Loosing Confidence

I've had my boat for 1 season, and it is a similar size to yours Converging, with twin outdrives. I really struggled to start with, but by the end of the season was reasonably competent. The main difference was that I learnt that you cannot go too slowly, nudging in and out of gear, one drive at a time.

I now find my outdrive boat very manoeuverable. When manoeuvering I never use the steering, keeping the wheel ammidships. Go very slowly, and abort if I feel uncomfortable.

You do get people staring and smirking from thier cockpits, always from the boats that never move!

Anyone who uses their boat, are always very sympathetic, and keen to haul a warp if it is breezy.

Keep practising, you will get there soon.
 
Converging said:
Hi Guys,

The solution is definatly more practice and I have already been offered training by several people at Cardiff. This I will now take up. I did not like to take up their boating time, but it would seem from all the replies I got on this forum, they are going to be as happy as they say they are, to offer tuition.
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Don't feel guilty, take advantage of the offers. My experience of the folks on this forum is that if they offer help and advice, they're mean it, they love being on boats no matter what and why.
 
Get yourself some REALLY serious fenders - you can't beat them! :D

BTW, this what Raggies consider to be a proper wake shot! Minimum disturbance & no wake means a nice slippy hull, easily driven in light winds - and nominal fuel consumption.
 
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2p worth

Converging said:
I recently aquired a sealine 330 statesman as my very first boat.

Despite having two days of formal training, I am finding berthing it a total nightmare. So much so its begining to terrify me to take the boat out.

I am absolutely fine getting it out of the berth and sailing her but the adrenaline and fear kick in big time as I return to the berth.

I am likening this to learning to drive, I remember that was pretty daunting.

I do not fear for my boat but I really do care for the owners of the boats around were I berth.

Is this a usual reaction and will I get over it!!!!!:eek:
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The 33, interesting boat, you need to play loads, 1 tip with them is when planning run the legs at + 1 or so, she will settle very nicely with that.

I recommend you use the helm when turning, , you get a more responsive turn with little power, just an in and out with the gearing on the out side will start the turns, Find an open area with just a buoy and play. use forward and reverse, get to know your new toy.
 
Searush said:
Get yourself some REALLY serious fenders - you can't beat them! :D

BTW, this what Raggies consider to be a proper wake shot! Minimum disturbance & no wake means a nice slippy hull, easily driven in light winds - and nominal fuel consumption.
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There could be an over-compensating issue going on here Searush.....

With the big balls thing :D
 
Much of the time, it's probably not really your fault. Except maybe not knowing the limitations.

I notice most folk seem to back into marina berths. Mostly cos the berths to short, or it's a wife thingy. So you have now made the job ten times more difficult than driveing in and backing out, which is again far more difficult, to drive out rather than back out.

It's a bit like trying to park a car, by going front first into a small gap. It dont work. So you always back in.

Now with a boat, it's tuther way about. Front in Arse out. (If at all possible).

Now you train the crew. One method is best for all occasions, else you'll finnish up having rows and falling out. It's not like being in the navy.

So our method is, drive in. SWMBO lassoos cleat from bow. I get the back end in with engines. No one jumps or leaps about. It's all done slow, it dont matter how long it takes, if it dont work first time, just back out and try again.

Most folks problems are, there doing the wrong thing in the first place. As in car parking.

Do it the easy way.
 
Searush said:
I was wondering how you would know that - then I saw that you are in OZ & can probably see up my trouser leg with your x-ray vision.:rolleyes:

But you should see how my mast sticks up . . . . ;)
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Just because you mentioned it :), there is a bit of a thing going on between yachties with the height of their masts and the diameter of the section, gauge of the rigging....hmmm, I wonder if we have stumbled onto something. :)
 
We have a 310 and it took 12 months for me to work out how to get it into its home berth backwards, even now my neighbours Birchwood TS 37 acts as a solid object to lie against when it gets windy.

There is only 1 way that I have found to do it 100% and that is to drag the anchor on the bottom. my berth has 3 feet between me and my neighbour when we are both tight to the pontoon, the prevailing wind is thankfully on the rear quarter but blowing me off, if it gets strong it trys to blow my bow around the front of the next boat. I have perfected a point and speed that puts me far enough into my berth that I can just lay on next door, fortunately a friend, but if I drop the anchor at the right point I can then drag it back in and the stern drives make light work of it when they are pulling against a bit of resistance.

Approach the berth into wind, drop the anchor and then use the stern drives to turn your stern into the wind and your berth. Would probably be worth checking if your marina has buried any cables before trying this and probably not much good if you have tree roots as opposed to the mud in our marina.

If my Father uses the boat he doesn't even try to get it in, he just drops his crew off at the marina entrance with a rope each and lets them pull it into its berth.

It is also a lot easier forward if it is windy.
 
ian38_39 said:
my berth has 3 feet between me and my neighbour when we are both tight to the pontoon,

Approach the berth into wind, drop the anchor and then use the stern drives to turn your stern into the wind and your berth. Would probably be worth checking if your marina has buried any cables before trying this and probably not much good if you have tree roots as opposed to the mud in our marina.
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Sorry Ian, I don't think this sounds like good advice.

Firstly, with 3 feet between your boats this is not particularly 'tight'. Touching fenders or even interleaved fenders is tight, especially when you only have one more foot than boat length in front of you.

Secondly as you point out, checking to see if there are any cables is crazy. Tree roots, not likely in a man made or dredged environment.

I accept it might work for you bit I think you need a little help yourself, spinning your boat into the prevailing wind is not that difficult as most are more stable with the wind behind.
 
RogerRat said:
Sorry Ian, I don't think this sounds like good advice.

Firstly, with 3 feet between your boats this is not particularly 'tight'. Touching fenders or even interleaved fenders is tight, especially when you only have one more foot than boat length in front of you.

Secondly as you point out, checking to see if there are any cables is crazy. Tree roots, not likely in a man made or dredged environment.

I accept it might work for you bit I think you need a little help yourself, spinning your boat into the prevailing wind is not that difficult as most are more stable with the wind behind.
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I dunno but it doesn't sound like a bad idea at all to me. If there are any cables about in a marina, they are usually marked on the chart and indicated by a sign on the land and since a lot of marinas are dredged anyway, there aren't going to be any underwater obstructions. If it's your home berth, you should probably tell the harbour staff what you are doing but other than that, it seems like a good idea if you've got a particularly awkward berth
 
A thought occurs to me. Shafts are generally regarded as the way to go for easier manouvering. Now, all you clever guys; discuss the difference between a boat with contra rotating props and one with same direction props! I have my coffee here, ready to hear what you think!
 
Years ago, I had a Fairline Phantom 32 of 1974 vintage with out drives, I found the best practice (and the cheapest ,as far as damage is concerned), was to get out in open space, in a tidal situation, find something "soft" floating in the water (such as a lump of seaweed), and use whatever skills you have to approach this with the bow,(so you can still see it),and rotate the boat 360 deg.around it. Not only does this give you the skill of handling your boat, offers wind speed & direction to cope with, but also movement of the target on the tidal stream. I must admit a personal approach was to have the helm always amidships if possible,as even with a helm indicator, when things got tight , to have to look at helm position, register it, and adjust accordingly, it was too late! If you mess it up, there will be another piece of seaweed along shortly!
Hope this helps!
john
 
Bassplayer said:
A thought occurs to me. Shafts are generally regarded as the way to go for easier manouvering. Now, all you clever guys; discuss the difference between a boat with contra rotating props and one with same direction props! I have my coffee here, ready to hear what you think!
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I'd imagine the contra rotating props lack of prop walk to be a major advantage.
 
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