helm positions

1/ dont have a super tanker or motor bike.
2/If two engines Bow thrusters are crap.
3/Abs is crap if
you can drive. Usefull if you cant. But totaly crap whatever in snow!!

Golf!!! A bloke wacking a ball about a field!! No. No comment about that!!



<hr width=100% size=1> No one can force me to come here. I'm a volunteer!!.

Haydn
 
Are bowthrusters crap?

I would agree that stern thruster is hardly necessary on a shaft drive boat becuase it does virtually nothing you cannot already do with the two props. But a bow thruster lets you do things that are impossible just by using the props. Even you Haydn cannot hold a flybridge boat stationary sideways on to the wind, with no downwind drift, without a bowthruster

I spect you will reply saying you have no reason to hold it against a cross wind, maybe you dont where you sail but we do!

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Re: Are bowthrusters crap?

No Problem. Take the boat to the endevered position. They lassoo boat or they dont. TRy again. Eventually the wankere will get it. Boat is held by bows. The rest is easy and needs no comment by me.

<hr width=100% size=1> No one can force me to come here. I'm a volunteer!!.

Haydn
 
Re: Are bowthrusters crap?

If the deck crew are any good, they will have lassoo'd the cleat firt time round. If not back out and give them holly shite if they dont get it second time round.

<hr width=100% size=1> No one can force me to come here. I'm a volunteer!!.

Haydn
 
Re: Are bowthrusters crap?

OK, but what if there's no land at the front of the boat, let alone a cleat to lassoo? Eg reversing into a tight stern-to berth, with a cross wind?

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One point which has not been mentioned is safety. I would have thought that centre or stb helm location wld be better from the point of view of seeing wot's coming at you from the right.

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I always understood that offset helm positions should be to starboard, as this is the stand on, or give way side. ie. You have better view of vessels 'seeing green' same with aircraft.

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Re: Are bowthrusters crap?

I thought you all dropped the anchor in the med when backing into a hole??

Not totally against bow thrusters, the barge is nearly unmanagable without one ferinstance. Just sick of folks ramming there arse end into me whilst trying to go out forwards, instead of backing out like normal folks.

<hr width=100% size=1> No one can force me to come here. I'm a volunteer!!.

Haydn
 
"are left-handed throttles the norm on Italian boats? "

No .... have Italian boat with Four levers at each position ... Two with black handles (Gear) and two with red (Throttle). All handles to Starboard of helms & with the throttles to the far Starboard.

Lower helm to Starboard and upper helm in the middle.

<hr width=100% size=1>Regards,

Alf
 
Re: droping anchor in med

erk, don't do that. Mostly, there's a line to be picked up on the shore which leads to a big massive line and chain out in the fairway. Only a very few western med stern-to mooring places need anchor out. Anchors is more eastern med like greece where thery don't have bowlines sorted (or plumbing)

The bowthruster is qwite good for trimming how the boat goes into the slot. When you are familiar with how a partic boat does this, you can sort of get it going backwards nicely towards the slot, and of course you could just sort it from there with 2 engines but if you use the engines alone to adjust orientation too much then you "check" the rearward motion, at which point it ends up either coming out, or twisting in the slot. So bowthruster adjusts the orientation and allows it to continue backwards nicely and gently.

Bowthruster also needed for turning the boat when there's loads of splayed chain off everyone's bows, and no room forward to get props well clear, hence need to gun it forward and stop props as get just clear, then nnnnnnnn to turn into tight fairway.

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Re: Are bowthrusters crap?

I agree with that @rse bit Haydn People think the bowthruster moves the bow left and right. Well it does, but it also rotates the boat around a point about 1/3 way from stern. So leftwards bowthruster turns the boat anticlockwise and moves the @rse of the boat rightwards. To move the boat purely sideways you need to use an engine or two (propwalkily) at the same time as the bow thruster

As tcm says, anchors not used much in western med. Lazy lines and ground tackle are used to hold the bow

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Re: droping anchor in med

Agree with you about using the thruster to turn the boat when leaving a stern-to mooring. Its too easy to get your neighbour's bowlines wrapped around your prop which then of course catapults the stern of your boat into your neighbours boat. Seen it happen a couple of times this year. I have to confess also to getting one of my own lazy lines around my props recently- luckily it just shredded and didnt wrap round the prop
We stayed in Ibiza in August in the Club Nautico and there are no bowlines in some of the visitor moorings so you need to drop anchor in the fairway. I was amazed how solid the boat was even in a F6 wind on the nose which blew for 2 days. Interesting to see the mooring techniques of some of the trip boats as well. They have their anchor chain wrapped around a bloody great winch at the sterm. They approach the mooring bows to at what appears to be maximum speed, the bloke at the back drops the anchor about 50m out and lets the winch run until the boat is about 5m from the shore when he yanks the clutch tight which stops the boat dead in the water which has the effect of creating an enormous wave which swamps the punters waiting on the shore to get on. Actually, there seems to be some sort of competition between the skippers as to how big a wave could be created. I do wonder whether the winches ever break or are torn out of the deck and how many punters would be taken out when the trip boat mounted the shore

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Thanks, Alf. I was beginning to wonder! US boats typically also have 4 levers, two either side of the helm; pt gears, stbd throttles. So I wondered if Pauline had mixed up pt and stbd or left and right/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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Well I do not understand!

My boat has lower helm to Stbd and upper helm to port - I can see down the hatch when manouvering.

Fixed wind aircraft has capt in left hand seat - Helicopters have man in right hand seat! So whats the green light logic?

The bow thruster debate is interesting as I reckon in F3 and under you do not need it and mine is too underpowered at F4 and above when getting into a tight stern mooring in gusting wind and trying to control bow swinging off intended track!

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