25 runs but won’t walk

[Burton]

Our harbormaster and a friend who is experienced with single screw boats have both tried to get our A25 Deluxe to prop walk to snug up to the dock. It just won’t do it. Does anybody else have this problem? Any suggestions as to what to do? The prop is a right hand 16/14 which does well with the 40 horse Yanmar with 2.36 reduction drive. The Harbormaster was running the boat and said, “...d—-ndest thing I’ve ever seen.” The prop is slightly over pitched. I am new to this mode of power, so can rightly plead ignorance.

[nebulatech]

Just throwing it out there, is the rudder out of alignment?

[Ambler27FC]

Our rudders seem to be much larger than most power boats. Even at very slow reverse speeds I can overcome prop walk with rudder position. Perhaps try your approach from the other direction to test this out? I have an A27, but suspect it is similar.

[DesertAlbin736]

I've found our prop walk is fairly minimal at pulling the stern to port with right hand prop. It'll back more or less straight but with a right hand prop is very difficult to swing the stern to starboard when backing without some sternway on to have rudder steerage or if slow then giving short, sharp rudder kicks in forward to line up. For snugging up to the dock using a spring line might be your best bet. Not this Bar Harbor harbor master was it?

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Spring on...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1fEDCT4kDM

Spring off...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MJnyPCFjKk



If you don't have midships cleats you should add some.

Ambler, if from Patuxent River this should look familiar.....

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[motthediesel]

I too am finding that “prop walk” on our A27 is very minimal. Of course most of my SS inboard time has been in vintage runabouts and ski boats, so they don’t have the big keel to shove sideways that the Albin has.
I’m getting more used to it though, and it seems that pushing the stern into the dock in “forward” is a better play.

[Ambler27FC]

That is a good point - when you are just about backed in you could use a short burst of fwd to both stop your motion and kick the stern to the dock.

DesertAlbin - I know where every one of those pictures was taken! Let me know if you are ever back on the Chesapeake.

[ssrig]

Yes very minimal prop walk for mine, lots of ways to snug it up but I go bow in and port side tie up all the time and I approach the dock at a slight angle slow then when I am nearly there reverse to come to a stop and give it a small shot of power with the rudder full starboard and she snugs in real nice.

Sometimes there are folks on the dock to try and help but I tell my wife to not give them a line until we are done otherwise they seem to always screw it up by pulling the bow into the dock at the wrong time and bump into it!

Keeping it standard all the time ie. bow in port tie up is the best, then a system will be developed that works for you.

[Burton]

Just throwing it out there, is the rudder out of alignment?

I don’t think so. With the hull clean, the boat does almost 11 knots, With nothing strange in the steering— Not sure how to check it.

[Burton]

I've found our prop walk is fairly minimal at pulling the stern to port with right hand prop. It'll back more or less straight but with a right hand prop is very difficult to swing the stern to starboard when backing without some sternway on to have rudder steerage or if slow then giving short, sharp rudder kicks in forward to line up. For snugging up to the dock using a spring line might be your best bet. Not this Bar Harbor harbor master was it?
20170905_144035.jpg

Spring on...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1fEDCT4kDM

Spring off...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MJnyPCFjKk



If you don't have midships cleats you should add some.

Ambler, if from Patuxent River this should look familiar.....


Thanks! Not Bar Harbor, but Ellsworth.
0628151143a.jpg



0628151202.jpg
DSCN2904 (1280x960).jpg
DSCN3041.JPG
DSCN2893.JPG

[Burton]

Yes very minimal prop walk for mine, lots of ways to snug it up but I go bow in and port side tie up all the time and I approach the dock at a slight angle slow then when I am nearly there reverse to come to a stop and give it a small shot of power with the rudder full starboard and she snugs in real nice.

Sometimes there are folks on the dock to try and help but I tell my wife to not give them a line until we are done otherwise they seem to always screw it up by pulling the bow into the dock at the wrong time and bump into it!

Keeping it standard all the time ie. bow in port tie up is the best, then a system will be developed that works for you.

Ha! This is exactly what we have found to work. Port side to dock, approaching slowly, shifting from forward to Neutral, then crank the wheel to starboard, a little burst of throttle and the stern comes right over. I was thinking I must be doing something wrong when I couldn’t get it to walk the way I was advised to do. Thanks!

[WillieC]

Northern hemisphere, RH prop. There’s the problem.

My LH prop works every time, especially above latitude 49.

https://youtu.be/owq7hgzna3E

[DesertAlbin736]

DesertAlbin - I know where every one of those pictures was taken! Let me know if you are ever back on the Chesapeake.

We'll have to see what next year brings. We'd like to do East Coast like we had planned for this summer & end with a fall cruise on the Chesapeake. Last time we were there was in July five years ago & was just so hot, muggy, & stormy. Just have to decide where to launch from. Last time we launched La Dolce Vita on the Nanticoke River at Blades, DE because that's near where my late parents lived after they retired & moved down from upstate NY. But that's a 35 mile run down river to get to the bay. Maybe next time if there is one start from the upper bay near Annapolis. Or we could launch from the ramp under the north end of the Rt 4 bridge in Solomons. We'll see.

My first jaunt on the Chesapeake was back in 2002 when I had a Montgomery 15 sailboat & cruised with some guys in that owners' group, and the Rt 4 ramp was where they launched from. I launched from Tyler Cove boat ramp on Fishing Creek by Honga River on the Eastern Shore. Crossed over to Solomons single handed in this little boat*.

*yes, I've always been a little nuts.

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[TorreyWP]

Is your prop a 3 or 4 blade?

4 blade would help if it is not already.

[nebulatech]

Off topic, but DA, your boat Scamp had really nice lines! What is the white/orange thing in the cockpit?

[DesertAlbin736]

Off topic, but DA, your boat Scamp had really nice lines! What is the white/orange thing in the cockpit?

There were a couple throw cushions & an insulated water jug sitting next to the tiller.

As long as we're off topic, here's the same boat with me in it in a classified ad that the original builder Jerry Montgomery ran for a couple years in Small Craft Advisor magazine. This was off Monterey, CA in 2003. In '03 I sailed the same boat from Marina Del Rey in L.A. out to Catalina Island. I have no idea who took the photo.

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And motoring up St. Leonard's Creek, MD in 2002.

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I sold it in 2005 & upsized to a Catalina 22 which I kept until getting a Catalina 25 in 2008, but a subsequent owner had it stored at Lake Pleasant, AZ a couple years ago.

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Before I sold it I replaced the companionway hatch boards with 9MM teak veneer Okeume marine grade plywood. I used some leftover pieces to build my hardtop hatches on La Dolce Vita. This boat was 1980 hull #102, the 2nd M15 ever built. The cabin consisted of a V berth with a porta potty under the center cushion & a small footwell to sit in the cabin. The only way to sit up straight in the cabin was to open the sliding hatch & stick your head out with the cabin top at about shoulder level. One of the best times I had with the boat was when I trailered it east to Delaware in 2002. My parents wre still alive & my stepdad flew out & we drove back together & slept in the boat in RV campgrounds over the four days & three nights the it took to get there. When skirting DC we made a wrong turn & ended up on the Beltway during 5PM rush hour. That was fun. I had a '91 GMC Safari mini van at that time. My mom passed the following January & was the last time I was able to spend quality time with her as she was quite ill. The whole boat + trailer rig weighed all of 1,500 lbs. It had a shoal keel plus pie slice shaped quadrant non ballast lifting centerboard.

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