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 Dock
Walking by
Dusty Miller
Have you
ever walked your boat? Yes, walked. What this term describes is
moving your vessel in a sideways motion. It’s a great move for those
situations when you have made that perfect parallel landing, but
unfortunately, you are still four to five feet away from the dock.
What do you do?
You can throw a line to the dock and if you are
lucky, there will be another boater at that end to catch it. Alternatively,
you can pick the member of your crew with the best broad jumping
capability, give him (or her) a line, and cross your fingers that
he/she makes it. If neither one of those options suit you, you can
try another approach which is to make your boat go sideways.
To begin, let’s look at the overall concept. If
you take a single screw with a modified V-hull and not too much
draft, you know already that the boat moves all over the place quite
independent of anything that you do. Now, you have to determine
which way the prop is turning. Remember, a righthanded prop turns
counterclockwise when moving forward and, in doing so, causes the
boat to veer to the left when put in gear. When placed into reverse,
the stern will again veer to port. Conversely, if the prop turns
counterclockwise, the boat will move to starboard in forward and
starboard in reverse - for this movement, try to think of a half-moon
concept. Equipped with this information, how should you react?
Let’s consider this scenario. Your dock is to port.
Your propeller is counterclockwise. Start by putting your gear shift
into forward just long enough to create the thrust — then back to
neutral — now into reverse — again neutral — then forward — then
back into neutral. Get the idea? The gearshift movement is forward-neutral-reverse-neutral-forward
and so on in very deliberate steps. Continue with this motion and
you will start to see the vessel begin to move towards the dock.
The shallower the draft, the quicker the reaction. (Top)
Now, let’s consider a boat with twin engines and
a direct drive with each propeller turning inward. To apply the
rules in this situation, what you have to consider is the gear shift
and engine farthest away from the dock since the half-moon concept
will apply here. The movement is forward thrust until you almost
start to move, back to neutral, now into reverse. Keep in mind that
the moment you touch the gear shifts closest to the dock, you will
interrupt the continuity and the flow of the vessel. The idea here
is that the gear shift farthest from the dock brings you to the
dock and the gear shift closest to the dock moves you away from
the dock.
Let’s consider for a moment what you have to do
when leaving the dock with a twin engine. With your boat parallel
to the dock, turn your rudders toward the dock. Take your gear shift
closest to the dock and place it in forward. This takes you away
from the dock without your bow or stern coming in contact with the
dock. The flow of water against the rudders balances the thrust
forward, thus keeping you parallel as you leave the dock.
One final note - the principles described here are
meant to be applied when the winds are not strong and blowing off
the dock. If they are, you will not be able to apply these rules.
We’ll have to go back to the principle of heading towards the dock
and bringing the boat in with thrust and momentum.
(Top)
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