So this morning don and I moved the boat from our slip to the boat yard so it could be hauled out for the prop to be re-pitched. This would seem like a simple endevour but as with anything with this boat or any boat it seems it has not been. First, Donald (remember he is the captain so the cofidence he exude's dictates the rest of the crews feelings) has been making nervous comments about moving the boat with the two of us for the last few days. I have heard this before so didn't really think anything of it and just put Don's nervouosness down to his questionable manhood.
So last night I went to sleep happy in my thoughts of our productive day (more on that later) and woke up around 2 in the morning needing to go pee. After satisfying this need I got back into bed and listned as the wind outside got steadily worse. After about 2 hours of no sleep and general restlessness I got up and removed all the things above deck that could be blown off and tied down a few things to eliminate some noise. This semi worked and I proceeded to gain another 2 hours of kinda sleep. Upon waking in the morning I am now groggy and a shower and stretch do nothing. I also find out funnily enough that our fearless captain had also been up in the night and felt pretty similar to me.
Now lets put this move into perspective. It includes us backing out of the dock. Turning the boat and driving about half a mile to the boat yard where we need to stop and tie off a 17 ton boat. All with two poeple. Seems pretty simple right. Didn't sound like a big deal to me.
So off we go. We both take the time to unhook everything and make sure everything is out of our way and stored (this did not happen in a previous occasion). We move the dinghie out of the way for when we come back. We start the engine up and let her warm up. We take a look around and get ourselves ready. It is about now that don lets me know that when they docked last time it was him, leslie and two guys on the dock(4 people) and that this hasn't been done with just two of us yet. He is also bitching about how the thing doesn't turn right when it is under power (he's been doing this for a week now). Cool, everything still sounds pretty good to me. Untie everything, push the boat off, jump on, boat is swinging the right way, looking good, easy as bro.
Fast forward one minute and we are 3 feet away from one of the other boats and pointing the wrong way down a dead end, and Don is cursing a little. Well we havn't hit anything yet and we havn't sunk so i am still feeling pretty good but getting a little more nervous. The next 10 minutes went like this. I got a big pole and prepared to push off anything and don went back and forth and few dozen times. However we got out and I was pretty impressed with Don's effort and my everlasting optimism.
Time to cruise over to the dock at about a half a knot (its a 17 ton boat, you try and stop that thing). We get there, turn in with ease, I jump off and tie her up and we are done. Wait there has to be more to this. Nope, evidently if you feel unsure about driving a boat just make sure the engine is really good and you have lots of time to go back and forth. We were even there early.
PS yesterday was really productive and we got lots done but still have lots to do.
Yesterday's comment that I made disappeared so I'l try aain. Love the blog. Dad
ReplyDeleteComments about your steering problems and hope I'm not preaching to the converted! All single prop boats have virtually no steerage going in reverse until you get up enough boat speed for the rudder to work. To make it worse the water pressure on the bottom of the prop is greater than that on the top so the bottom half of the prop walks the stern sideways, ie if the prop is turning clockwise then the stern will go to starboard, when it is turning anti-clockwise the stern will go to port until you get enough motion thru the water for the rudder to work. We had quite a laugh about your steering issues as it bought back memories of our canal boat trip in France - we did a couple of 360s before we worked out the problem. When going forwards the prop pushes water against the rudder and steering is normal, however after looking at your video showing the boat out of the water, you will have the same problem going forwards as there is a big gap between the prop and the rudder. You might find it easier in a tight situation in port to use your dinghy and its motor to pull the yacht out of its berth - you'll need more than the two of you to do that safely though.
ReplyDeleteThis prop overpowering the rudder can have one benefit on a normal boat - you can use it to turn around in a tight situation by going backwards and forwards a very short distance each time. If the prop turns the boat to port whe starting in reverse then turn the rudder to starboard for going forward and leave it there. Going forward, boat turns right, going backwards prop pulls the stern to the left - its like doig a 3 way turn in a car - not going to work on your boat though with the prop/rudder gap so large.
This is hardly a comment as its long enough for a separate blog! LOL Hope its of some value. Cheers, Dad
Good stuff! Thanks Graham. The prop does indeed love to walk to port, as it does spin counter-clock. This is one of the reasons we were taking the boat in/were having such problems steering. The prop was SO over pitched it was basically acting like a paddle wheel to port at slow speeds. That combined with no subtlety in the throttle (another over-prop symptom) made for extremely finicky handling at slow speeds. My first attempt at docking a month ago would have greatly benefited from your experience. Leslie and I were attempting to dock at a very oversized END TIE and it took 4 to 5 passes with plenty of misplaced throttle adjustments and spinning of the helm. It was a sight and if I can figure out how to do a screen capture of the saved route on the gps you will see what could be the most comical little zig zagged and looped course. Thankfully the boat is far more predictable and manageable with the adjusted prop. So that's one thing off the list of a thousand! haha
ReplyDeleteHi Don, I'd love to see that saved route on your gps. If you save the file to your pc and send the file to me would be great. It can be any format really, gpx, gdb, mps, dxf, or whatever, and I'll be able top see it. Graham
ReplyDelete