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 The
Force Of The Wind
by
Dusty Miller
The force of the wind
is always with you and you've got to use it or counteract it to
get where you are going. The other day, I was watching a 28-foot
single engine express cruiser trying to approach a dock. The wind,
which was fairly strong and gusty, was blowing off the dock. The
captain had people on board to assist and assigned one to handle
the bow line and the other to handle the stern line. His fenders
were well placed on the starboard side. So far so good.
The vessel approached the dock on a nice angle,
but when its bow was within four feet of landing, the captain put
the engine in neutral. I guess he was hoping to just coast to the
dock. Unfortunately, the offshore wind quickly stopped the forward
motion of the vessel. The person on the bow was in a dilemma as
to what to do, so, in an animated way, he motioned the captain to
move the vessel ahead toward the dock. The skipper put the engine
back in gear, the boat lurched forward and collided with the dock.
There was no damage, but he hit it hard enough to rattle things
on board. At this point, the vessel was still on the same angle
of approach and the wind continued to push the vessel away. The
man on the bow handed the line to the marina attendant while the
crewman at the stern was trying desperately to coil the line again
and throw it to the dock. He was 30 feet away, and since the line
was too short and underthrown, he missed three times.
As the skipper tried to go forward toward the dock
again, the stern line became tangled in the propeller and that was
the end of the exercise. The crew then brought a longer line from
the stern to the bow and the marina attendants manhandled the boat
into a parallel position against the dock. Fortunately, the line
wasn't badly tangled. They were able to clear the prop quickly and
there was no harm done, except for maybe a scratch in the gelcoat
on the bow and couple of bruises on the captain's dignity.
A good landing in this case would have required
two more steps. First, the captain should have turned the bow away
from the dock to bring the boat parallel. However, in this particular
situation, this would give the offshore wind a larger surface to
blow on and the boat would have blown away from the dock even faster
than it did. But, that's where the second step comes in: momentum.
The captain needed enough forward motion to overcome the force of
the wind, but for an inexperienced boater, it takes a lot of courage
to head straight for the dock with any kind of speed. It's intimidating,
however you have to do it.
The trick lies in the angle of approach. In a nutshell,
the stronger the offshore wind, the closer your angle should be
to 90 degrees. When there's a very strong wind blowing you away
from your landing spot, approach the dock straight on and make your
turn to parallel at the last possible moment. By moving in straight
on, you are giving the wind the smallest possible surface to blow
on and if you turn at the last second, the wind will have the least
amount of time to interfere with the landing. Talking about it is
one thing. Doing it, as I said, can be intimidating.
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You need to practise, as well as have the courage
to look a little foolish a few times. When doing this, you may turn
too soon because you don't want to hit the dock. While the boat
will be perfectly parallel, it will also be too far away because
you didn't gain enough momentum. If that happens, turn away and
try again. Add a little more throttle or turn a little later (closer
to the dock). Keep trying until you get it right.
You might want to add a couple of extra fenders,
particularly along the bow in case you hit the dock if you turn
too late. You won't get it the first time. You probably won't get
it right the fifth time, but if you carry through until you understand
how momentum works against the wind, you'll put another notch in
your boat handling "belt" which means the difference between
being a boater and a floating cottager.
One final point. If you're landing the boat on the
starboard side, your turn is to port. Once you stop moving and you
find the bow is close enough to the dock but the stern is a little
too far, steer toward the dock and give the throttle a "touch
in - touch out" in reverse. In other words, you turn your wheel
to starboard (toward the dock) and shift from neutral into reverse
without adding any throttle. Hold it for a moment until the stern
starts to move toward the dock and immediately shift back into neutral.
If held too long, you will bring the stern in but the bow will pull
away. With twin engines, use only the engine on the outside of the
turn (the starboard side in a turn to port and vice versa). It will
have the greatest effect with the least effort and just "touch
in - touch out" to keep your swings in control.
Boat handling is like getting to Carnegie Hall.
It takes practice... and a little momentum.
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