Thread: Backing
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Old 01-16-2012, 09:37 AM   #35
Nomad Willy
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City: Concrete Washington State
Vessel Name: Willy
Vessel Model: Willard Nomad 30'
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 18,743
Backing

Mr Hawkins,

Beautiful picture of your boat! And I agree ...it's simpler. Any fool knows it's easier to run a boat in a straight line ahead than astern so it seems there are a lot of guys here bragg'in about their abilities to back their boat ......including me. But no mater how much I back my boat I'm never going to tell anyone that backing is as easy as going fwd. So it's amazing how many here on this thread choose the more difficult method to land their boat in their home slip. When I walk the docks (floats) I'm sure that over 80% of boats are bow in. And of the boats I see more of them are twin screw than on this forum but then this is coming from an old man without a thruster on either end and that probably is skewing my take on this. But if I had 15 thrusters I'm sure going bow into a slip would be easier. Going into a slip one can control the bow to a great extent w the stern but getting the stern between the float and the other boat (that one dos'nt want to touch) w little or no control (assuming no thruster) it's an accident waiting to happen. I'm assuming most all the backers here have at least one thruster. The more I think about it .. it really should'nt be much more difficult to back w no wind or current w a bow thruster. Perhaps I should get one but there are other things I want and if I had a thruster I think I'd want a stern thruster. Just say'in.

Eric

Someth'in I forgot to mention is that I think the vast majority of boat slips have a triangular wedge blocking the corner of of the slip so backing in anything but a double ender would only be practical if one had a slip about 3' longer than the boat. An exception to that would be an outboard as most all leave their OB leg in the up position in the slip. Wish they'd do that as that would get a lot of sharp SS props out of the fairway.


-- Edited by nomadwilly on Monday 16th of January 2012 11:45:36 AM
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