Watched a fellow BACK his single-engine commercial fishing boat (about 80') into a slip yesterday; Current one way, wind the other, no bow thruster. Impressive.
That commercial fishing boat is proof that there is no substitute for experience. Yesterday I violated my own rules and almost had disasterous results. As usual it was because I did not exercise my best judgement. We got a last minute call that one of my wife's relatives was passing through on vacation and wanted to drop by with his family for lunch. All weekend it was so calm you could have driven anything in and out with no problem but the minute they stepped on the dock the wind started gusting. There was a storm brewing but I was determined to take these folks out for a "three hour tour". I could feel the wind buffeting me in the slip as I backed out. It got me as soon as I was clear and the fight began. I was trying to keep from hitting other boats as I was between two rows of slips. People on my dock could see I was in trouble and ran to the end of the finger piers. One shouted to see if my rudders were straight as that is what it looked like when I would try to reverse. They were straight but the wind was behind me. Finally we agreed to let it drift against the ends of the finger piers as no boats are allowed to protrude any part past the ends so nothing would get damaged. There we sat until the wind died. My fault. Just because I could not take these folks out the last time they visited because of the weather, I was determined to do it this time. We had our three hour ride through rain and wind but I called the marina as we were turning around and it was calm and clear there so we eased back in.
I only have one thing to add from my vast experence of 2 yrs docking my 44ft gibson. DON'T let passenger or guest help while docking. Arms and Legs are no match for horsepower and weight of your boat. you'll have to tell them because it seems some just feel they have to grab the dock to pull/guide the boat in without realizing they are not in runabout. just go slooowww.
happy houseboating
Mike
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Mike <BR>lake texoma, 1995 44 gibson standard
Yesterday we took the Holiday Mansion on a sea trial after the mechanics installed new carburetors. 5 Miles from the marina we lost the port engine. So we made it back in on one engine without the power steering. When entering the marina, I used the wind and one engine to perform the necessary turns. We also used our Gibson next to us to push off by hand when coming into the slip.
Once we had the boat secured, the marina manager came up and stated, "I am sure glad your boats are parked next to each other when you come bumper boating in".
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06/25/2007 07:26:56 AM
of 2 yrs docking my 44ft gibson. DON'T let passenger or guest help while docking. Arms and Legs are no match for horsepower and weight of your boat. you'll have to tell them because it seems some just feel they have to grab the dock to pull/guide the boat in without realizing they are not in runabout. just go slooowww.
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