- Joined
- Sep 16, 2003
- RO Number
- 12212
- Messages
- 12,207
When is the last time those of you with twin engine boats have practiced coming in your slip on one engine ?
guilty as charged... it had been over a year in my case so saturday night i decided it was time to practice. It's not that hard but it's somethign you want to try...
you need to find how much RPM you can have on one engine and stll go straight... depends on your hull and rudders.
then see if the boat will turn on the live engine or if you will need to put it in idle to make the turn... if so, that means you need to increase speed before turning... i bet boats with small rudders will not turn very well in neutral without any prop wash so you have to be ready for that.
my test went pretty smoothly. first turn into the marina is to port,90deg, no problem on the starboard engine. next is a 90 deg turn to strbd into the fairway which went fine at dead idle. my slip is near the end of the pier, so it's another quick turn to stbd to back in. i undersshoot my slip a little by turning to stbd too early (boat turned in quicker than i anticipated) but reversing on the stbd engine kicked the stern enough to get it between the pilings along with a couple of forward burst with full opposite rudder to move the stern.
of course, when you know that you can hit the starter button, it takes the anxiety out of equation but nevertheless, this is an excercise all twin engine boat owners shoudl practice regularly.
guilty as charged... it had been over a year in my case so saturday night i decided it was time to practice. It's not that hard but it's somethign you want to try...
you need to find how much RPM you can have on one engine and stll go straight... depends on your hull and rudders.
then see if the boat will turn on the live engine or if you will need to put it in idle to make the turn... if so, that means you need to increase speed before turning... i bet boats with small rudders will not turn very well in neutral without any prop wash so you have to be ready for that.
my test went pretty smoothly. first turn into the marina is to port,90deg, no problem on the starboard engine. next is a 90 deg turn to strbd into the fairway which went fine at dead idle. my slip is near the end of the pier, so it's another quick turn to stbd to back in. i undersshoot my slip a little by turning to stbd too early (boat turned in quicker than i anticipated) but reversing on the stbd engine kicked the stern enough to get it between the pilings along with a couple of forward burst with full opposite rudder to move the stern.
of course, when you know that you can hit the starter button, it takes the anxiety out of equation but nevertheless, this is an excercise all twin engine boat owners shoudl practice regularly.