OK, here goes. Without the piling near your bow between you and the boat sharing your slip to your port, it has no application in the scenario you presented. But, if you did have the piling between your bow and that other boat, here is the technique.Not in this case, but post your solution please. Always like to have another idea in the back pocket.
Oddly enough, Sevee's situation does not actually involve a face dock. It's just a double wide slip with a finger on one side and a boat on the other. The technique I described above would have zero application on a face dock either. Some of the other suggestions in the thread would, but definitely not the one I offered.No piling? Use a dock side cleat in the same manner as you would use a piling.
It is nice to know how to get off a face dock but realize, based upon my observation, only the rice folks with big, long boats get to use the face dock and that's not me.
Face docks are prevalent in many areas of the East Coast ICW and as a lowly 40 footer have spent plenty of nights on them.
Especially in canals and narrow waterways...sometimes face docks are the only type of dock offered.
That's right. Diagram attached.
I'm tied to the dock in Position A
What I did was release all the lines, manually push off and was able to get a few feet forward at a time. When I got to position B, half way out, the wind started to take the bow, so I put the port engine in reverse, starboard forward. That cleared the dock by a foot or so, then both in forward as I headed out the boat continued to pivot with the bow going down wind, but I cleared the dock and once clear it was easy to maneuver.
I'd just like to clean it up a bit. And if there were a big boat on the next pier down wind of me, sticking out a bit, it would have been a bit more scary.
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And, FWIW in response to comments:
Couldn't go back at all. Concrete wall, but shallow the first 10 feet out with oysters.
Have tried the following: With a big fender at the aft side against the dock, put a line on the closest boat cleat and tie to a piling to swing the bow out. Problem is the swim platform hits the pilings, at a point where there are nasty barnicles. But "could" work in the right circumstance.
Normally, I have thrusters, not this time.
Appreciate the thoughts
Because he is describing a situation where higher wind than usual is holding him to his starboard tie dock-face. To steer out he'd have to use quite a bit of port helm, which would press the boat even harder against said dock.Why not just steer your way out?
Quoted by SeeVee,"
The boat is stern in, side tie to starboard. Typically I can shove it off (at least the bow) and put the starboard engine in idle forward, and the port in idle reverse and it will twist the boat just enough to head straight out."
With the engines (gears) turning as you say, some boats will go sideways if you put the rudders hard over to stb. and varying amounts of throttle so no forward motion is gained.
My 46 with the keel will not, but that same combo will push the stern out. In combination with a fwd spring off the stern (ready to release) you may get the clearance needed to proceed.
In our home slip, we're backed in. Tied to one side, although we do have a center piling at the outer end between the 2 boats. Generally, if there's a significant crosswind while departing, we'll push or pull the bow towards the up-wind side of the available space right before we depart (admiral is on the bow to do this while I drop the last spring and stern lines before returning to the helm). Depending on the wind I may push the stern off the dock a bit or pull it closer as well. Then it's just a matter of adjusting speed and which engine goes into gear first (for prop walk) to make a straight shot out of the slip.
If the wind is so strong that we can't get out of the slip without hitting the bow, it's probably too strong for us to have any desire to go out anyway.
Sounds like that is the solution then!
~A
If you are twin screw with enough rudder area, you should practice moving your boat sideways. Say you want to move your boat to port, you come ahead on your port engine and astern on your stb engine while at the same time you are hard port with your rudders. It takes more throttle than you might think, and you will have to adjust your throttles to keep from moving ahead or astern, and you may need to adjust your rudders slightly. Opposite of the above if you want to move your boat to stb.
It will take a bit of practice but once you get it you will be able to move your boat sideways into or out of a tight place.
Once you have moved sideways in your slip you can slightly ease your astern throttle and you will start to move forward and correct your heading with your rudders. Again, practice makes it easier.
N
I haven't found many boats that can really move sideways enough to eve really use the technique. Maybe because I was rarely at docks that had light enough winds or currents when I really needed to move sideways.
Plus...if you want to move to port, do you really want the rudders hard to port with the port engine in forward?
For that last bit, to move port, you'd be rudders hard stbd, stbd engine fwd, port engine reverse. But that means you're creating a battle of prop walk vs rudder on most boats, hence the very limited amount of sideways movement.
I know how I would do it...
I was commenting on this posting... "If you are twin screw with enough rudder area, you should practice moving your boat sideways. Say you want to move your boat to port, you come ahead on your port engine and astern on your stb engine while at the same time you are hard port with your rudders. It takes more throttle than you might think, and you will have to adjust your throttles to keep from moving ahead or astern, and you may need to adjust your rudders slightly. Opposite of the above if you want to move your boat to stb."
For that last bit, to move port, you'd be rudders hard stbd, stbd engine fwd, port engine reverse. But that means you're creating a battle of prop walk vs rudder on most boats, hence the very limited amount of sideways movement.
Yeah, that description was totally backwards.
It is not the prop walk you are using, ahead on one engine and astern on the other puts a twisting thrust on the boat to move the stern in one direction, bow in the opposite direction, counter rudder then causes a flow of move the stern in that direction, so the twist moves the bow, rudder thrust moves the stern.
M
I realized that after I posted. I am a bit dyslexic, I was a cop but got fired for giving IUD's to drunk drivers.
M
It is not the prop walk you are using, ahead on one engine and astern on the other puts a twisting thrust on the boat to move the stern in one direction, bow in the opposite direction, counter rudder then causes a flow of move the stern in that direction, so the twist moves the bow, rudder thrust moves the stern.
M