Lots of good advice from many with lots of experience and knowledge. Under the conditions you describe, it is probably fair to say that every time you dock you will find very different conditions between wind and current.
IMHO the simple solution is (1) LOTS of practice in open water so you can get a feel for how your boat responds in reverse as a function of its speed, no matter the cause--prop walk, wash, etc. etc. Once you are "at one with the boat in reverse", (2) KNOW the wind direction at or very near your slip by looking at the wind vanes of the boats tied up near your slip. You must also KNOW the current direction and speed--can't help you much here as there are neither in my neck of the woods. (3) Start your approach to the slip from a distance far enough away that you have the boat in moving in reverse (couple of knots) and then move the transmission to neutral and coast under rudder control. Keep speed up by engaging the transmission for short bursts to maintain enough speed to have the rudder controlling the boat direction, but mostly keep it in neutral. The speed you need may be more than you would like but if you move too slow, the wind and/or current will take over--it can take pretty big kahunas to do this but speed is absolutely necessary for the rudder to work (4) If you get the stern more or less in the slip (between drifting and powering in reverse), you can stop the boat quickly with a switch to forward and a burst of throttle. Grabbing a stern line will fix your stern--and if you are alone, you will have to get to the bow to secure it--although others may have betters solutions here. If all h...breaks loose as you come in and you can manage it safely regarding other traffic, put the boat in forward and get out to a distance from the slip and repeat beginning at (3) above. Slow speed maneuvers near a slip between reverse and forward are difficult in calm wind and waters. In your situation, you need reverse speed and rudder control--neither of which is possible in close quarters unless they are gained in relatively open waters away from the slip. Practice, practice, practice,...and good luck--I have always put my boat in stern first, beginning with my Pearson 28 offset folding prop, thru my current boat with a Max-Prop and now a folding Gori. Charlie Nelson Water Phantom C&C 36 XL/kcb cenel...@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Curtis <cpt.b...@gmail.com> To: CnC-List <CnC-List@cnc-list.com> Sent: Thu, Jul 18, 2013 10:25 am Subject: Stus-List C&C 30 MK1 backing help As a new sailboat owner and no experance backing. can I get some insite as to how to back one of these boat into a slip. I am on a inside finger dock in the AICW Is South carolina. We have 8 foot tides and a 2 knot current at times. My bow faces the north and we have a predomanently southerl wind 4-12 knots. Any help would be great. -- “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
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