Berthing article in MBY

[Mike k]

Now I know Mendez can drive a boat. So the edit must have mucked it up but when they write an article like this they need to get it right.

Picture 5. A touch of port astern will pull the stern to port. No it wont! Other statements get it right but if you are trying to learn from the article it needs to be consitently correct.

genuine question here ........but the prop wash on my single shaft means when going astern it pulls the stern to port- is this different on a twin prop?

 

[Hurricane]

With the minor size of my boat, I have found visual signals work fine (from SWMBO)
-sharp turning of head =WHAT did you just say?
_hands on hips in good humour= you are making a right mess of this
-hand on hips (aggressive)=one more ********* word and this boat hook isnt going to be used for mooring the boat
-hand on hips and extended eye contact= it is going to be cheaper just to bash the boat than continue this discussion
-waving of hand in various motions= well, I ve still not understood what this means
I am sure that having a larger boat risks loosing this marital closeness ?

There are some headsets marketed in the US called "Marriage Savers"
No use, IMO, because they are fully ear enclosed headsets.

 

[MapisM]

genuine question here ........but the prop wash on my single shaft means when going astern it pulls the stern to port- is this different on a twin prop?

I suppose you mean prop walk rather than wash, anyway yes, single engine boats normally use a r/h prop, and that pushes the stern to port in reverse.
The same effect works also with twin screw boats, BUT the port prop is l/h, so it pushes the stern to stbd when reversing (and the other way round for stbd prop, which is r/h). Additionally, there's the obvious effect of asymmetrical thrust, of course.

 

[MapisM]

some strong snatches on the lines (from thrust + swell) produced crack's around the stern fairleads on both sides

Sorry to hear that, B. Didn't you suffer a similar damage also in Toulon?
Btw, the s/steel fairleads in BA look VERY solid externally...
...they must have underestimated the strength needed for the internal wooden structure supporting them, I reckon.

 

[Mike k]

I suppose you mean prop walk rather than wash, anyway yes, single engine boats normally use a r/h prop, and that pushes the stern to port in reverse.
The same effect works also with twin screw boats, BUT the port prop is l/h, so it pushes the stern to stbd when reversing (and the other way round for stbd prop, which is r/h). Additionally, there's the obvious effect of asymmetrical thrust, of course.

thanks for that explanation- never knew that. Cheers. Mike

 

[AndieMac]

With the minor size of my boat, I have found visual signals work fine (from SWMBO)
-sharp turning of head =WHAT did you just say?
_hands on hips in good humour= you are making a right mess of this
-hand on hips (aggressive)=one more ********* word and this boat hook isnt going to be used for mooring the boat
-hand on hips and extended eye contact= it is going to be cheaper just to bash the boat than continue this discussion
-waving of hand in various motions= well, I ve still not understood what this means
I am sure that having a larger boat risks loosing this marital closeness ?

haha, love this post, very clever!

Just read this out to my wife, sitting on our boat (our season in early stages yet ) ........had a good laugh!

 

[AndieMac]

yes,
just one or two snatches correctly dosed wan't do any harm,
but this summer in one occasion, in a Port moored stern too quay,
during the night with thunderstorm, a VERY big swell coming in to the Port, got the bow anker to release, (even after a second redrop earlyer that day,)
we had to put the engines in FWD, to keep the boat away from the quay, during almost 30 minutes.
some strong snatches on the lines (from thrust + swell) produced crack's around the stern fairleads on both sides,
another todo job on the list for this winter

That's a lot of pressure over a long time even on calm water Bart, let alone the kind of oscillating effect the swell would have caused as well.

 

[Nauti-lass John]

I thought that berthing was more difficult than casting off. According to the beeb, even this can go wrong!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-29976646

 

[BartW]

I suppose you mean prop walk rather than wash, anyway yes, single engine boats normally use a r/h prop, and that pushes the stern to port in reverse.
The same effect works also with twin screw boats, BUT the port prop is l/h, so it pushes the stern to stbd when reversing (and the other way round for stbd prop, which is r/h). Additionally, there's the obvious effect of asymmetrical thrust, of course.

this summer I noticed when a single screw displacement boat was mooring near me, and going in reverse towards the quay, that he needed to turn the rudder fully in the opposite position, to counteract his propwalk, and doing this he almost approached straight to the quay

I never tried, nor tested if this is possible on a planing yacht,
I mean;

is it possible to go in reverse on one engine only, with a planing boat, and compensate for the propwalk and asymmetrical thrust with the rudder, (as the rudder is small and has very little to no effect in reverse) ?
anybody on here ever tried this ?

 

[BartW]

Sorry to hear that, B. Didn't you suffer a similar damage also in Toulon?
Btw, the s/steel fairleads in BA look VERY solid externally...
...they must have underestimated the strength needed for the internal wooden structure supporting them, I reckon.

yes we had that sort of damage, on the outside, the old plywood gunwale started to become week / rotten around the fairlead,
forces on the ropes from strong mistral in Toulon caused the damage.
this was repaired in a yard near Marseille in april,
now we have the same sort of cracking on the inside, also there the plywood needs to be replaced, (job is planned todo around easter 2015)
gradually we'll have a new boat :ambivalence:

 

[kcrane]

Followed Hurricane's advice and have put together a couple of Bluetooth intercom headsets.

I got two of the cheap headsets H recommended (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and dismantled the earpiece to remove all of the electronics, so I had single sided headset with an empty earpiece unit.

I bought two motorcycle bluetooth intercoms (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-...item20efa84533 - which are now unavailable, but there are lots more on eBay, mine were from this Ebay shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/coshine006. They are in China but have UK stock.)

The headset comes with heavy duty velcro to attach the control unit and the speaker/microphone to a bike helmet, so I just used that to attach them to either side of the now empty earpiece on the donor headset.

They're simple to use, just press the on/off button for 6 seconds and they start up with a full duplex intercom between them, 6 seconds again to switch them off. The quality is surprisingly good. Don't know how long the rechargeable battery will last, but as they will only be used 5 mins a day it shouldn't be an issue.

Well done Hurricane

 

[Hurricane]

Followed Hurricane's advice and have put together a couple of Bluetooth intercom headsets.

I got two of the cheap headsets H recommended (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and dismantled the earpiece to remove all of the electronics, so I had single sided headset with an empty earpiece unit.

I bought two motorcycle bluetooth intercoms (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-...item20efa84533 - which are now unavailable, but there are lots more on eBay, mine were from this Ebay shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/coshine006. They are in China but have UK stock.)

The headset comes with heavy duty velcro to attach the control unit and the speaker/microphone to a bike helmet, so I just used that to attach them to either side of the now empty earpiece on the donor headset.

They're simple to use, just press the on/off button for 6 seconds and they start up with a full duplex intercom between them, 6 seconds again to switch them off. The quality is surprisingly good. Don't know how long the rechargeable battery will last, but as they will only be used 5 mins a day it shouldn't be an issue.

Well done Hurricane

I charged mine when I first got them in September - then took them to Spain - used them about half a dozen times - brought them home.
And there was no sign of the battery running out.
Just re-charged them and put them away.

I think you will agree, the quality of the sound is really good.
In fact, SWMBO asked to turn the volume down.
I wasn't shouting - honest!!

 

[kcrane]

I think you will agree, the quality of the sound is really good.
In fact, SWMBO asked to turn the volume down.
I wasn't shouting - honest!!

Yep, the sound is good, better than a telephone, as is the duplex, there doesn't seem to be any drop-out when two people talk at the same time - which is par for the course with SWMBO and me