[foxglove]

Many sailors put their boats bow-in a slip because they have trouble backing. The problem is partly due to prop-walk and partly due to panic.

You can use prop-walk to your advantage when backing into a slip.

If your boat backs to port, maneuver to a position with the bow pointing slightly to port and the stern aimed toward the piling that will be on your statboard as you back. The boat will straighten as you reverse your engine. The first problem is that the stern will continue swinging to port as long as you keep using reverse. The second problem is that you will panic as your stern threatens the boat on your port side.

Whatever happens, remember this, 'steer toward what you don't want to hit and shift into forward'. This will kick the stern away from danger on either side. Don't add power, just use the shift lever.

Dont bother to try to steer while backing (unless you are using speed for maneuverability). Why? Because in forward gear the prop is shooting water over the rudder which gives steerage. In reverse the prop is pulling water from all directions astern and the rudder is all but useless.

Continue backing and continue to use forward gear along with steerage to keep the boat aligned in the slip. When the boat is fully in the slip get an after-amidship springline onto a piling on the dockside and behind the boat. I use the winch to an aft piling because I can adjust the line with just a tug.

Put your fenders out and go into forward gear. Let the boat lay against the pier. Leave it in gear and steer port or starboard to align the boat in the slip.

Now, at your leisure, with the engine still in gear, secure the boat with breast and spring lines.

Note: I don't put fenders out until the boat is in the slip because they sometimes catch on a piling and spring the bow away from or into the pier.

With the boat stetn-in, your crew will no longer have to climb over the bow rail to jump down to a short finger pier. It's much safer.

Try this method on a calm day with an able crew aboard to fend when you mess up the first few tries.

Good Luck.
Captain Max on Foxglove

 

[Faster]

... or buy a boat that actually WILL back and and 'steer' where you point it!

 

[Jiminri]

Capt. Max,
I appreciate your post. That's the way I was taught. Not saying I can always do it, just that it's the way I know it's SUPPOSED to work. Multiple factors can complicate the situation for me. My boat, being cat-rigged with the mast all the way in the bow, is sensitive to wind direction. Cross winds, or especially, the wind blowing into the slip, can make the bow fall off--adding lots of drama.

 

[aelkin]

Timely post - thanks!
I've been toying with the idea of backing in this year for a couple of reasons:
1 - it's salty as hell.
2 - it should (in theory) make the application of a spring-line deployment easier when single-handing, since I currently would have to leave the helm to run forward - the rear cockpit never actually reaches the Samson post on the end of my finger when going bow-in.

Boat is a'72 C&C 35-1 - atomic 4 with folding prop.

Anybody got good reasons why this can't/shouldn't be done?

Andy

 

[jsaronson]

Max,

Good advice! I tweak your method slightly on a C&C 35:

I line up so the whole boat is to starboard of the centerline of the slip by a couple feet. Once the boat is moving I shift into neutral so I can turn the stern to make small corrections.

Andy, it will work for you too!

 

[celenoglu]

The rudder will respond while backing if the boat is moving. Try to back in open water and after the boat moves use the rudder. This might might not work for motor boats but a sailboat will respond to the rudder. Backing in open water and using the rudder and moving to your slip should also work.

 

[deniseO30]

Why and for what reasons do you NOT want to back in? Particularly if it's a new or unknown slip/marina/club? I love minor mystery and why I be very sure when backing. (Secretive grin)

 

[PitApe]

1) With a spade rudder one has at least SOME control when backing; with a skeg-hung rudder far less so; with a full keel and attached rudder little to none (usually none).

2) Transom-hung rudders, and "under-hull" rudders (is that the correct term?) that project even slightly beyond stern, are problematic when backed into a slip (i.e., it's far better to tap the dock with the bow than with the rudder).

3) All the above aside, backing in sure makes loading up the boat for a weekend cruise much easier. I have on occasion turned our boat around for just such a reason. However, due to the fact that our marina doesn't include the pulpit in the LOA measurement and allows it to extend a bit over the dock, but does get a bit anal about overextending past the end of out dock fingers (the fairway is pretty narrow), leaving our boat "pointing out" would be a technical no-no.

 

[AdamLein]

I think I should try backing in. That way when I crush my windvane against the dock, it will be much easier to repair.

 

[PitApe]

I think I should try backing in. That way when I crush my windvane against the dock, it will be much easier to repair.

That's thinking ahead!

 

[nolatom]

Thanks. I note the "calm day" suggestion.

When there's a crosswind, it will either help you (if it's blowing from starboard) or hurt you (if from port). This 'cause the prop walk will rotate you clockwise. Wind from starboard will dampen and counteract this swing, but from port will accelerate it, sometimes too much for you to get into the slip before you're 'over-rotated'.

When your prop and not-very-effective rudder won't keep you in line, then you need heroic measures--meaning useful sideways energy, either from people tugging on your piling or dock lines to straighten you*, or spring line on your (well-fendered we hope) "leeward" piling for you to back against. this is where a real rubrail, with a metal cap, pays for itself. This stuff I call the "low-tech tugboat".


*or people on the dock who will fend you off or pull you in as needed, in exchange for a beer afterward ;-)

 

[gamayun]

Couple of things that help me is that I make a 180 turn before putting it into reverse at the entrance to the fairway and then drive it in by standing at the helm facing backwards. In my boat (a 38' sloop with spade rudder, two-blade fixed prop), it has a lot of control once the prop digs in and can compensate for the strong port walk. It takes a lot of forwarding/reversing in tight quarters. I also have an upwind slip (usually), which helps to slow the boat the last few feet, but I also gun it slightly in forward right at the end to stop completely. I'm often single-handing when I do this so the trick is to not dicker around and have the boat blow off the slip before I step off or have it get pushed right back out the slip before I can get a line around a cleat. I still haven't figured out how to single-hand dock on a side-tie if there's a strong wind abeam except to come in stern first and step off the swim platform, then pull the bow around with a long bow line (yea, awkward, I know). One of these days I'll get someone to instruct me on these more intricate maneuvers.

Of course, if you're a power boat (which is the typical kind of boat when using single screw terminology, right?), then all bets are off because you don't have a keel. Ya gotta have a keel

 

[aloof]

Tip: go outside the marina and practice backing up to some mooring ball or channel marker. Do it for two hours or more until you can do it from all directions.

If there is much prop walk try coasting while turning.

If you boat does not have helm in reverse, just be happy with her classic lines. She was never meant to go in reverse.

 

[THEFRENCHA]

I sail solo most of the time and I always back up my 41 ft boat
In fact I often have problems going in forward as I have poor visibility !

For my boat an Irwin 41 moving backward it takes about 100 ft until the rudder really respond . So BEFORE the entering the Marina I do a 360 and let the boat drift in neutral for a bit. Then I switch into reverse, move around the other side of the wheel and let the boat move backward where ever she wants until I feel that the rudder is responding.
Then I enter the marina and zig zag between slips and docks very easily.
Always attract lots of attention from fellow boaters enjoying a drink in their cockpit!
I switch back to neutral just as I do the final 90 degree turn into the slip, let the boat get in and be ready for a small burst on forward to stop.
The boat is 41 ft The trick is to have a 60 ft line running ready on deck , attached on bow and stern. Have any part of this line in hand when jumping on the dock and then you can controle your boat and cleat it easily without adrenaline rush

Works for me! In fact I am bad at going in forward due to poor visibility with the dodger

 

[kjango]

I dock bow in so my cockpit & companionway are facing away from & are farther from traffic on the pier . Just a little more private . I also feel like it's way easier to back into an open fairway then backing into a slip. Just my personal preference.

 

[Sailormon6]

I frequently singlehand my 35' sloop and find it much easier to back in, and likewise easier to pull out of my slip bow-first.

I rigged lines from the dock to the pilings on both sides of my slip. When you back an aft cockpit boat into a slip, as soon as you get the stern between the outside pilings you can, if necessary, grab one of those lines, either by hand or with a boat hook, and pull the boat in the rest of the way. It's always nice to make a perfect docking, but when you back in, as soon as you get the transom between the pilings, you know you can get it in the rest of the way from there, either by using the engine, or by pulling it in by hand.

 

[smackdaddy]

Timely post - thanks!
I've been toying with the idea of backing in this year for a couple of reasons:

1 - it's salty as hell.

Bingo - that's why I do it with our 40'er.

(Well that and the fact that my shorepower cords won't quite reach the other way.)

We have a 13'-5" beam and about 15' between the pylons. It's a squeeze. But I'm getting better at it.

And fox is right. Prop walk can make life A LOT easier.

 

[gamayun]

I've always wondered if this was an East Coast versus West Coast thing. In the Chesapeake, when I first started to learn how to sail, it seemed as if 90% of the boats docked stern in. In San Francisco Bay, 90% of the boats (or likely more) dock bow in. The wind and surge are probably contributing factors for that, but it generally seems to be a preferential association with the herd.

 

[RobGallagher]

Backing into a slip with a floating dock alongside can be challenging enough with cross winds/current. It's those damn pilings that get me. With crew, not so much of a problem, but alone, it's probably the most stressful boat maneuver I can think of.

How to stop the boat, tie off the bow and stern before hitting something? I need to practice this more.

 

[Scotty C-M]

In order to make getting abord easier for my wife, I've recently switched to bringing the boat into the slip stern first. Cap'n Max did a great job of explaining. Also several of you noted that it can help to put the boat in neutral and then gain steerage ability with the rudder. One thing that I also do is to have a fender on the stern. I don't put the side ones out as was also noted earlier. The stern fender allows me to gently bring the boat against the dock. I can leave the boat ideling in reverse and the boat is pinned. Because I single hand quite a bit, this allows me to easily move around to tie dock lines.