Does Anyone Use Cockpit Controls?

I've got a new boat under contract which has poor sightlines to the stern, but has a set of cockpit controls, presumably for docking.

A guy at the marina told me that the former owner (recently passed away), never used the cockpit controls, but that his wife stood in the cockpit with the remote thruster controls and positioned the boat when docking stern to.

I've seen similar comments on TF from owners that have cockpit controls but don't use them.

Does anyone have cockpit controls and use them with any regularity?

Hard to anyone to imagine a boat with cockpit controls and poor sight lines NOT using them. In all my pro experience...any boat with them, the captain generally used them when docking stern into a slip.

But like all docking sequences, so much variation in experience from newbies to old salt can vary techniques quite a bit.

I would learn to use them unless the boat handled so weirdly that the bow is out of sight and control by using cockpit controls.

We have cockpit controls but have never had the correct situation for using them. I would like to however the fairway to our slip has a current at other than slack tides and I am not comfortable either leaving the flybridge or pilothouse to get to the cockpit before the current (or wind) pushes us into other boats in their slips. Under different conditions I would likely use them.

wish I had them !

I dock from lower helm so I able to get to lines faster,spring line in particular then stern lines. Cockpit controls would be most helpful while backing into slips to see the swim flatform that is blocked from view. When fishing cockpit control would be useful as well to elimate trips to the lower helm controls. Wish I had them!

I imagine coming down the fairway using the flybridge controls, rotating the vessel 90 degrees from the flybridge, then switching to the cockpit controls to back into the slip.

The boat has a nice stairway from the helm to the rear of the salon, and remote bow and stern thrusters are a plus as well.

There is no current at my home slip, though the wind can be an issue at times.

I have cockpit controls and I use them for both docking and fishing. I find them to be a great feature for the boat.

Docks in many parts of the world are meant to be backed into. Cockpit controls are great for that.

I delivered many boats that had cockpit controls (along with wing stations). Nice feature. After going through the Panama Canal, I remember backing down a fairway in Colon to drop our hired line handler off the stern with four very long warps and large fenders. We departed without touching and headed for Florida.

Yacht tender remote controls have become a nice proxy for hard wired control station. Having seen their battery packs swell and destroy the unit, I'm still partial to hard wired controls like cockpit stations.

Peter

I have a stern docking station on my boat. It consists of the bow thruster control, a jog lever that swings the rudder through the autopilot, and a single level shift and throttle control.

It's ideal for backing up, backing into a slip, and side tying to starboard. Because of where it's mounted, it's very easy to look down the starboard side of the vessel. Backing into a slip is much easier than estimating where the bow or the sides are. I probably back in over 98% of the time.





Ted

Although my boat has great sight lines by virtue of port and starboard wing stations on the Portuguese bridge, I have, and often use cockpit controls to back into a slip.

My experience with someone else running a thruster is the exact opposite of OP's. When there is wind or current to contend with, my wife positions herself at one of the wing stations and controls the bow thruster (I have no stern thruster) to keep the rest of the boat straight. We have analogized it to the guy that drives the back half of the fire truck.

You see them a lot on sport fish and small to midsize commercial commercial fish boats so there’s got to be a benefit. Think for us the ideal would be to have thrusters, throttle and a camera showing our bow placed on the rear bulkhead of the saloon. Have consistently run into places where the fairway is narrow enough I need the see both bow and stern. Now use the flybridge and a a stern camera with a slight fisheye view. Even with that like headsets and the admiral telling me distances. What I’d really like is what’s in cars and trucks where there’s superimposed graphics so you know distances. Even better would be an overlay of numerical data of solid objects you might hit.
Since parking cars and trucks with a 360 view fabricating a downwards Birds Eye view I only hope at sometime that’s offered for us with small to midsize recreational boats at a reasonable price point.

I don't have cockpit controls but I do have a set of controls in my main cabin. I almost always use the flybridge controls but the set in the main cabin are very useful to hang my hat and coat on. Sometimes binoculars.

pete

Pete Meisinger said:

I don't have cockpit controls but I do have a set of controls in my main cabin. I almost always use the flybridge controls but the set in the main cabin are very useful to hang my hat and coat on. Sometimes binoculars.

pete

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LOL. Pete, you are a curmudgeon. I must have a very similar boat.

Tim

Cockpit controls are great for backing in especially. I watched a lady berth her AT the other day without effort using them. They are quite common on OAs, Nordhavns and Fleming amongst others. So much a newer and higher end boat thing.

Joy sticks are the latest though coordinating shifters and thrusters. Let modern day electronics take over, nothing wrong about that - or is there?

sunchaser said:

Joy sticks are the latest though coordinating shifters and thrusters. Let modern day electronics take over, nothing wrong about that - or is there?

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It's all good until an electronic chip fails and you're playing bumper boats because you lack the skill set to do it manually.

The best shows in town are free. A boat owner at my marina in Florida has five 350 HP outboards, bow and stern thruster on a 35' center console. All the outboards turn independently with the joystick. He can't get it into a 50' slip without people fending him off the finger pier and the pilings. Some of the most pathetic docking I've ever seen.

A monetary solution (throwing $$$ at it) seldom cures inexperience or operator error.

Ted

My personal impression of the joysticks is that they're hard to operate smoothly. Everything becomes very much a jerky, over-controlled mess of "go, stop, turn, back, stop" rather than smooth transitions between actions. And there's often way too much throttle involved. Then there's the issue of not understanding how the boat moves and responds to different inputs, in which case the operator will end up doing a mediocre at best job with the joystick and is totally lost without it.

rslifkin said:

My personal impression of the joysticks is that they're hard to operate smoothly. Everything becomes very much a jerky, over-controlled mess of "go, stop, turn, back, stop" rather than smooth transitions between actions. And there's often way too much throttle involved. Then there's the issue of not understanding how the boat moves and responds to different inputs, in which case the operator will end up doing a mediocre at best job with the joystick and is totally lost without it.

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There are two types, Non-Follow-Up (NFU) and Follow-up. No jerkiness problem with mine since the speed at which the rudders turns is varies based upon to how far the lever is turned. Turn it just a little, the rudders move slowly. No need for anything to be jerky. The only difficulty is re-centering the rudders (since returning the stick to mid-position merely stops further movement of the rudders), but that problem is easily solved with a rudder angle indicator.

MYTraveler said:

There are two types, Non-Follow-Up (NFU) and Follow-up. No jerkiness problem with mine since the speed at which the rudders turns is varies based upon to how far the lever is turned. Turn it just a little, the rudders move slowly. No need for anything to be jerky. The only difficulty is re-centering the rudders (since returning the stick to mid-position merely stops further movement of the rudders), but that problem is easily solved with a rudder angle indicator.

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Yes, for jog sticks that's correct. The jerkiness comes in with the fully integrated joystick controls that handle all of your steering, engine shifting, and throttle application in close quarters.

rslifkin said:

Yes, for jog sticks that's correct. The jerkiness comes in with the fully integrated joystick controls that handle all of your steering, engine shifting, and throttle application in close quarters.

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Thanks for the clarification. I never made the distinction and stand corrected.

I made this pod for cockpit gears, trolling valves and a autopilot jog stick.

gear pod 052523.jpg

In a related question, has anyone experience with DockMate controls?

wfleenor said:

In a related question, has anyone experience with DockMate controls?

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Yes, I have DockMate. For me, it was fairly steep learning curve.
It has bow and stern thruster and fwd and aft ‘crawel speed’’
Not too shabby when single handing..

I have cockpit controls and have done on several boats. Wouldn't be without them. Spent a few years in the Med where stern to is every day. In Atlantic Europe I now always take the boat in stern first. Great view of where you are going and if it all goes pear shaped easy to get out of trouble. If there is tide and wind against or across you the boat is much more controlled going in stern first. Bow thruster keeps it under control if needed.

wfleenor said:

In a related question, has anyone experience with DockMate controls?

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I looked at the wireless remote controls and opted to go hard wired. Installed the Glendinning system with 40’ of cable on the remote. I can reach the bow and stern with that length. It is on a CANBUS system so pretty robust. Added benefit when putting the whole system in is the twin engines can be synchronized

I have Cockpit controls but never use it. I installed cameras to see the rear of the boat. Don’t want to have to go down a steep set of stairs from the fly bridge to cockpit in a docking scenario. I also like the view from upstairs while docking and listening to the Admiral view her concerns….

As a follow up, I've begun using the cockpit controls.

Wow. It's a game changer. Without using the thrusters, I was able to easily dock stern-to in moderate wind. Easy to communicate with the crew. Easy to see the stern platform in relation to the dock.

My initial thought was use the flybridge controls to turn the boat within the fairway, and then step down to the cockpit to finish backing into the slip. That proved to be unnecessary. I stopped the boat in the fairway, perpendicular to the slip, and docked using the cockpit controls.

I can see the bow of the boat, looking through the saloon and the front window, but it's really not necessary. As long as the stern is close to the forward pilings in the slip, it's easy to judge the space in front of the boat.

I was considering a backup camera or a Dockmate, but doubt that I'll add either one after using the cockpit controls. And the Eartecs will most likely gather dust, except when weighing the anchor.

My final enhancement for dockside maneuvering will be a remote control for the bow and stern thrusters.

I can understand the benefit of altering the rudder angle from the cockpit while trolling or perhaps on approach to a linear dock but when backing into a slip, whats the point?

I have relatively large rudders at about 5 Sq.Ft. each and leave them at neutral with hands off of the wheel when backing into a slip. At 0.20 knots in reverse, even hard over, the impact of the rudders is almost unnoticeable. The gears on the other hand, even at idle speed have a profound effect on speed and direction of travel.

Those with single engine propulsion may have an entirely different experience.

I back into my home port slip 99% of the time from the flybridge due to better all around visibility despite the fact I have engine, gear and bow thruster controls in the cockpit.

I have engine/shifter controls only. I suppose rudder control could be helpful in picking up a mooring from the cockpit or while trolling, but for now I'm satisfied with just the sticks.

My GB 46 has only upper and lower stations with no thrusters. Coming into a slip stern to, always from the upper station with a plan and a breast-line ready if single handing. Not usually an issue. A cockpit station would be nice, but not necessary.
The Riviera 45 I run has a aft joy stick w/pods. I use it almost always, as the sight lines are not so great from the helm (port side to boot).
When doing deliveries I find that if the boat has a cockpit station (or remote), its for a good reason. Who am I to argue with reason?

If you have them… great, use em. If not, then a few remote cameras are a lot cheaper.

I have a remote for the bow thruster and use my lower controls to secure stern and spring lines. The remote is very handy