Lateral move!

[tdonoughue]

So this weekend was our men's retreat with the church. One of the guys has a house on the water near Lake Livingston, so we all go out there. Of course, I bring my boat.

Friday night we went for a cruise to the local rope swing. It was beautiful out. Water was glass. No wind. When we returned, I was going to tie up on the far side of the slip at the house. Due to some shallow spots and the slip not being very long, my plan was to approach wide, basically making a u-turn to starboard that would wind up with my forward port side at about a 45 degree angle at the front corner of the slip. Then I would turn to port, reverse to bring in the back end and viola! That was the plan.

Execution did not exactly follow plan. When I executed the turn, I started too late, which put me too far from the slip. I still did the reverse maneuver to bring me parallel to the tie up, but about 6 or 8 feet from the dock. I recalled others said they could move laterally by turning to the direction of travel and splitting the engines to forward and reverse. I have tried that several times but never successfully. Seemed like a good enough time to try it.

I DID IT!!! Turned hard to port, port engine in reverse, starboard engine in forward. It took more reverse than forward and was tricky to try to move both throttles with them split so much. It took more throttle in each direction than I thought. And you need to constantly adjust to keep the forward thrust balanced with the aft thrust. Slowly the boat moved exactly laterally to within 2-3 feet. At that point I lost the balance with a little too much forward on the starboard engine and the aft started to swing out as I moved forward. So I cut the engines, but was close though for the crew to hop to the dock and tie us up.

Several of the crew were experienced with boats. They were completely flabbergasted. What a great feeling. It worked!

 

[Julian]

That is awesome when you stick it!

Today I took out a neighbor and my daughter (my wife stayed home...she's my usual 2nd mate). I went to pull out of the slip and neglected to remove a stern line (it was loosely wrapped around the cleat). So the rope pulled the stern in a little and twist me around....freaked me out! I stopped to figure out what was wrong and fixed it asap....but a bone head move for sure!

 

[tdonoughue]

Oh, well, if you want a recount of the boneheaded move from the weekend, that happened 10 minutes prior when I left our 2 boat raft up and took off. Would have worked better had I brought up the anchor first...

 

[haknslash]

Nice job!

Today I did a 'crab walk' in my 192. I don't have the advantage of twin engines to help but it's doable in the single engines too. A bit of sawing at the wheel with reverse and forward thrust and you can walk them right next to the dock.

 

[Sacamano]

Always a great feeling. Congrats.

 

[Wayloncle]

Nice job!

I was proud of myself this weekend as well, at the end of the day Saturday I headed to the ramp. The double ramp has a fairly long dock on one side but it isn't close enough to walk your boat on or off your trailer. There was a pontoon tied to the end on the opposite side from the ramp and there was a gap about 23'7" (my estimation and story) to where a jetski was tied up, my wife said "where you going?" I told her I was going to park between them, she said "you can't fit there!" I said "DONT DOUBT ME WOMAN!"....in my head, but really said "sure I can", by the looks of a couple people on the dock they had the same thoughts that my doubting wife did. I swung around the pontoon, and glided in perfectly as I killed the engines and stepped onto the dock as the boat ever so gently kissed the bumper of the dock.

I do all the launching and retrieving myself, so I ran up the hill and got the truck, and backed down the ramp on the side farthest from the dock because a guy was already on the other side trying to get his 2 jetskis loaded, I parked and got the boat and drove into the trailer, left the engines pushing onto the trailer a little as I leaned over the front and hooked the which strap up, shut it down, winched it up and started to get in the truck the jetski guy,who was still trying to get his ski loaded right, said "man you make that look too easy, and you're doing it alone!".

My maneuvers don't always go that smooth, but when they do it sure is nice to hear someone notice it

 

[MrMoose]

Thanks for sharing @tdonoughue ... I appreciate how you described the situation in a way that I can understand it well enough to give it a try myself one day.

 

[robert843]

I'm always fighting a strong current at my ramp and when I have to dock against the current its always an adventure I will have to try this thanks for posting.

 

[PEARCE]

I'm learning the "crabwalk" too! But in the cruiser. I never really caught on doing it with the Yamaha because it isn't always necessary, but in a big boat it is a required skill. It mainly comes into play at tie ups, which is most times that we go out, and at the fuel dock occasionally. The biggest difference between the two, other than size of the vessel, is that the shifters and the throttles are separated. In close quarters such as in the marina or tying up the throttles and the wheel are never touched as long as your rudders are straight. It's pretty cool when I get it figured out and the boat goes where I want it. I know how you feel @tdonoughue .

 

[tdonoughue]

In my readings of Chapmans, I came across this opinion, which I am so far convinced is true: Currents, wind, waves, wakes, throttles, lines, positioning and many other things can affect your boat, and learning how to get it to go exactly where you want it to go under what conditions is something you can really only get by experience. There is too much to explain and too many permutations and combinations to do it justice. You can't read a book and learn how to pilot a boat. But! By reading the book and understanding some of the theories, you can cut down your learning curve and know a little better some of the things to try while on the water.

I knew I would find friends here who understood. I explained the great accomplishment to my wife, who nodded and smiled politely, but you could tell really didn't appreciate it like you folks do.

 

[tdonoughue]

Oh, well, if you want a recount of the boneheaded move from the weekend, that happened 10 minutes prior when I left our 2 boat raft up and took off. Would have worked better had I brought up the anchor first...

Today, I believe that I found the result of that particular swift move...

 

[Evildwarf]

I don't always dock perfectly...but when I do there is no one around...
And the reverse is definitely true.