PilotWolf
Well-Known Member
We had one for everything. Given to all new hires to read for their benefit as well as the boats.
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Boat Operating Instructions
- Thread starter LadyInBed
- Start date
Spirit (of Glenans)
Well-Known Member
The club/sailing school to which I belonged had two boats used for cruising courses, a Beneteau First 31 and a Dufour Classic 30 which I now own. When I was learning to sail on these boats, the instructors were volunteers, only there for a week , some Irish, some French, some British, who might not necessarily have sailed on these boats previously, in which case they would be given a verbal briefing/handover by the Base Manager. Said Base Manager him/herself might have only have arrived very recently, the personnel changed constantly.
The upshot was, that trainees were briefed at the start of each course, and one of the items near the top of the list was ; "Engine off, fridge off, engine on Fridge on", i.e.when the engine was switched on, the circuit breaker marked "Fridge" was also to be switched on. Unfortunately, having victualled the boat for a full week's meals, we always found that the meat started to stink by Day 3.
Only after I bought my boat, I found that there was no refrigeration equipment wired to the "Fridge On" switch!
So, yes, a writen manual with instructions for all systems is definitely a necessity.
The upshot was, that trainees were briefed at the start of each course, and one of the items near the top of the list was ; "Engine off, fridge off, engine on Fridge on", i.e.when the engine was switched on, the circuit breaker marked "Fridge" was also to be switched on. Unfortunately, having victualled the boat for a full week's meals, we always found that the meat started to stink by Day 3.
Only after I bought my boat, I found that there was no refrigeration equipment wired to the "Fridge On" switch!
So, yes, a writen manual with instructions for all systems is definitely a necessity.
Momac
Well-Known Member
Are boats really that complicated ? My first and present boats came with written manuals that I have not looked at since day 1 .
I didn't get any sort of handover when I bought my present boat but I figured it all out within a leisurely few hours. Maybe a few discoveries came later but none of any great significance.
More often than not I do the engine checks and leave the boat ready to go next time out . Just step on board , remove canvas covers , start the engine, remove the shore power cable (I did forget that once) undo the ropes, and off we go. Not enough to require a written list. Routine engine checks are hardly rocket science.
Chartered a yacht in Greece with friends - we did receive a handover which took perhaps half an hour. The hardest part was lighting the gas hob as the marks indicating which knob did what were worn off. We were under sail within about two hours of stepping on the boat.
Things not being wired to switches , as mentioned above, may be quite common . eg my VHF was not wired to the breaker marked vhf. But it is now.
I didn't get any sort of handover when I bought my present boat but I figured it all out within a leisurely few hours. Maybe a few discoveries came later but none of any great significance.
More often than not I do the engine checks and leave the boat ready to go next time out . Just step on board , remove canvas covers , start the engine, remove the shore power cable (I did forget that once) undo the ropes, and off we go. Not enough to require a written list. Routine engine checks are hardly rocket science.
Chartered a yacht in Greece with friends - we did receive a handover which took perhaps half an hour. The hardest part was lighting the gas hob as the marks indicating which knob did what were worn off. We were under sail within about two hours of stepping on the boat.
Things not being wired to switches , as mentioned above, may be quite common . eg my VHF was not wired to the breaker marked vhf. But it is now.
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
I'm coming to it from the point of view that say, in these uncertain times, something happened to me. Then my daughter and son in law, who can both sail but only have a nodding acquaintance with my boat, had to take it over or sell it. Rather than them having to go through the learning curve that I had the time to do, they could step on and get things going.
Unfortunately the boat was home completed and is a bit complicated, as I said previously, it has 24v and 12v DC systems, so knowing what is on which circuit is a good start. I had a handover (20 years ago now) but no 'User Manual'. It wasn't too much of an issue having sailed a fair bit and being a practical sort of person, but I would like to think that the next owner had an easier start point.
Momac
Well-Known Member
Other than my wife my family have no particular interest in boating and would have no clue about how to operate a boat. So, in that respect, its probably safer not to have any sort of operating manual.
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
The process side of me wants to but the leisure side says stuff that. I go sailing to get away from that sort of regimentation.
A Story
A friend had a boat in Piteneeem, about 41’, motor boat, wooden, open back for fishing. His father, ancient when I met him in the 1990’s, was a boat builder, retired from Miller’s.
He helped his son renovate his motorboat but refused to add any labels to the switch panel or anywhere else. His reason was that in the dark the crew should know where everything is and what everything does. I think the boat was called Excelsior.
A Story
A friend had a boat in Piteneeem, about 41’, motor boat, wooden, open back for fishing. His father, ancient when I met him in the 1990’s, was a boat builder, retired from Miller’s.
He helped his son renovate his motorboat but refused to add any labels to the switch panel or anywhere else. His reason was that in the dark the crew should know where everything is and what everything does. I think the boat was called Excelsior.
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
I would have thought that a new owner might appreciate it.
pvb
Well-Known Member
I think that's very true. As posted earlier, I produced a manual for my old HR352, detailing everything, with captioned photos. The buyers were very grateful. There's so much detail that they wouldn't have taken it all in during a brief handover. As an example, here's the captioned pic for the fuel tank connection plate...
Momac
Well-Known Member
There is a manual with my boat and also I have file with data for a number of items added , all the fuel and oil filter part numbers etc and I have the manual for the chart plotter and AIS and VHF . Engine manuals are available online. What more could possibly be required? Its hardly exciting reading and most things are done by inspection with some back up from the interweb including forums such as this.
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
Ah! the joys of an AWB
Simon 420
Well-Known Member
Being a newbie to boating 15 months ago, I was pleased to find a photocopy of a manual on our boat when rooting through all the papers that had been left by the previous owner. The trouble is, though, that it doesn't have very much detail (far less than a car operating manual), so in many respects isn't actually very much help
We have a very friendly boat engineer who likes to talk, and wife who is an avid iPhone video maker. So whenever we can collar Alex (whose boat is moored about 40 yards away) I try to sneak in a few questions and he is always happy to show us – recorded by wife for future reference.
We have a very friendly boat engineer who likes to talk, and wife who is an avid iPhone video maker. So whenever we can collar Alex (whose boat is moored about 40 yards away) I try to sneak in a few questions and he is always happy to show us – recorded by wife for future reference.