John Mendez here in the latest of our How To series. This time we're looking at
manoeuvring and berthing a single-engine boat. Marex have very kindly given us
a nice 310 with a single out drive, and we have a bow thruster just in case it's
not going too well. We're going to show you how to get in and out of a berth,
quite a windy day, so that's good, and quite a constrained marina as well, so
lots to think about. So just a little tip - this boat's new to
me, I've never driven it, stepped on it this morning, seems very nice,
couple of things I always do before I go anywhere, firstly spin the wheel,
so I've got one, two, three, about three turns lock to lock, and this one's got no
helm indicator at all, so now I'm going to come one and a half, so I know that
the wheel's pretty much centered, that's really key to making it all comfy for me
and I know how much to turn for a little or a lot.
The other thing I want to know is how abruptly does it go in the gear, so just
a click into ahead and, as the cameraman nearly falls down the stairs, you can see
there's quite a bit of bite, clicking astern, and he's braced this time, and we
see the boat's got quite a bit of bite, so I don't need to be in gear for very long,
and lastly, because it's 31 foot we've got a bow thruster, so turn it on and
just a little, again it seems to work quite nicely, that's moved about quite
successfully, and remembering that when we bow thruster one way, the stern goes the
other. So I'm on my own today, I've got to do solo boating, so I've got myself all
set, helm centred, bow thruster on you can see there's a nice breeze holding the
boat off, so I'm going to release my bow line, pull the boat in just a fraction so
that it's not blowing away till I'm on, release the stern line, and off we go.
The boat's sitting there quite nicely, step on release my stern line, which I've got set
with a nice little loop, bring all that in up to the helm, so as I'm coming out
I'm just going as slow as I dare, not got a lot of room on the bow,
so as I'm approaching something that's downwind of me I need to get the boat
stopped about now, so a little click of astern, we're almost stopped, and then the
wheel hard over to port, think of the stern, so I'm doing my turn by dragging the
boat away and the thing I'm trying to miss, little click of ahead, watching
that stern again, not a lot of room in this marina, nice little click of astern,
now that gives me that extra drag in the boat up to the top of the hill, wheel hard
over to stop it for that, click ahead, and now I'm trying to drive the boat up
towards this upwind side as I come through the turn I've got to straighten up,
otherwise I'll clunk things with the stern, and now I'm leaving with this nice
angle between the center of the boats, so the wind's trying to push me to port
keeping the bow up, I'm in neutral, very little speed of the boat through the
water, but I'm controlling that bow and the wind effect on it, you see the wind
on the water, and there's a bit more wind as I get to the corner, so I have just a
click of ahead here, and another little one, and then as I'm ready for the turn
we're over to starboard into gear, have a good look, make sure there's nothing
coming, it's a bit of a blind corner, wheel still over, another little click,
don't really want anything in the way of momentum, just want to be nicely in
charge without being forceful, starting to come around into gear, gently
straighten them up, and we're out. Key things there - wheel before gear,
absolutely crucial, because otherwise I'm giving the boat momentum before it's
going in the direction I want, so that's the most important: wheel before gear, and
then the most important thing after that is neutral. Neutral allows you time
to think, time for the boat's momentum to either accelerate or dissipate
depending what you need, and just allows you to be going slower and you can think,
which is for me quite slow, so we left the berth quite nicely actually, we
didn't use the bow thruster at all, but if you've got a bow thruster it's a great
bit of kit, so let's just show you when and how I would use it, if it was mine
and I thought it was really worthwhile. So if you struggle a bit with wheel
movements and getting it all spot-on every time, bow thruster's a fantastic aid. I'll just give
you a couple of tips of when and how. I'll just untie. So I've just untied, from
the air you'll see that we're really square, skewiff even, in the berth, so
I've bowthrusted out to get the bow out of it, and now I've had to use
some helm to get the boat a bit straighter because we're all over the
place - wind really caught us, so that little click of bowthruster then was
great, I'm just having another little one - just straighten me up a bit, because
we're a bit close to the RIB here, and then we do that click ahead, just as we
did before, now a little click ahead, and it is quite a tight space, no getting
away from it, so when I do that little bit of astern now to slow the boat down.
If it all feels a bit tight, just make sure the boat's as stationary as you can
get it, I'm gonna do that, little bit of wheel to port and a click astern, now I'm
just going to have a little bow thruster, just to remember we naturally look at
the bow, that's the bit we have to remember - the stern of the boat. Now a
little bow thruster, because we're quite close there, and that's brought me nicely up,
so now I need to think about, just the same as before,
keep that bow up and out we go, and generally I wouldn't use it from
there on, I might on this corner if I was really struggling, but the engines much
more powerful. When the boat's very, very slow, or better still stationary, the bow
thruster's a great little thing.