Side stepping

Hello All,


I am owning an Integrity 32 trawler with 2 Volvo Penta 150PS engines for a couple of years now.
Since last year I have a new neighbour in our Harbour in Monnickendam (netherlands) with is very close to Amsterdam. This guy is a sailor but he has worked many years for the Dutch Yaughtbuilder Hakvoort which is building yaughts up to 65 meter.
A few month ago I took him for a ride and after a while he asked me or I know how to "site step" with my boat.
When I asked him for a clarification he explained the following:
With a boat with 2 engines en the ruders in a certain position it should be possible to move the boat sideways without using front or back truster.
I am used to manouver with my 2 engines and can easily point the bow in any direction but pushing the boat sidewards is out of my box with tricks.


Now you would say, did the guy not demonstrate this, no since he is an engineer and never drove any of those big yaughts himself, he only saw the yaught captains doing this trick.


So my question to you, does anybody know this and how does it work?


Thanks Harrie...

Put rudder hard to port. Put port in fwd and stbd in reverse. Then stbd in fwd, port in reverse. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Boat will crab to stbd.

Here in the U.S., we call it the "H" maneuver.

I once docked at a tiny marina near the tall ship Elissa in Galveston. There is one slip in the corner that when I am assigned it I always have to use spring lines to get in. That day I wasn't docked there but another guy came in with an express cruiser with twins. I watched him spin the boat around, back in and crab sideways 20' feet until he was snuggled up in his slip.


Amazing and I saw it done with my own eyes!!



David

a little fwd or aft momentum before shifting rudder helps

Ski in NC said:

Put rudder hard to port. Put port in fwd and stbd in reverse. Then stbd in fwd, port in reverse. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Boat will crab to stbd.

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Leaving the rudder hard to port the whole time I assume?

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

Ski has it...this is how to explain it:

Your starboard engine is probably a RH rotation prop. When in reverse, the rudder doesn't have much effect but the prop walk tends to kick the stern to port, i.e. backing to port.

You now have the stern trying to go to port, you need the bow to do so as well. Steer hard to port with the wheel and put the port engine in forward. Now the bow wants to turn to port, but at the same time the stern is backing to port due to prop walk.

Both forces are trying to move you to port and voila, you are going sideways. Depending on which force is greater, you may need to boost the rpm's a bit on one of the engines so you go directly sideways. For example, if the bow is moving to port faster than the stern you may need to give the reverse (stbd) engine more power to keep up with the bow.

Practice in open water to perfect the technique. Reverse the technique if you need to go to starboard.

Did he have an accent or is there a translation error? Could he have been saying SIDE stepping?

Hi Greg, you are right, it should have been side stepping.
But from the replies I understood that it only works in starboard direction due to the wheel effect of the propellers. Is that correct?

No, with twins it works either way. If you want to go to port, put rudder hard to stb. And no need to change rudder position during this process.

On a lot of twin boats, you don't have to do anything with the engine nearest the dock. Rudder hard over away from the dock, engine way from the dock in and out of forward/reverse. I learned this first hand on a chartered Mainship 430 that lost use of one engine and we continued cruising for 4 more days and several dockings and departures. Squeezing into a spot on the dock at Old Sacramento was one of my all time accomplishments, not that that's saying much.

Came in handy when I had oddball seawall spots with my old Hatteras at the Loggerhead Hollywood and Yacht Haven in FTL, though if I screwed up in that case I had a thruster, which I avoided using just for sport. But give me a "can of corn" landing and I can mess anything up.

The resulting track is fwd-stbd, aft-stbd, fwd-stbd, aft-stbd, (repeat)...like a falling leaf sideways. My boat has counter-rotating props and does it in both directions.

For me, it's hard to execute with the wind blowing me off the dock or a strong tailwind. But then again, maybe it's just me...

It works just as welleither side...on boats that walk,not all boats will. Inboard turning wheels "walk" a lot better than outboard turning wheels.
I think it needs to be practiced near a dock rather than in open water so you can judge progress and limitations of the maneuver.

Some boats do it easily (my old Stamas express did it perfectly) and some don’t because the prop walk is too powerful to make using the rudder useful here. My Viking wont really do it at all.

Let’s say you want to go to the port...
Put hand on bottom of wheel and move your hand the direction you want boat to move (turn wheel to stbd).
Put stbd motor in gear and stern will move to port as boat begins turning to stbd (based on rudder thrust).
You don’t want to turn to stbd though so punish the bow by using port reverse to pull bow back to the port. You usually have to throttle up the reverse.

Try practicing in a double wide slip.

Ski in NC said:

Put rudder hard to port. Put port in fwd and stbd in reverse. Then stbd in fwd, port in reverse. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Boat will crab to stbd.

Click to expand...

ancora said:

Here in the U.S., we call it the "H" maneuver.

Click to expand...

Ski in NC said:

No, with twins it works either way. If you want to go to port, put rudder hard to stb. And no need to change rudder position during this process.

Click to expand...

Sailor of Fortune said:

It works just as welleither side...on boats that walk,not all boats will.

Click to expand...

slipkid said:

Some boats do it easily (my old Stamas express did it perfectly) and some don’t because the prop walk is too powerful to make using the rudder useful here. My Viking wont really do it at all.

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Yeah, I think not all boats will do it all that well, some maybe not at all. We get mixed results with ours; can come close, but it doesn't look all that much like perfectly crabbing sideways to an outside observer.

-Chris

Something for me to practice next summer when waiting for the Ballard lock.

In the past, I've tried this maneuver for fun, but with no success. It was suggested that the Grand Banks keel prohibited side stepping (or "crabbing' or "walking"). That explanation worked for me. Then we had an experienced tug boat skipper ride along one day, and he walked the boat with no trouble at all. Ah well...

"It's a poor carpenter who blames his tools."

Larry

THIS is why I've always denigrated thrusters as being for owners who are not actually interested in boating...

(running and ducking the flying anchors. Oh. Did I mention anchors?)

Now the real question, how to do it with single lol

L

Like the pros do....with a tug boat pushing you to the dock.

FlyWright said:

Like the pros do....with a tug boat pushing you to the dock.

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Lol Always have the wife push you with the tender lol
Seriously on the prop walk side it is doable with forward/reverse switches and rudder on the correct side but on the opposite I would not try it

L