Training the wife

[Wansworth]

One November night I was on the dock waiting for the stearn of the dredger to get nearer so I could jump aboard,with the prop turning slowly in a stearn I didn’t fancy my chances but the skipper and the mate desperate to get away said some unkindly words as you would imagine but I stood my ground until they managed to get nearer….

 

[Stemar]

I've seen someone make a heroic leap for the pontoon, skid across and splash. RIP a rather expensive car fob and an even more expensive mobile phone.

I've long believed that, on the pontoon, as in life, heroes may have their moment of glory, but cowards, especially those who, like many of us, are not as athletic as we once were, tend to have a lot more moments.

A last wee word of wisdom about docking, learned from someone on here - "As slow as you can, as fast as you must"

 

[mogmog2]

Observing our fellow marina dwellers it all looks under control on the approach but on close approximation to the pontoon and stop discontrol breaks out and the agreed strategies are thrown to the wind and raised voices can be heard……if I shout at my dearest she may well freeze (childhood problems with her father)As she is partially deaf the least I have to commmunicatethe better.

Something I learned from my then teenage son (a bit of payback for all those RYA courses we paid for ) was that the boat pretty much pivots round the keel (or keel middle-ish if not a slender fin - ours is bilge keeled). You therefore feel like you're driving too far past before you turn in.
Our berths are tight as a gnat's chuffer plus current thrown in and my blood pressure dropped noticeably after I learned that nugget.
She could practice the manoeuvre without tying up, a number of if times to build confidence in a low-stress situation with you staying on board, to hand, rather than leaping off.

 

[Bouba]

What I found useful was going out to sea on a calm day and practicing on an imaginary pontoon.....no one around watching....no chance of an accident. Even putting a fender in the water to represent the edge of your invisible quay

 

[Concerto]

After over 80 posts, I am surprised no one has mention the obvious thing about berthing. Bring your boat into the berth slowly and stop it in as near as possible to the correct position in the berth. This makes picking up lines very easy.

As I single hand all the time and visit plenty of different harbours, I have developed my own method of lines that works on all standard finger pontoons, but not for short fingers with a loop on the end or Norwegian fingers that only have loops instead of cleats. I use a line that is 3 times the length of the boat. It is marked in the centre and coiled in 2 halves for easy fixing of the middle on the centre cleat. Each loop is then looped over the lifelines to ensure it cannot get caught on anything or drop in the water. Then each end is fixed at the bow and stern, creating 2 long loops of line which each makes a breast line and spring. Coming into a berth I stop my boat close to the finger and then step (not jump) through the side gate onto the pontoon and take the aft loop as a spring. After cleating on the pontoon, continue fixing the aft breast rope. Walk to a midships and fix the forward spring and breast rope. Fully secure in under a minute. If not exactly in the correct position it is easy to slacken a line and move using the warps a 6 tons is still easy to move by hand. It sounds complex but is very practical as you have no loose ends to the morning lines. I have had numerous people watch me berth and then ask how I make it look so simple. In strange harbours where I am not sure which side I will be berthing I rig both sides of the boat.

 

[Bouba]

It will not take Wansey long...either solo or as a husband and wife team....to become the world’s leading expert in getting into his own berth (as we all are) ....this will give them the confidence to berth in other ports without drama

 

[Wansworth]

After over 80 posts, I am surprised no one has mention the obvious thing about berthing. Bring your boat into the berth slowly and stop it in as near as possible to the correct position in the berth. This makes picking up lines very easy.

As I single hand all the time and visit plenty of different harbours, I have developed my own method of lines that works on all standard finger pontoons, but not for short fingers with a loop on the end or Norwegian fingers that only have loops instead of cleats. I use a line that is 3 times the length of the boat. It is marked in the centre and coiled in 2 halves for easy fixing of the middle on the centre cleat. Each loop is then looped over the lifelines to ensure it cannot get caught on anything or drop in the water. Then each end is fixed at the bow and stern, creating 2 long loops of line which each makes a breast line and spring. Coming into a berth I stop my boat close to the finger and then step (not jump) through the side gate onto the pontoon and take the aft loop as a spring. After cleating on the pontoon, continue fixing the aft breast rope. Walk to a midships and fix the forward spring and breast rope. Fully secure in under a minute. If not exactly in the correct position it is easy to slacken a line and move using the warps a 6 tons is still easy to move by hand. It sounds complex but is very practical as you have no loose ends to the morning lines. I have had numerous people watch me berth and then ask how I make it look so simple. In strange harbours where I am not sure which side I will be berthing I rig both sides of the boat.

That’s worth a YouTube video

 

[Wansworth]

It will not take Wansey long...either solo or as a husband and wife team....to become the world’s leading expert in getting into his own berth (as we all are) ....this will give them the confidence to berth in other ports without drama

Although we have had the boat since late summer what with eye problems Iam still in the early stages of getting to know the boat once the demon of the outboard has been banished I will be quite relaxed and berth with abandone

 

[Wansworth]

 

[SimonX]

Its on our list for when she is fit again to get her PB2 and Day Skipper. I did PB2 when we first got the Bayliner but she has never had any formal training. She didn't like driving the Bayliner as she thought it was to twitchy so she usually did the ropes if we didn't have someone else on. On the two canal boat holidays we have had (one narrowboat, one LeBoat) she was much more comfortable with the low speed and small inputs
Depending on when/where we buy a boat, we will either find a trainer who will use our own boat or one who has a 11M+ twin shaft boat. Ive been given the name of one in Hull but i'm sure there are others nearer although the ones Ive looked at quickly use RIBs

 

[LittleSister]

. . . The wife will have to learn how the outboard functions . Its just going to be practice . . . so not seeing any massive problems unless at the las momment she gives it full power instead of stopping.

. . . My wife was driving years before me and I find little fault in her driving although she doesn’t like to dive with me as I criticize too much……but learning not to

Training
Consider whether your wife might find it easier to learn, and gain more confidence, with an instructor other than yourself. (A serious point.) She might also learn some tricks that are new to you, or you've forgotten.

Technique
I often go boating (rowing) with 'non-boaters', and repeatedly find that most people find it very hard to appreciate that boat steering doesn't work at all like a car in a car park. (Though it's just close enough for them to continue to believe that it does, in the face of all the evidence, scrapes and embarrassment to the contrary.)
(a) The tiller/rudder is giving the back of the boat a shove (technical term!) the 'wrong' way, and it happens the boat pivots roughly in the middle. You can't turn right without the back of the boat moving out to the left, and vice versa. (Note also that the tiller, at the back of the boat, is pointing the way you are shoving the back of the boat. Pointing this out can help some people (but not others!) overcome confusion about which way they need to turn it.)
(b) The tiller doesn't instantly turn the boat on a exact track (like a car following front wheels), but more shoving is gradually added, and the turn angle gradually increases if the shoving is continued (which might necessitate increasing the rudder angle as the back of the boat is increasingly moving sideways rather than forwards.
(c) The amount of shoving available depends on how fast the boat is moving (and continues to move) through the water.
(d) The rudder works like a plane wing, nothing like a wheel rolling on the ground. Turn it too far (compared to to the path the rudder is following going through the water) and you not only get reduced turning shove but also more drag, so are slowing the boat so turning shove reduces yet further.

The thing with the outboard (or any motor) in docking is learning to use the minimum power necessary - you generally want to be going as slowly as possible while maintaining control (which depends on wind etc.) - and adjust power gradually rather than suddenly. (It seems from YouTube videos these two power lessons are unknown in the USA!)

 

[Wansworth]

Training
Consider whether your wife might find it easier to learn, and gain more confidence, with an instructor other than yourself. (A serious point.) She might also learn some tricks that are new to you, or you've forgotten.

Technique
I often go boating (rowing) with 'non-boaters', and repeatedly find that most people find it very hard to appreciate that boat steering doesn't work at all like a car in a car park. (Though it's just close enough for them to continue to believe that it does, in the face of all the evidence, scrapes and embarrassment to the contrary.)
(a) The tiller/rudder is giving the back of the boat a shove (technical term!) the 'wrong' way, and it happens the boat pivots roughly in the middle. You can't turn right without the back of the boat moving out to the left, and vice versa. (Note also that the tiller, at the back of the boat, is pointing the way you are shoving the back of the boat. Pointing this out can help some people (but not others!) overcome confusion about which way they need to turn it.)
(b) The tiller doesn't instantly turn the boat on a exact track (like a car following front wheels), but more shoving is gradually added, and the turn angle gradually increases if the shoving is continued (which might necessitate increasing the rudder angle as the back of the boat is increasingly moving sideways rather than forwards.
(c) The amount of shoving available depends on how fast the boat is moving (and continues to move) through the water.
(d) The rudder works like a plane wing, nothing like a wheel rolling on the ground. Turn it too far (compared to to the path the rudder is following going through the water) and you not only get reduced turning shove but also more drag, so are slowing the boat so turning shove reduces yet further.

The thing with the outboard (or any motor) in docking is learning to use the minimum power necessary - you generally want to be going as slowly as possible while maintaining control (which depends on wind etc.) - and adjust power gradually rather than suddenly. (It seems from YouTube videos these two power lessons are unknown in the USA!)

Thank you for your detailed explanation …………..the very best seasons wishes to you

 

[Stemar]

LittleSister's point about training with someone else is a good one. Teaching Madame to drive was not the most relaxed time of our marriage.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

It's something I did with my ex who had never been on a yacht and was very nervous about it so I signed her up to a competent crew course, she insisted I join her. The instructor sussed me out in the first hour and had a quiet word about keeping out of the way and letting the two day skipper candidates and my wife get on with it. Which I did. My ex went on to be a very competent helm and we gradually built up her confidence so that she was unfazed by poor conditions and forecasts.
However for what I believe Wansworth plans to do I am sure the pair of them can get to grips with an outboard and a bit of marina manoeuvring by just taking their time and choosing their weather. ( No wind)

 

[capnsensible]

Training
Consider whether your wife might find it easier to learn, and gain more confidence, with an instructor other than yourself. (A serious point.) She might also learn some tricks that are new to you, or you've forgotten.

Technique
I often go boating (rowing) with 'non-boaters', and repeatedly find that most people find it very hard to appreciate that boat steering doesn't work at all like a car in a car park. (Though it's just close enough for them to continue to believe that it does, in the face of all the evidence, scrapes and embarrassment to the contrary.)
(a) The tiller/rudder is giving the back of the boat a shove (technical term!) the 'wrong' way, and it happens the boat pivots roughly in the middle. You can't turn right without the back of the boat moving out to the left, and vice versa. (Note also that the tiller, at the back of the boat, is pointing the way you are shoving the back of the boat. Pointing this out can help some people (but not others!) overcome confusion about which way they need to turn it.)
(b) The tiller doesn't instantly turn the boat on a exact track (like a car following front wheels), but more shoving is gradually added, and the turn angle gradually increases if the shoving is continued (which might necessitate increasing the rudder angle as the back of the boat is increasingly moving sideways rather than forwards.
(c) The amount of shoving available depends on how fast the boat is moving (and continues to move) through the water.
(d) The rudder works like a plane wing, nothing like a wheel rolling on the ground. Turn it too far (compared to to the path the rudder is following going through the water) and you not only get reduced turning shove but also more drag, so are slowing the boat so turning shove reduces yet further.

The thing with the outboard (or any motor) in docking is learning to use the minimum power necessary - you generally want to be going as slowly as possible while maintaining control (which depends on wind etc.) - and adjust power gradually rather than suddenly. (It seems from YouTube videos these two power lessons are unknown in the USA!)

On the last bit, short bursts of power ahead whilst the engine being in neutral more is much more effective. In board and outboard engines. Propwash over rudder.

Good idea to see which way the engine will walk the stern whilst hoping astern too.

These two things are pretty much the first lessons on boat handling. Add your point about the pivot point being g around a third of the way from the bow on most yachts......easy to imagine if you accept it is around where the mast is to help visualise what's happening.

Then add effect of current and the tenancy of a bow to blow downwind.

Hey presto! Armed and ready for practice!!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

We don’t notice any prop walk with our outboard, as it’s linked to the tiller. You just steer. That might be a good future project on the Dufour, the sort of little engineering job wansy is probably good at.

 

[Bouba]

I would certainly see how she behaves in reverse….it’s often the best way to manoeuvre around the port

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I would certainly see how she behaves in reverse….it’s often the best way to manoeuvre around the port

Unless you have a long keel that is. Then, it’s a matter of random chance whose berth you end up in.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I would certainly see how she behaves in reverse….it’s often the best way to manoeuvre around the port

I am sure Wansies wife is pretty steady in reverse and he has a firm hand on her tiller to guide her into the nearest coffee shop with comfortable seating.

 

[Bouba]

I am sure Wansies wife is pretty steady in reverse and he has a firm hand on her tiller to guide her into the nearest coffee shop with comfortable seating.

Dr Wansworth is probably still getting use to not being the ‘her’ or ‘she’ that husband refers to in conversation