Luck of advanced docking skills?

[bowball]

Or maybe perfect use of port forward starboard reverse and umm bow and stern thrusters! Kidding, but impressive.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CX9eiSThaZt/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

[psneeld]

Skill as in advanced docking skills.

Thrusters probably not used in a manuever like that.... just old fashion timing and handling skills.

 

[bowball]

Skill as in advanced docking skills.

Thrusters probably not used in a manuever like that.... just old fashion timing and handling skills.

I know! I was teasing.

 

[klee wyck]

Or maybe perfect use of port forward starboard reverse and umm bow and stern thrusters! Kidding, but impressive.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CX9eiSThaZt/?utm_medium=copy_link

That vessel certainly appears to me to be jet driven. That is how you drive them and dock them in my experience. No or little keel, no rudder, just the reverse thrust of the jet as you rotate the cover and the slide.
I still own one but have never quite gotten used to it.
When you throw the jet thrust in reverse, the bow sinks as the stern rises-that is the giveaway in this video to me. We could go from 20 knots to zero very quickly in ours as you can haul the momentum out of them very quickly.

 

[Peter B]

Or maybe perfect use of port forward starboard reverse and umm bow and stern thrusters! Kidding, but impressive.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CX9eiSThaZt/?utm_medium=copy_link

At first I thought you had accidentally put a typo in your header, and needed it edited to read 'Lack', not 'Luck'.

However once seen, clearly there is no lack of skill, but I would regard it as pretty silly and over-the-top way to approach a dock, with very expensive, not to mention red faced outcome, if something failed at the last moment. It breaks all the rules for when aproaching something very hard and unyielding, like a dock, does it not..?

PS. The spelling of the word Polis on the side of the vessel, raises thoughts for me of 'Costa Concordia', actually...

 

[BandB]

That vessel certainly appears to me to be jet driven. That is how you drive them and dock them in my experience. No or little keel, no rudder, just the reverse thrust of the jet as you rotate the cover and the slide.
I still own one but have never quite gotten used to it.
When you throw the jet thrust in reverse, the bow sinks as the stern rises-that is the giveaway in this video to me. We could go from 20 knots to zero very quickly in ours as you can haul the momentum out of them very quickly.

We own one jet boat and many jet RIB's and a maneuver like that is something easily done with jets. Not something we'd typically do, but they may have had a reason. Jet docking is all about use of power.

There were some great videos done in the 70's showing how a jet could stop by throwing it in reverse and also showing a jet thrown into reverse and you couldn't then see the front 40% of the boat as it was covered by spray. While they always said you could throw into reverse at any speed, those I knew didn't do so above 40 mph or so.

Another jet trick but only for a properly built one, is to turn it as sharp as possible at speed and it will almost flip around in place. A 360 degree turn can be done in very little area and it will stay flat the entire time.

 

[Art]

Yeah Baby!!

Captain Ron's docking maneuvers!

 

[Art]

 

[Peter B]

We own one jet boat and many jet RIB's and a maneuver like that is something easily done with jets. Not something we'd typically do, but they may have had a reason. Jet docking is all about use of power.

Another jet trick but only for a properly built one, is to turn it as sharp as possible at speed and it will almost flip around in place. A 360 degree turn can be done in very little area and it will stay flat the entire time.

Yes, Brett, that's what they call a 'Hamilton' turn in NZ, where the jet unit was developed by a farmer called Hamilton, who wanted a way to quickly navigate the shallow shingle-bottomed rivers all around his farm. They can literally travel in mere inches of water.

Of course they are now extremely popular as tourist boats all over the world. The hair-raising Hamilton turn was first perfected in the South Island of NZ, near Queenstown, (yeah, and the bungy jump craze), close to where they were invented, by the folk who run tourist rides up the Shotover River and others. They delight in the screams as they appear to be heading for destruction against a rocky crag or overhanging willow, only to do exactly what you described at the last moment, and miss the rock quite widely, but the adrenalin sure surges. Ask me how I know...

 

[Portage_Bay]

Hamilton turn. Ya made me look it up. https://youtu.be/tP2H0vUXHv4 Now I have some idea why I've not mastered jet boat handling.

 

[BandB]

Hamilton turn. Ya made me look it up. https://youtu.be/tP2H0vUXHv4 Now I have some idea why I've not mastered jet boat handling.

Hamilton still big on smaller jets while Kamewa and MJP have the large boat market. Also, in a lot of smaller boats, you now have Yamaha units and BRP with their units. In the US, I know Hinckley still uses Hamilton widely and the builders of tour boats like the one in the video do. Always were dependable.