Single inboard shaft drive boats

bekasi said:
How difficult is it to handle a 43ft vessel with single engine and a bow thruster?
Click to expand...

Not all 43ft vessels with single engine and bowthruster are the same, so a little difficult to answer without more details.

I hired a 42ft single shaft drive boat without a bowthruster on the Norfolk broads and it was fine if you took your time and thought about things first - IE use the water flow and wind to your advantage.
 
The lines are rather "Racey", suggesting a planning hull that may be more suited to twin Shafts rather than a more sedate semi d style single screw with a skeg.


If she has that profile more akin to planning then she may be harder to handle as she will slip and slide about (but the bow thruster would help).

With a skeg and a decent sized rudder I can't see it being a problem.
Fit a stern thruster too and it will become, almost, a doddle.
 
Mine is 8m single screw and rudder, without any thrusters. Going astern it is an absolute pig, will not respond to the helm in any way. I suspect a bigger rudder may help. I also feel the a bow thruster would make all the difference. As Tom said, add a stern thruster and it'll be a doddle.
 
OK then
When you go bakards
She will 'walk' to port.
Rudder (bigger one I mean) won't help much.
Here is what to do.
Not tellin yer to suck eggs Mate by the way!

Lign yerself up as best as.

Shove the helm over to starboard and nudge astern
She will go to port.
No matter
Give Her a knudge forward
She will straighten up or maybe point a bit starboard like.
I hope you are keeping up with my technical terms!

Then knudge astern again , She will go straight fer abit and then go to port again.
No matter
Another knudge ahead to straighten the job out.
Then repeat the the Gig all over agin!

So the wheel can be virtually left alone.
Then there is no thrashing about and trying to remember where the wheel is.
No strong bursts of throttle are required just quick knudges of forward and a bit more in reverse
Then the boat won't travel to far ahead whilst going forward.

Sorry Mate
Best way I can describe it by Pute!

A chap in our marina has one
Berthed by Philiz by the way
Oh yeh, his Benny 9 is the same.
Phill has been with Me on me Nimbus.
Which goes tother way by the way!
Now Phill has used this technique too
Phill is only 18 months or so down his boaty career.
But He has adjusted to shaft really well after an outboard vessel.

Trying to use the rudder going astern is hard work
It does have some effect
But the Prop 'Dictates' and thats that!
Yep a thruster will help
But if you can get use to the 'astern bit' without one.
Great
Then when you do fit one
Berthing in the wind will be a doddle!
 
Kawasaki, I, like most on here, can't wait for your ultimate guide to the world of boaty handling...

...anyway, my Hardy pulls to starboard going astern, I guess I use a hybrid of your method, and my bow thruster. But have found a burst of reverse and then into neutral will start the boat off in the direction I wish and either a bit of bow thruster will guide me where I want to go or as I do have a fair size rudder once on the drift in neutral I start to get some steerage..if I start to slow another burst in reverse and straight back to neutral will continue my passage.

Worst bit is my berth is forward in port side to, so to come to a stop a burst of reverse sees the lovely parallel park go tits up... but with rudder hard over to starboard a burst of ahead gets me straight again... and a little use of bow thruster to pin the pointy end to the pontoon. nice


anyway... as far as the OP goes... well firstly I agree with Nautibusiness that the design doesn't look like it would be a single screw but hey ho!.
Also correct that a well spec'ed bow and stern thruster would mean my daughter could handle this. But firstly though every boat has its nature to deal with, it might be a joy to handle without the need or expense of either, but at 13m + I would say a bowthruster was a minimum.
 
Kawasaki said:
A chap in our marina has one
Berthed by Philiz by the way
Oh yeh, his Benny 9 is the same.
Phill has been with Me on me Nimbus.
Which goes tother way by the way!
Now Phill has used this technique too
Phill is only 18 months or so down his boaty career.
But He has adjusted to shaft really well after an outboard vessel.
Click to expand...

Blimey, praise indeed!

I find the rudder does have some effect, but not until you get a bit of speed up, takes a bit of nerve as you start heading in the wrong direction at first.
As Kwackers says, once you've got the basic idea of the technique you can leave the wheel alone and nudge backwards and forwards to get where you want to go. I do have a bowthruster but only tend to use it when it's blowy to help get the bow round as I'm in a fairly tight corner.
 
Kawasaki said:
OK then
When you go bakards
She will 'walk' to port.
Rudder (bigger one I mean) won't help much.
Here is what to do.
Not tellin yer to suck eggs Mate by the way!
Click to expand...

Egg sucking lessons always welcome :)

<snip>

Thanks for taking the time to post the detailed explanation. Previous boat was a Princess 32 with twin legs, a doddle to wiggle into tight spots. When we first launched the "new" boat in was in a marina on a fast flowing tidal river. I'd already learned how to use the tide to my advantage with the Princess and mooring wasn't too bad. First thing we did was to go down the river on a quiet day and practice shunting around. Going forwards she handles extremely well and will take very tight turns at full speed. At low speed she still responds well and with the stern to starboard prop walk she'll turn very tight indeed, especially with a following tide. With the tide on the bow, a burst of throttle is needed to stop the tide pushing the stern back around. I practised my manoeuvres using half the width of the river, as this is all i'd have in the marina. The only thing i found impossible was turning around with the tide on the bow. I couldn't get around in one go and as soon as i went astern the tide pushed the stern back around. I decided that this was just something that couldn't be done in the conditions so i wouldn't try it in a "real" scenario. Beside, i would never need to turn her around if i was coming back in with the tide on the bow.

Going backwards was a whole different story. If the tide was following, it wasn't too bad, as soon as a started the turn the tide would push the stern around and i could use that to my advantage. Again, tide on the bow and it was a no go, the tide just keeps straightening her out. I accepted the couple of limitations and never tried to carry out those turns for real.

We've since moved to a marina behind a lock, so no tidal effects when mooring. Although i do often miss the helping hand of the tide and a spot of ferry gliding. We're on a finger berth where the finger is shorter than the boat, so i like to moor stern in, port side to. Port side to has a plus and a minus, the plus is (as you've said) the stern "walks" to port. The minus is, the stern walks to port, lol. When we enter the marina the moorings are to our port side, so we travel along past the hammerheads until we get to "J", where we make a 90° turn to port. We now have a row of fingers each side, ours being on the starboard side, 5 in from the hammerhead. I very quickly have to turn sharp to port again, just before i get to our berth. There isn't enough room between the two sets of fingers to get fully squared up to our berth, so i try to have the stern just short of the mooring. When i come back, the prop steers the boat to port, although i've deliberately left the helm hard to port. Shortly before the bathing platform hits the end of the finger i engage forward, the boat moves forward and the bow moves to port, back into reverse and repeat as many times as necessary. Once we're a third of the way, or so, into the berth SWMBO steps off the bathing platform with a line attached to the midships cleat and give it a tug, we then drag it the last bit with the lines. Tis a bit tricky with the wind blowing onto the port side, as i only have a foot or so between us and the next boat. The gap is so small i can reach out of the window and fend him off by hand.

Damn....... long post again, sorry if i'm boring you lol. All of this is just as you describe and it seems i'm doing things pretty much as you suggest. It's nice to read your post though and find that i'm doing things pretty much how it's supposed to be done. In the past 18 months we've gone from twin stern drives to single screw and rudder, then from tidal to non-tidal, so it's been a steep learning curve.
 
PaulGooch said:
In the past 18 months we've gone from twin stern drives to single screw and rudder, then from tidal to non-tidal, so it's been a steep learning curve.
Click to expand...

Thats it!
You have experienced twin sterns.
Now you have mastered a single shaft
Tidal and non tidal

Best thing is , you have gone out and practised and sussed the job out.
Too many don't practice.
Then they get all uptight and confused
The inevitable happens
Loads of throttle at the wrong time.
Peeps (well some) think you have to be going at a rate of knots to create steering
Cos they think loads of water has to pass the rudder.
OK, Philiz hit the spot
EVENTUALLY , you will get steerage astern with the blade
But in Marina situations yer aint got no room or time!
So its the blip ahead , blip astern technique as you have learnt.
Well done that Man for sussing it out.

Feck me , I remember me first shafty job (boats that is yer bent gits:D) blimey I nearly handed the towel in
But a proper boy showed me how.

'Which way does she walk' I remember him asking

'What the F are ye on about yer silly awld sod ' I replied

Then he showed me:o

Twas about 25 years ago

He is 87 now
Funny
I saw him yesterday for the first time in ages.

It was in Welsh

But translates to

'How are you nipper, still tryin to handle boats, yer wa..er:D'
 
fun

bekasi said:
How difficult is it to handle a 43ft vessel with single engine and a bow thruster?
Click to expand...

I was playing with one[ bit smaller, 35 ft] of these a few weeks ago, lovely boat,I found you need to use her ability to slide to your advantage, create the slide and use the bow thruster to correct it or enforce the slide where you want it to go.
 
Kwackers has it about right. Put full lock on, then back up, if the boat turns much, try the other lock. It should go straight'ish. So back up with full lock, dont touch the wheel. So as you reach the bend, give a blast forwards, the boat dont have to stop. The arse will start to point in the right direction. Maybe another blast is needed.. If you go to far, you will have to swap to other lock. But try to keep to the lock that dont give prop wash. Else approch from tuther end.

Took a 50 ton boat from Cowes to Fowey, ex WW2, no bow thrucher. It was easy enough, but you just had to think a bit ahead.

Debs barge was much worse 50ft and 18 tons on a 14ft canal. Bow thruster fairly use less. There was no way of pointing the boat to the wind.
 
bekasi said:
How difficult is it to handle a 43ft vessel with single engine and a bow thruster?
Click to expand...
It is not difficult. Assuming the vessel has some sort of keel and a large rudder, than having a bow thruster makes it as easy to handle as a twin, but in a different way. Had such a vessel many years ago and found it no problem, even in confined spaces and narrow marina channels.
 
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