#27
Post
by MrGadget » Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:58 am
Congrats on your successful docking!
It might help to be thinking about rotational drift as you approach to help you get turned. As you approach your slip down the center of the lane, with a bit of momentum, go to neutral, turn the wheel hard over toward the side your slip is on, goose the throttle forward as a moderate "pulse" of power then right back to neutral. Do this before you're too near the slip. This will not be enough to change your direction of movement, but will invoke a slow rotation of the boat as you drift down the lane. You'll have to work on the timing and factor in the wind load and direction to find the right moment to start the throw and how much thrust is needed. As the bow comes around to be almost lined up, having rotated most of the 90°, turn the wheel hard the opposite way, and apply minimal forward thrust by just putting it in forward gear. This will slow your rotation and "catch" your slide, while moving you toward entering the slip. You got it right when the rotational drift transitions into forward motion at the point you're lined up directly into the slip. You may need to add a bit of forward power or a moderate pulse to overcome the drift fully. Once headed into the slip, center the wheel and drop into reverse just enough to engage the drive. This will slowly bleed off your forward momentum so that you come to rest fully in the slip.
A second way to do this is with reverse. As you approach your slip down the center of the lane, with a bit of momentum, go to neutral, turn the wheel hard over away from the side your slip is on, goose the throttle in reverse as a moderate "pulse" of power then right back to neutral. Do this before you're too near the slip. Again not enough to change your direction of movement, but will invoke a slow rotation of the boat as you drift down the lane. The rest is the same as above. The difference between these two approaches is that you're either kicking the stern out to make it slide, or you're using reverse to "pull" the bow over to start the rotation. In some boats the 2nd method is easier, as you're using reverse to rotate the boat while still keeping forward motion by not overcoming the forward drift. You still need to apply the power in pulses to avoid changing your direction of movement to the side of the lane.
If you have a deck hand, setting your aft spring line as you come in to the slip helps a lot, because then you can apply minimum forward thrust against that line and the boat will pin against the dock while the forward spring line is conveniently set. While at the dock, adjust your spring lines to get the exact placement of the boat you want, then mark the lines or make the ropes to the exact lengths so that every time you come in, setting the lines is automatic.
With mine, I made docking ropes with snap hooks to exact lengths, and I leave these attached to the dock when I'm out. When I come in, I snap the aft line first, then lean on that with the throttle as I casually walk up to the bow and snap on the other line, knowing the aft line will never let the boat go too far forward to hit the head of the slip, and the throttle will keep the boat pinned to the side so I don't have to scurry or reach to pull the bow close to hook it up.
MrG
2006 32x10 Custom River Cruiser "Regardless"
2007 Evinrude E-Tec 250 2-Stroke
2003 Sea-Doo GTX Limited Supercharged
Ohio River - Evansville, IN