- Joined
- Apr 28, 2006
- RO Number
- 21043
- Messages
- 7
Well, I have been contemplating writing this but the time has come and as I know this type of question has been asked before I need to ask for all of your help. 2 months ago I traded my single engine Larson 274 Cabrio in for a twin Larson 310 Cabrio. Although we love the boat, the days that we are out on it are fast becoming un-enjoyable due to the stress I am creating for my family when it comes to docking and anchoring. I am still trying to get a handle on using the twins correctly for docking. I have boated for years but this is the first twin engine boat I have owned. I am asking for any help or "tricks" in docking or is it just practice practice practice? I get myself so worked up that I am afraid most of all of hitting someone else's boat, I can fix mine but I don't want to pay for fixing someone else's. I start to panic as soon as I don't get it right, I try not to but it always seems to happen that way. I don't try to do anything fast, I always use the "go only as fast as you want to hit the dock" , still especially when people are around I freak out I guess cause I am afraid to look like a moron.
On the anchoring thing I have a windlass, sometimes I get it perfect sometimes no matter what I do seems to never work, take for instance yesterday we were at a place called Peanut Island in West Palm Beach, I tried to back in close to the beach so I could set the front and then use another anchor on the beach to hold the rear from moving, there is a strong current and the wind was blowing pretty good yesterday. For the life of me I could not get it to set as I was afraid of backing up and getting to close to shore and having the engines hit the bottom. I see all of these other boats doing it, why cant I do it? So, eventually what I did was pulled it in nose first towards the sand bar and it worked ok, but as I was swimming around I went under water to look at the way the anchor set and you could watch it drag, finally I pulled it up and tried to reset it by hand and after awhile it set. So my questions are:
1) can anyone please help give me some pointers on the docking thing, please?
2) Is there a trick for setting the windlass? I was told to take the boat to a stop, then put in reverse, drop the anchor, then just as the boat starts going backward put back in neutral. Is this correct and also how much rope should you put out.
Sorry for the long read but if you have any suggestions please let me know at least for my families sake before they shove me overboard!
On the anchoring thing I have a windlass, sometimes I get it perfect sometimes no matter what I do seems to never work, take for instance yesterday we were at a place called Peanut Island in West Palm Beach, I tried to back in close to the beach so I could set the front and then use another anchor on the beach to hold the rear from moving, there is a strong current and the wind was blowing pretty good yesterday. For the life of me I could not get it to set as I was afraid of backing up and getting to close to shore and having the engines hit the bottom. I see all of these other boats doing it, why cant I do it? So, eventually what I did was pulled it in nose first towards the sand bar and it worked ok, but as I was swimming around I went under water to look at the way the anchor set and you could watch it drag, finally I pulled it up and tried to reset it by hand and after awhile it set. So my questions are:
1) can anyone please help give me some pointers on the docking thing, please?
2) Is there a trick for setting the windlass? I was told to take the boat to a stop, then put in reverse, drop the anchor, then just as the boat starts going backward put back in neutral. Is this correct and also how much rope should you put out.
Sorry for the long read but if you have any suggestions please let me know at least for my families sake before they shove me overboard!