Manoevring on one shaft at low speed

Montemar

Montemar

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Recently had the pleasure of trying to line up for the Weymouth bridge in a queue at v. low speed on one engine and looked a complete prat. Is there a technique for this? Shaft drive BTW.
 
Montemar said:
Recently had the pleasure of trying to line up for the Weymouth bridge in a queue at v. low speed on one engine and looked a complete prat. Is there a technique for this? Shaft drive BTW.
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It varies from boat to boat. On mine you have to get to 8-9 knots to get steerage on one engine with the rudders. It's then lots of fenders and aim at your berth.
If you have a bowthruster it helps. On mine slow close quarters is simply impossible without it, or complicated springing routines. It is something i practice BTW.
 
My last boat was a semi-d with a keel which had pretty good manouevrability on one shaft at low speeds. But no bowthruster.
 
Each boat is different, and if one engine is out of commission, then it can be a bit challenging if you are a Modified V, fast planning boat (D and Semi-D usually have bigger rudders, so more responsive to input).

You will find that your propeller will push against your rudder, which means that you may find the boat more responsive to the rudder input just after you have put her out of gear.... so let her swing in off centre before putting her in gear again... and if very slow, use the prop walk in reverse to pull her back in line again...

Our boat is deep V at 1.5M draught, so quite stable at 3.5 knot on one engine, but her very small rudders means that we just about manage to do a slow opposite turn on one engine (easier if we are at speeds above 5 knot).

With one engine out of commission, you will find that doing a 180 degree manoeuvre is easier when mooring... but this of course difficult to signal to boats behind you and people on shore, if you are in a line of boats :).

.... wind makes things a bit more interesting of course ..:)
 
Had the misfortune to do this following an engine overheat a couple of years ago. Had to enter harbour, loiter in the outer harbour whilst other boats got alongside (large cruise in company with a set mooring plan), then enter a narrow channel followed by a 90 degree turn to port to get into the yacht club followed by an immediate 90 degree turn to stbd to get alongside a linear pontoon. All very tricky with one or two hairy moments!

Boat has a planing hull but with a skeg keel so some level of control but not great and to be honest I didn't think too much about what I was doing becasue it tends to be more instinctive than planned (not sure that is a good thing). Basically a combination of using the prop (stbd engine) to do what it usually does in close quarters (moves the bow and stern to port when clicking in and out of gear ahead and astern), rudder (had some steerage but not great and speed wasn't an option) and bow thruster (very quickly flattened the battery so not a lot of help) somehow got us alongside. I agree with Alf inasmuch as I quickly discovered that steerage was better when out of gear so I put a bit of power on followed by steering whilst in neutral. The wind was my enemy whilst loitering in the outer harbour (very nearly on the rocks) and my friend coming alongside the pontoon as it was blowing me on.

Not something I would want to repeat in a hurry although it was part of the YM exam earlier this year so I got to practice in more controlled circumstances :)
 
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Many thanks for all the very useful comments. Boat is a Broom 33 and new to me. It has a planing hull and a small keel.
I will have to practice this based on helpful suggestions AND moral support!
 
Interesting thread. Never thought about it as my one engine fun was on an outdrive boat and other than requiring more thought, given you can swivel the leg it was relative non event.

When I rented river boats for a weekend ( single engine) the main trick was a burst of power to kick the back end round.... which I have not tried on a bigger boat with heaps of horse power at its disposal as opposed to provably 30hp in a river boat. Maybe I will give it a practice go and see what happens ( when away from hard objects!).
 
Montemar said:
Recently had the pleasure of trying to line up for the Weymouth bridge in a queue at v. low speed on one engine and looked a complete prat. Is there a technique for this? Shaft drive BTW.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to a single engine boat, or a twin engine with one not working? Do you have a bow thruster?

If trying to hold position in a queue, it's useful to try and keep the tail end into the wind, so the bow doesn't get caught and swung around, and also learn which way the back end kicks when you give a short burst of fwd or reverse. If you're going to be waiting a while, can you go alongside a moored boat untill there's a clear route through, or could you wait further out where there's more space until you can see an opening?

If you have a bow thruster it should be less of a problem, as you can rotate the boat with it, then use fwd or astern to keep out of the way of other boats.
 
I'm surprised you can't keep the boat straight by counter steering against the steering effect of the engine at any speed. My last 2 boats have done about 7kts at tickover with both engines in gear which is too fast for most marinas (at least according to the yotties who complain about my wake) and I tend to move about marinas on just one engine and using the rudders to keep the boat straight.

Speaking personally I wouldn't speed up just to get more steerage over the rudders because if you get it wrong, you're going to hit something hard. If the boat starts to veer off to one side and you can't control it with the rudders, just go astern on the functioning engine and that should correct any swing to one side.
 
Backing my Merry Fisher 805(one engine, no bow thruster, shaft drive) into my marina space, I find it's best to approach very slowly the stern of the adjacent boat. When about 6 feet off, I bring my stern towards my space by very short forward bursts of power against my deflected rudder. It often works.
 
Many years ago I had an old Freeman 32 with a pair of 108 thorneycrofts, it swung quite big props, I had the misfortune to lose an engine on more than one occasion, if I had sea room or a wide river the only way to set of was to go round in a circle until enough speed was built up then come out of the circuit in a straight line.
 
Having had a couple of single shaft drive boats their steering is superb when the prop shaft is turning with the prop immediately behind a reasonable size rudder you get great steering when power on moving forwards. So as others have said when it comes to close quarter manoeuvrings slipping in and out of gear and turning the wheel prior to putting into gear & applying a little burst of throttle to kick the stern either way depending where you want to go or where the boat is drifting and how you wish to correct it. Then a blip in reverse to stop your forward progress, if you have a bow thruster then you can happily sit in the same place doing this.. and even with a single shaft boat happily move sideways if you wish. It takes practice but when you get it right its actually good fun. I always use this technique when waiting at the fuel pontoon to keep station so you don't lose your place in the queue

However if your Broom is twin shaft and you just had one engine... then ignore my rambling as that will be a handful!

.... best of luck.
 
It is a twin shaft boat and sbd was off after an overheat alarm. Ended up tied to a fishing boat until had the space to get up some speed for steerage. It is the time between standstill and controllable motion that results in the teeth grinding, sweat beading, white knuckle stress I call fun!
 
Montemar said:
Many thanks for all the very useful comments. Boat is a Broom 33 and new to me. It has a planing hull and a small keel.
I will have to practice this based on helpful suggestions AND moral support!
Click to expand...

Similar hull to ours I guess (we have a Broom 41) so they will probably behave in a similar way. Practicing is definitely worthwhile....I hadn't when we had our little mishap because we hadn't owned the boat for long but I am a lot more familiar with her characteristics now :)
 
Master the effect of tide and wind on your boat then prop kick.

If i was you that day I would have played with Prop kick and the strongest element
 
First twin Screw Halmatic 34 no bow or stern thruster, large keel quite easy on one engine if you have the sea room to manoeuvre and light enough 8 tons, crew can push it around by hand / boat hook.

Next Fairline Sedan 36 no bow or stern thruster, no keel very difficult on one engine as the bow got blown away all the time, you needed lots of sea room and to keep the speed up to steer on one, about 10 ton so a little heavier.

Current boat Aquastar 48 both bow and stern thruster long keel, not bad on one from a steering point of view, BT and ST make all the difference as you can push the boat around with them, however 18.5 ton very heavy to push or pull round by hand and in any wind use a rope or forget it.

Use the wind and tide to your advantage, wait for sea room to manoeuvre or if you can go around for a second try, not easy in a queue.
 
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