A25 - reversing into the slip

[tbnolin]

We had a single screw with our 24'er. We had a river current at our marina which ran perpendicular to the slips. Fortunately, there was someone at the marina most times when you were coming in and they always were there to help. For the most part....practice makes perfect! Good Luck

[DesertAlbin736]

Ugh, those East Coast fixed slips with pilings & itty bitty finger piers that don't go up and down with the tides! Have to practically be a cowboy to lasso those pilings. We had to be so careful not to snag our dinghy on the pilings. We like the West Coast floating slips & docks much better. Then again we don't generally have to worry about hurricanes & the docks being washed away.

Slips & floating docks in Roche Harbor, San Juan Islands, WA. Typical of West Coast docks. You just pull in, tie off your lines to dock cleats & you're done.

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vs fixed docks & pilings on the Chesapeake (Vera's Beach Club marina on St. Leonard's Creek in this case).

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[Jeremyvmd]

I prefer the pilings and fixed dock. I just feel they are more secure. Never really had an issue getting a rope around one and on my home slip it's easy, set the line length, tie it off to the pose and the loop to the cleats on the boat.

[Northern Spy]

I haven't tried to dock stern to with my A25 yet but it seems to handle well enough. I used to back my old 25' stern drive cabin boat al the time. The trick is to minimize the amount of backing you have to do. try to swing around and have the stern come up to a piling then get a bow line on it to control it.
The A25 actually turns pretty well in reverse, you just have to have enough room and speed to get the water moving over the rudder. Be minful of your windage by looking at nearby flags or sailboats wind indicators.

[kerrye]

Or tie a bit of wool or light plastic on your bow rail to show the wind direction.

[Jeremyvmd]

Or buy a AOG burgee and fly that on a bow pole...lol

[Jay Knoll]

Personally I like to go bow in -- gives us a bit more privacy

[2manyboats]

I could sit on the dock all day and watch people try to get into a slip. Most new boaters try to line up paralle with the dock and simply drive in. If the wind and current are favorable, this will work. If either are against you, don't be afraid to drive in at a 30 degree angle, turn and reverse at the last moment, jump out and secure the mid line. fuss with getting the others secured when you have time.

Remember, opposite of an automobile. Put the bow where you need it, and make the stern do what it needs to do to complete the process.

You will look like an old salt the very first time.
Wayne

[Jeremyvmd]

It's funny because I was out chasing blues yesterday and when I was comig in the state police were doing their marine training for running their boats (state police use the same marina as me for their boats). To watch the guys who have likely never docked a boat try was great.

[Beta Don]

The trick is to minimize the amount of backing you have to do . . . .
The A25 actually turns pretty well in reverse, you just have to have enough room and speed to get the water moving over the rudder.

I agree with the latter statement. With my old 34' sailboat, I used to put her in reverse out at the end of the pier, get up some speed and back her the 100 yards or so down the channel to my slip, make a 90 degree turn into the slip and hit a short burst of forward power to stop and then grab a line or two off the poles - Newcomers to the marina would stand and stare! I singlehanded her for several years and could never count on an extra hand at any time, so training myself on what she liked to do and when was the key. Most boats are fairly manageable in reverse *if* you have 2 or 3 knots of water flowing by the rudder

Don

[Vic K]

I was always taught that boat rudders were designed to go forward and not the reverse. The shorter the backing distance and the lower the rpm's the less chance of damaging the rudder. When the boat is in neutral the prop walk is gone. Learn to use the prop walk. Short burst of power for control. The turn of the bow is controlled from the stern. Just like pushing a grocery cart. Which ,by the way, is a good way to learn how to drive/park a twin engine boat.
If you're backing in and the wind is coming at you from the bow you're asking for problems. Where 'Mary jo' is parked ( floating docks) the prevailing wind is from the southeast. With this wind I can back in or put her bow in without much problem that is if there isn't too much wind. With the wind from any other direction I really have to think about trying to back in.
Like someone else said we prefer parking bow in for the privacy. The windshield cover also helps a lot. Really it's for the protection of the passing public. Who wants to see an old farto in his skivvies.

Vic

[Sunsetrider]

Agree with the privacy point, but I am going on the assumption that a stbd tie holds advantages that supercede privacy and a port tie. As for the rest, as soon as I can get some fuel to make it all the way to the cylinders (&^^%$) I'll master the reverse! I believe that in our new slip the westerly will hurry us into the slip, so that will be fun as well.
Yes, it has not been a good day despite the seasonal launch. Bubbles of fuel from an injector and unable to hold prime. {shakes fist at the heavens}

[NickScheuer]

Beta Don has the best answer. One big reason we chose an Albin-25 instead of some twin screw contemporary design to replace out Cruising Yawl was after seeing the Lobstermen along the Maine Coast dance around with their single screw boats, and wanting to try my hand at it. After 4 years of "not enough time in the boat as we'd like", I'm getting better. Ya'know, if you're backing, and prop walk is pulling your stern the wrong way, you can try a short of "ahead, opposite rudder", and while the stern is still waltzing sideways the right direction from that, you resume "slow astern". Hey, those Lobsterman ain't Brain Surgeons, they're just experienced.

[Sunsetrider]

First time in I gave up and ended up going in bow first - slowly - no problem but also no significant breeze. And of course annoying to pull up to the dock port side where I can't see it from the helm. I tried driving past with my slip to port, then reversing while swinging the stern to port into the slip but just not enough room to go far enough past from the slip to do it since of course the stern does not like to swing to port in R. I would be delighted to use Don's impressive method, but I worry about sliding onto a SeaRay or something similar as my downwind slipmate. So if the Marina Mistress fails in finding me a starboard berth I will practice the straight back method by using the technique Nick suggests: R, then N-F spurt, then R, and so on. But so tiresome after those happy years of pulling smoothly into my starboard slip and snugging the stern smartly to the stbd finger dock with a blurt of R. Boom! Passengers, applaud your captain!

[NickScheuer]

Keep the faith Sunsetrider, one day you may notice someone who appears as though he or she might know their onions standing on the dock not far away, or maybe even some distance away but with a good view, and as you are making fast your lines you may look up to see he or she standing right there in front of you, and he or she may say to you, "damm fine job of boat handing, sir."