We berthed alongside the pier yesterday. Piece of cake with the the wind blowing us directly onto it. The wind direction has not changed, intensity around 10 – 14 knots. Take-off should be easy. We will be using a spring leaving stern first. Our time to pay the dues; It’s movie time.
Our Seascape cannot go sideways on own account. The wind is still pushing us onto the pier. Motorboats tied up in close distance to our bow and stern. What did we learn in sailing school and practiced until we dropped? Using a spring for turning the boat, followed by a controlled departure.
So, we are placing our big-ball fender at the bow, rigging a bow spring, casting off all other wraps, engine running in neutral. Sina at the slipping end of the spring. We are ready to go!
I’m putting the engine in forward motion, steering away from the pier. Nothing happens … perfect. Tension on the spring, stern pushed against the pier.
Time to roll. Full starboard rudder – steering towards the pier. Nothing happens. Weird. More throttle. Still nothing. Passengers start giving advice; more passengers are stopping to help or stare. “You need to move the fender a few inches back”, “The spring is too long”, “The spring is too short”, “We’ll try to push you away”, my favorite: “The spring has too much tension”…
It is beginning to dawn on me that the stern will not swing out until the boat is in forward motion. The draft of the engine vanishes between the twin rudders. It’s not adding any flow against them … but forward motion is not part of the maneuver – not yet anyways.
I am asking our crowed if someone ever did this maneuver with twin-rudders or knows an alternative. They are repeating some of the advise, not really following my argument.
We managed to leave but only after the boat ahead of us left providing enough room to get norðri moving.
There must be a trick. I will chew on it for while or ask someone who actually knows to educated me.
The following was supposed to happen:
@Twin-rudders: Thank you for your cooperation.
8 Comments
Hi,
so question … did you find a solution with respect to using the bow spring? I used to have a similar problem with anotherr boat (Dufour GL 375 with only a single rudder, but still wide transom).
Full rudder, full throttle ahead, but absolutely no reaction be the boat. Tried also different positions of the spring to no avail.
Would be interested to hear from you.
Yours,
Steffen
Hi Steffen,
Unfortunately I haven’t figured it out yet. I talked to someone with a Sunfast 320 ( also twin-rudders). He said he has no issues whatsoever. I thought it’s because of the twin-rudders. Probably wrong if you Re having the same troubles with a single one.
I have to admit I haven’t tried it again yet, saving the embarrassment for some other time.
Maybe someone reding this can enlighten us … Please.
Cheers,
Benny
Another idea regarding this issue:
I suspect, than on aspect of this behavior is how the outer circumference of the hull is shaped. This may sound odd, I know, but next to fact, that one aspect of this maneuver is, that there is a torque between the point of the forward propulsion of the engine and the point where the spring is fixed to the hull, there is in addition a (virtual) point around which the hull actually has to turn around. I think a curved outer circumference of the hull facilitates this rotation, but a straight line doesn’t. More traditional boats have a relatively curved outer hull. So I suspect, that this relatively straight outer line of the hull (I think this applies to both boats) is an explanation for it. In case of the Seascape of course you also have the missing redirection of the propeller stream from the two rudder design, to make things even more difficult.
Just my thoughts on this, certainly not a “mathematical proof”.
Kind regards,
Steffen
I talked with a few people at Hanseboot about it. They all thought it wouldn’t work – nobody could offer an alternative though.
Maybe a redundant advice, but what about not using a spring, untie all the lines except the mooring line at the bow, putting the engine in reverse and steer away from the docks in reverse?
Hi Hans,
Not sure I quit understand the idea. How is the stern turning away from the pier?
Thanks,
Benny
http://beterzeilen.nl/zeilen/manoeuvres/wegvaren-lagerwal-met-een-kajuitjacht.html
Hi Benny,
This website shows a few tricks, it’s all in Dutch but the drawings are quite clear. It’s kinda like the second method, “wegvaren met voorspring methode” but not exactly. Because I’m lazy and don’t like to shift gears.
So I skip the first step, just put the motor immediately in reverse and turning the rudder away from the pier (at this time the boat is only docked with a short mooring line at the bow). Engine in reverse and the angled rudder: this will turn the stern away from the pier. When I like the angle I ask my mate to untie the mooring line at the bow, then I turn the rudder straight and drive the boat backwards away from the pier. When you have a safe distance from the pier, you shift the motor to forward and drive away.
I hope this helps (probably not), and otherwise the website shows some other methods you can try. Ultimately, your boat isn’t a heavy 45ft, so you don’t have to follow the ‘official’ methods, I’d just go with whatever works best for you.
Anyway, keep up with your blog! I like it!
Hi Benny
just browsing through your amazing blog and found this. My solution to your problem:
Use the outboard to get your stern away form the pier: You can actually turn the Tohatsu in its bracket along its vertical axis. This will give you thrust to one side. Once you are away with your stern engage neutral and tilt the engine back into the normal forward position. Should work, never had to try it though so far (have the same boat and engine, SUI 16)