slow speed steering

[tall]

Hi,We have a 33 ft wooden cruiser,very new to the boat.We tried to take her out over the past weekend but kept drifting in the wind,at slow speed the steering was next to no use.Do we need a bigger rudder ( is it my lack of skill) the present rudder looks quite small,are their any parts we could buy to help.
Thanks for reading any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[sailorman]

wot size engine & prop

 

[sarabande]

welcome to the forum.

Are you able to post photos ? Even of the boat stationary or at a mooring; that would be the best way to enable good advice.

 

[tall]

Thanks for your response,the engine is a bmc 2.2,not sure of prop size but will take photos and post.thanks

 

[sailorman]

my guess is you need the confidence to use more power in short bursts, practice away from the marina

 

[oldharry]

Any boat with much top hamper, or high sides will be difficult to control in a strong breeze, and above a certain wind speed will become unmanageable.

Its the shape of the boat and its 'windage' that causes the problem, and a larger rudder will make little difference. As the wind rises you need increasing amounts of speed to keep the boat under control otherwise as you found the thing just gets blown away.

As Sailorman suggests, spend some time practicing away from the marina where you wont do any harm - use a dinghy racing mark (nice and soft!) when the dinghies aren't around and practice manoevering around it in a fresh breeze to get more of a feel for what you can and cant do in those conditions.

Quite good practice for MOB drill too! Many people chuck a fender OB to use as a 'target' for MOB and manoevering practice. You 'have' to get it right sooner or later, or you lose the fender! Oh and don't do that in the middle of the fairway.... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[KenMcCulloch]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi,We have a 33 ft wooden cruiser,very new to the boat.We tried to take her out over the past weekend but kept drifting in the wind,at slow speed the steering was next to no use.Do we need a bigger rudder ( is it my lack of skill) the present rudder looks quite small,are their any parts we could buy to help.
Thanks for reading any thoughts would be appreciated

[/ QUOTE ]
This is not a problem you can solve by spending money on things. Experience and possibly some expert coaching are what you need. Motor boats are often difficult to manoeuvre at low speeds especially if shallow draft. The rudder will only have effect if there's a good flow of water past it either from the boat's movement through the water, or propwash from bursts of power ahead.

 

[cliffordpope]

I hired a classic motor cruiser on the Broads last year. Very shallow draft, high windage. The secret, as the yard demonstrator explained, is to use bursts of power in order to get the boat swinging in the required direction.

For example, leaving a tight mooring wedged in fore and aft by other boats:
Wheel hard over into the bank, short burst ahead swings the stern out and turns the bow in. But before it starts to gather any forward speed, reverse helm and full astern. This checks any forward tendency, and also reinforces the stern swinging outwards. When the stern has swung out sufficiently, go half astern and straighten up. Only go ahead once well clear of the mooring with room to swing round. ie always leave a mooring stern first.

 

[Gordonmc]

As others have already said, experience is a good tutor. It took me a while to learn to use prop-walk on my 30 foot long keeler. By holding the tiller midships and using blips of power I can just about control where I am going.
Pre-planning helps a bit... f'rinstance I know I can walk the stern toward a pontoon on the starboard side, so that's the first choice.

 

[oughtoc]

33ft no mean feat for a first timer. Best practice I've had for that kind of thing is trying to keep station, constanly having to figure out wind and tide (well current in my case) and try and keep swinging nose back to point all the time with bursts of power etc.

As mentioned above, you have no steerage if you have no way on through the water of course.

One final thing I've found with my family as crew. Use ropes. Warp the boat in & out of tight moorings, use a rope around a bouy to turn in the tight river (walk the bouy from stem to stern & boat is turned) etc. We often drop a daughter off with a line to take turns around posts as we're coming in to stop the bow blowing off etc. I learnt this the hard way.