30
Sep
As waves increase in size so does the wetted surface of the boat- requiring more horsepower to keep a given speed which burns more fuel with the increased rpms. Practice it once youre good at it youll be able to turn the boat 360 degrees in its own length dock backward and pull all sorts of tricks youd need a bow thruster or an IPS drive for otherwise.
A twin-engine boat has the upper hand when maneuvering in tight marinas.
Driving a twin engine boat. This week we joined Tom as he walks us through how to dock a boat using the Twin engines to help maneuver you into your slip or dock. Put your starboard engine in reverse and your port engine in forward. Give both enough power to get things moving.
The stern will probably lead the rest of the boat toward the pier. Ease your wheel slightly until the boat begins to straighten out. To get the boat on plane initially you might need to move some weight such as gear and crew members toward the bow.
Outboard boats tend to squat in the stern and rise in the bow as they accelerate out of the hole. Getting weight out of the aft quarters and onto the bow helps the boat climb on plane. So lets start with two important facts.
1 any twin engine boat is capable of very precise control and 2 all adverse conditions like wind and tides can be turned to your advantage. But first lets make sure that you understand the basic principles of twin engine boat control. Click for bigger graphic.
A twin engined boat is designed to perform with two engines and will be difficult to manouvre with one engine. Apart from that it is bad for the engine gearbox of the engine not being used to be dragged along which is why our sailing chums have a feathering prop or a means to stop the shaft rotating whilst under sail. Although it seems counterintuitive backing a twin-engine outboard boat into a slip is actually easier than backing in a single-engine boat.
Having twins means you have the ability to oppose the engines putting one into forward and the other into reverse which causes the boat to spin in place. Plus you have more propeller blade area and thus. What Ive discovered with this boat is with the twin engine installation its not going to plane on one engine so youre going displacement speed maybe 5kt max.
A 10hp outboard will push it about that speed. So if I want to have back-up capacity I can get that with an outboard on a bracket. On a single engine boat the motor is on the centerline of the transom and the thrust is therefore balanced.
Whereas on a twin the motors are off center. Therefore when operating a twin with only one motor the thrust is off center and unbalanced creating differences from handling a single as well as several challenges to be prepared for. The major maneuvering benefit of a twin engine boat is the ability to drive without using the rudders.
Practice it once youre good at it youll be able to turn the boat 360 degrees in its own length dock backward and pull all sorts of tricks youd need a bow thruster or an IPS drive for otherwise. A twin-engine boat has the upper hand when maneuvering in tight marinas. The skipper can use differential thrust to turn the boat tightly usually within its length.
The newest fly-by-wire motors and steering systems are computerized allowing for amazingly easy docking with simple joystick control. Docking with Twin Engines As you may have guessed having two separate engines makes things much easier at least when it comes to the slow-speed maneuvering involved with docking. Being able to put one engine in forward and the other in reverse allows the driver to pivot the boat much more effectively than with a single engine.
A twin engine boat is designed to run with both engines so running a single propeller in a boat designed for two may also mean the single propeller will not be as effective as the seas build. As waves increase in size so does the wetted surface of the boat- requiring more horsepower to keep a given speed which burns more fuel with the increased rpms. As you move parallel to the slip enter with both engines in reverse adjusting position by countering thrust and bumping the engines in and out of gear when needed.
When ready to tie up put both engines in forward to arrest the movement and bring the boat to dock. Twin engine boats with Joystick is a very popular option and if your boat has it there will be a second controller directly behind the throttleshifter control. This feature allows the operator to maneuver the boat at low speed with the Joy Stick control rather than the throttleshift levers.
A single-engine boat with a dual counter-rotating drive such as MerCruisers Bravo Three or Volvo-Pentas DuoProp is good but they tend to push the boat a little faster at idle speeds. That isnt so handy for docking. A twin-engine boat operates with less load on the engines and requires less rpm to reach reasonable cruising speeds.
As a First time twin engine owner this past AugustI hired instructor Captain Rick who works out of Queens NY to come with me to bring my boat from broker to my marina 4 hr ride. A week later he gave myself and my 2 sons a 3 hour lesson on close quarter handling with each of. Welcome to The Boat Docker.
This simulator is designed to train you to dock your twin engine or single IO power boat before you actually try it in the water. This is not a game but a simulator. Thanks for all the feedback.
We continuously update the simulator to make it an effective tool. The results not surprisingly proved that a single engine boat with a bow thruster could do everything that a twin engine boat could do whether docking backing down a fairway or coming close enough to a float to test each boats ability to stay under.