing sideways kick you can get with a single by getting just a bit of stern way on in reverse, then, by putting the helm hard over in the direction you want the bow to go, slipping it quietly through neutral to forward gear, then giver her a good old rev-up. The sternway momentum gives the prop then something to get its teeth into, and the deflecting effect of the rudder hard over kicks the stern around beautifully. If that's not enough to then get in the direction you want to go, then you just repeat the above x number of times, with another quiet reverse, (you don't even need to alter the rudder because it will have no effect in slow reverse), then another burst in forward gear, and Bob's yeruncle, you're good. That is why bow in berthing is so much easier, because you are more manoeuvrable going forward into a berth, but backing out into the fairway is just that - one direction backwards, then some of what I described above. Once I twigged to that manoeuvre, all thoughts of needing to go to the expense of a thruster went out the window...
Thrusts are akin to fly bridges once you have one there's no looking back
dhays
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Another thing to always keep in mind, David Hays and Hurrying Nowhere, is the amazing sideways kick you can get with a single by getting just a bit of stern way on in reverse, then, by putting the helm hard over in the direction you want the bow to go, slipping it quietly through neutral to forward gear, then giver her a good old rev-up. The sternway momentum gives the prop then something to get its teeth into, and the deflecting effect of the rudder hard over kicks the stern around beautifully. If that's not enough to then get in the direction you want to go, then you just repeat the above x number of times, with another quiet reverse, (you don't even need to alter the rudder because it will have no effect in slow reverse), then another burst in forward gear, and Bob's yeruncle, you're good. That is why bow in berthing is so much easier, because you are more manoeuvrable going forward into a berth, but backing out into the fairway is just that - one direction backwards, then some of what I described above. Once I twigged to that manoeuvre, all thoughts of needing to go to the expense of a thruster went out the window...
You are exactly right and I have been doing this with my boat. I first started doing that with my sailboat as I was the same length but no thrusters. Lots of prop walk. The NP has less prop walk than my sailboat and a lot more sail area.
Today leaving the dock the wind had come up blowing strongly from my port stern quarter. I was able to use the technique you describe to get the stern away from the dock and then get the bow pointed towards the opening.
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Thrusts are akin to fly bridges once you have one there's no looking back
Sorry, Gaston. Bad choice of simile. I have a flybridge, and could part with it in a breath. Then I'd have more room for solar panels.
And...wait for it...a pic of Karkeenez Coote is about to appear, I'll wager. Don't you disappoint me now, Mark...
Sorry, Gaston. Bad choice of simile. I have a flybridge, and could part with it in a breath. Then I'd have more room for solar panels.
And...wait for it...a pic of Karkeenez Coote is about to appear, I'll wager. Don't you disappoint me now, Mark...
SNAP I have 2 x 120w flexible solar panels on my hard top and thinking of painting it yellow as long as I cant see it
Hurrying Nowhere
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cappy208
Guru
This is how it looks on the bow of Moi Bateaux.
This is the model for stem mounting. Although I was a bit taken back by the looks at first it has grown on me. A few tight turn arounds and I like it. But, in all honesty, when it craps out I'm just going to remove it. They have all installation holes above the waterline. Easy to install and uninstall.
markpierce
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Boatyard workers backed into the slip in my absence. So, it can be done without a flying bridge.
(Someone please move the sailboat so I can depart.)
(Someone please move the sailboat so I can depart.)
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CPseudonym
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Love the new cover for the Trinka Mark.
My first time seeing it.
My first time seeing it.
markpierce
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The cover has been installed since before the dinghy has been on the Coot. Craig, you're not paying sufficient attention!
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