Now this is how to dock a boat!

Yeh he got it spot on but I would have **** myself long before that and not least if I was in that building!!
L
 
Single engine no bow thruster and she can be a tad difficult
Actually, colhel is right, he doesn't seem to use any b/t.
Re. the single screw, it should be a matter of which side to use.
If you have a r/h prop, you should be able to make a maneuver similar to the one in the video.
Otoh, mooring with the dock on port side could be a nightmare, depending on how sensible the boat is to the prop walk.
With a small speedboat I had, mooring with the dock on stbd side (she had a l/h prop) was close to impossible, in spite of the fact that she had an outdrive, hence with steerable thrust.
 
He has no stern or bow thruster.

Twin screw, Bayliner 4588. No bow or stern thruster used, I'd use them if I had them ;)
 
He has no stern or bow thruster.

Twin screw, Bayliner 4588. No bow or stern thruster used, I'd use them if I had them ;)

My P 35 will do that all the time, it has no thrusters. Always remember being in Falmouth marina, "the council one" the wind was blowing on shore, worse than that the HM girl was there at the side of us. I'd thought for a bit how we would get out of this, we were right at the end of the cul de sac. About a foot between the boat in front and the ones at right angles behind us. We had as normal the big round fender deployed, on the bows, which was basicly her bow thruster, however in this case, she had to make the perfect double turn, with the wind against her. So we added a few more.

The trick was, to pivot the boat round on the fenders, till the boat was nearly 90 Deg to the pontoon, then using power and the momentum, turn her round, but yep still in confined waters, so just zoomed round again. Not going forwards or backwards.

A few mates from Plymouth had got down to Falmouth from Plymouth in their little saily things, they heared the racket as the engines roared. Then she slowly departed Falmouth.


Four hundred HP in complete control, to an inch or two forwards or reverse.

No I am not blowing my own trumpet, or trying to sell my boat.

It's just saying what a good girl she is.

Ask Kwackers. Some times he'd ask me to do things on his Dazzed Kipper course. Or pontoon bashing. But she'd still back into an 8 knot current and just park up on the pontoon. Dead easy. I mean, she'd do it the opposite way about

Till you've had a boat on twin shafts, you will not know how easy it is. Or what it's capable of.

About the only thing it's not good at, is backing in to a marina finger berth. But I'm not sure why they invented them anyway.
 
Ok, good boat handling but he didn't need to approach the dock at right angles and at such speed; getting that wrong would have meant clouting the unfendered bow on the dock or worse putting the anchor through an office window. The only time when you have to approach a dock at right angles is when there's a gale blowing you off. IMHO, he could have berthed the boat just as easily and more safely by coming in at an angle against tide or wind; there would still have been enough momentum to give the boat that bit of sideways movement at the end
 
I'd love to see the look on the skippers face if a cable broke on approach :eek: a tad reckless I think.

That occured to me too. Its a perfect piece of helming but the room for error is so small that there would be almost no time/room to correct if something went wrong as you make that final dock skimming adjustment. Still, perhaps its just me being over cautious. I have found through bitter experience that berthing is always so unpredictable (no two times the same) that fine judgements like that one are toooo risky even if achievable.
 
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