|
 Approach
With Control by
Dusty Miller
I
often think of the big sailing ships back
in the day when they approached the harbours. Keeping in mind there
were no breaks and the whole operation of landing one of these vessels
was based purely on angles and momentum. This meant they only had
one attempt at their approach. But working with the wind, they knew
the angle and speed that would bring them comfortably beside the
dock.
Basically,
this is what we try to do with the powerboats of today-use the wind,
momentum and angles on the approach to bring the vessel in safely
to the dock. It may sound a little difficult now, but when you work
with the elements and anticipate, it gets easier.
To
operate a power vessel of any size or weight you must first develop
control. But what is control? And most importantly where do I get
it?
The
first thing you must understand is there are two forms of control,
perceived and real. The problem is most boaters operate under the
concept of the perceived form of control and have a false sense
of confidence because of this. (Top)
I refer to this as the 50/50 concept. This is when only 50 per cent
of their landings are successful and the other 50 per cent are terrible.
Usually, boaters have no idea why the terrible landings are happening.
Real
control comes from understanding your current surroundings during
the approach and being able to anticipate what the vessel will do
next.
Just
think about it. If you knew what was going to happen to your vessel
before it happened, you could obviously prepare for it and use it
to your advantage.
Imagine
you are in your vessel on the lake just outside your marina and
you're heading for homeport. At this point, you should be going
over the actual landing procedure in your head and piecing all the
parts of the puzzle together that make for a great landing.
Before
you proceed, take the time to ask yourself the following eight questions:
...
(Read full article in the magazine.) (Top)
|
