What Now Skipper?

[awol]

You are trying to reverse out of your marina berth in a long keeled MAB with the wind on the starboard quarter. The tide is flowing at a knot or so stern to bow. Your prop walk in astern usually takes your stern to port and the exit of the rather narrow aisle is, of course, to port. Steerage way astern doesn't come until the boat is really moving.
Your crew suggests reversing out with power and hope sufficient steerage way is gained to keep upwind/uptide of all the shiny, expensive AWBs berthed alongside you.

What now skipper?

 

[Guest]

With a knot of tide over the rudder from the stern then you'll have steerageway that will be capable of overpowering the propwalk even before you're moving backwards relative to land. Also the wind will tend to weathercock your stern to starboard. Both of these will overpower propwalk in this case.

But getting out astern against a tidal stream is always a bit of a beast. The problem come when you've backed out astern into the aisle, turned stern to starboard then engage forward gear - you'll be swept onto the yachts downtide before you have a chance to get way. so in this case I'd probably use the tidal stream + prop walk to turn to port and head out in astern. Don't often do that, but with such a tide...

 

[Twister_Ken]

Apart from the obvious answer "I wouldn't have parked there in the first place", I'd hand my crew a longish line and a fender and ask him/her to wander round to the boat uptide of me on the other side of the aisle, with instructions to slip both ends of the line round something convenient over there (boat or pontoon) and float both ends of the line back to me. I'd then warp myself straight back, until a foot or two off the other side, unfurl a few feet of genoa and sheet it hard to get the head to blow off to port, engage ahead, slip the line and motor out ahead. Oh, and get the crew back aboard!

 

[Guest]

I was thinking of that too as a possibility, but there is the risk of another boat coming down the aisle in the meantime - could cause a nasty mess!

 

[KenMcCulloch]

I occasionally have to deal with a similar conundrum, possibly ony a couple of pontoons away. Border Maid has a very offset prop which means that initial manoeuvres astern tend to involve the stern swinging to starboard. Fortunately the berth is into the prevailing wind.

I think there are three alternatives in your position. One is to go with the flow and reverse all the way out then turn in the space between the wave barrier and the pontoons. You should be able to reverse quite firmly and turn to port astern as you depart your berth. The second strategy would be to prepare a long-ish line ( >2x LOA) running from your bow, outside everything down the port side, to your stern and back to the bow. You reverse up to the opposite (windward) pontoon or an AWB with a handy stern cleat, drop your bight of line over, and wait for the wind to help your stern around - you might even motor ahead gently against what is now a spring. Your crew takes in the line and you end up on the windward side of the channel with your bow pointing out to sea, release one end of your line and pull the slack through and you're away.

It may also be possible to reverse your boat out and turn to port ahead under power but the technique would be better demonstrated than explained in text. The key thing with any of these methods is to get the boat to the windward side of the channel so you have room to manoeuvre.

You could always berth stern in of course.

 

[Twister_Ken]

>head out in astern<

A likely story!!!

 

[BlueSkyNick]

[ QUOTE ]
You are trying to reverse out of your marina berth in a long keeled MAB ...

[/ QUOTE ] There's your problem in one - solution is to sell up and buy something with more than half a chance of going where you want it.

 

[Poignard]

I have such a berth and a boat that won't steer astern at any speed.

I would wait for the tide to turn or do as Twister Ken suggests.

[being lazy, I would most likely wait for the tide!]

 

[Guest]

It's better than sterning out in ahead!

 

[deep denial]

[ QUOTE ]
With a knot of tide over the rudder from the stern then you'll have steerageway that will be capable of overpowering the propwalk even before you're moving backwards relative to land.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't you believe it! Not with a long keeler. I have been extremely wary of reversing against a current since an episode in Treguier. Admittedly the tide was rather stronger, but I made the mistake of assuming this would give me easy steerage way - but not a bit of it. Even with full port lock the boat decided immediately to slam to starboard, and was swept straight on to neighbouring boat. And that was a fin keeler. I could only suppose that a strong enough current overcomes the wash over the rudder, and simply pushes the keel laterally. Very unpleasant and unexpected!

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
With a knot of tide over the rudder from the stern then you'll have steerageway that will be capable of overpowering the propwalk even before you're moving backwards relative to land.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't you believe it! Not with a long keeler. I have been extremely wary of reversing against a current since an episode in Treguier. Admittedly the tide was rather stronger, but I made the mistake of assuming this would give me easy steerage way - but not a bit of it. Even with full port lock the boat decided immediately to slam to starboard, and was swept straight on to neighbouring boat. And that was a fin keeler. I could only suppose that a strong enough current overcomes the wash over the rudder, and simply pushes the keel laterally. Very unpleasant and unexpected!

[/ QUOTE ]
AWOL's in a Contessa /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif - with a two bladed prop at least, 1 knot of sternway is more or less enough to overcome propwalk. The only prob is that to overcome the propwalk you have to turn the stern to starboard which means the bow swings to port and you have to make sure it doesn't graze the pontoon or the boat next to you - with a strong tide from astern you can get carried sideways quite quickly if you don't watch out.

You can pre-position the boat at a slight angle before releasing the warps to pull her away from the pontoon. Judging the right angle is important though!

Posting someone near the bow with a fender just in case.

 

[awol]

Keep going - only one of you has come close to the foolproof answer I have found - well not entirely foolproof but will work in the circumstances defined.

 

[fireball]

If you were practised then a reverse ferry glide could see you out into the fairway.

 

[boomerangben]

And how much do you pay for such a privillaged berth? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[BlueSkyNick]

I seem to be missing something here, what side of the boat is your pontoon finger?

 

[jimi]

I'd tie a long bit of bungee to the stern and attach the other end to a cleat currently occupied by the bow breast rope,prepare all lines on the other side of the boat, untie all lines reverse out on full power until bow is clear of the berth an d then put in neutral, the bungee should flip the boat and spring it back into its berth facing forward, release the bungee and then drive out normally, no problem really. Quite a common problem is that not enough bungee is carried on the average MAB

 

[awol]

[ QUOTE ]
And how much do you pay for such a privillaged berth? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
A wee bit over £100 per month - but the tide does change direction and the wind doesn't always have south in it.
[ QUOTE ]
I seem to be missing something here, what side of the boat is your pontoon finger?

[/ QUOTE ]
To the north or port side when bow in.


Reversing into the berth would be beyond my, and the boat's, abilities.

 

[jimi]

Another alternative, of course, if you are averse to the rather exciting bungee manouvre is the jib on the backstay and anchor manouvre. Back the jib to help the boat to turn and drop the anchor from the stern to finalise the pivot before engaging forward and motoring clear

 

[jimi]

And a 3rd strategy might be to attach the outboard to the bow and use it as a bowthruster

 

[Guest]

Take a halyard to the next row of pontoons and winch in until the bow raises in the air and flips the boat over backwards. At this point you may have to remove mast which will be stuck in the mud. Boat should right herself. Re-attach mast and motor out forwards.