Boat handling without neutral or reverse
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 5:28 pm
Sorry this may not strictly be a 'Seagull' issue its probably my lack of boat skills thats the issue! I've only ever used powerboats with clutches and reverse gears so last week when I was sea-trialling the new seagull I seemed to struggle with my "departure" technique... So wondering what I'm missing!
Basically in the picture below I have a sloping slipway, with tide/wind crossing it at about 35 degrees. To the western side of this (the picture is North Up) is a peir. Shallow water is a mixture of weed and rocks. There is a rope down the centre of the slipway to tie onto. Wading in as deep as my wellies allowed got the engine into deep enough water to start the engine. Had this been on a modern conventional engine I'd have started it in neutral, left it to tick over a few moments to warm up and probably with the engine in reverse and hard to port use it to pull the stern round clear of the shallows before slipping the painter , neutral drif back a couple of feet and hard to port move off forwards... With no neutral before I can even get the throttle to tickover shes pushed forward onto the slipway (dotted outline). Hard to port and starting didn't seem to work, she still pushed onto the slip and if you try hard enough the prop hit the slip too. So what should I have done? Fend offwith an oar? Hard single handed when trying to pull start. Longer Painter? But my painter is puposefully the same length as the bopat to stop prop fouling? Springs? Where and how and single handed am I stressing too much about all this rope going into my prop? Or row out and start at sea?
Was I just unlucky with my slipway and wind tide angle?
Basically in the picture below I have a sloping slipway, with tide/wind crossing it at about 35 degrees. To the western side of this (the picture is North Up) is a peir. Shallow water is a mixture of weed and rocks. There is a rope down the centre of the slipway to tie onto. Wading in as deep as my wellies allowed got the engine into deep enough water to start the engine. Had this been on a modern conventional engine I'd have started it in neutral, left it to tick over a few moments to warm up and probably with the engine in reverse and hard to port use it to pull the stern round clear of the shallows before slipping the painter , neutral drif back a couple of feet and hard to port move off forwards... With no neutral before I can even get the throttle to tickover shes pushed forward onto the slipway (dotted outline). Hard to port and starting didn't seem to work, she still pushed onto the slip and if you try hard enough the prop hit the slip too. So what should I have done? Fend offwith an oar? Hard single handed when trying to pull start. Longer Painter? But my painter is puposefully the same length as the bopat to stop prop fouling? Springs? Where and how and single handed am I stressing too much about all this rope going into my prop? Or row out and start at sea?
Was I just unlucky with my slipway and wind tide angle?