Gary and Dennis have given you pretty good advice. Both my 38 and my 25 get backed into their slips, since it makes it so much easier to get people and gear on and off the boat. The 38 sits in a slip with prevailing wind from starboard and prevailing current from port. When I had a folding prop on her, backing in was a challenge.
As Dennis said, I approached with the outer piling about 10-15 feet off the side of the boat, at idle speed or coasting along at about 1 knot, depending on the current. When the piling was abeam of the bow of the boat, I would shift to neutral and steer hard to starboard. When the boat was about 45 degrees from the centerline of the slip, and the slip was roughly abeam of the center of the boat, I would shift into reverse and rev the engine a bit so the folding prop would open and begin the transition to sternway and the propwalk would help the stern rotate into the slip. As the boat reached zero forward speed, I would raise the revs to cause the boat to gather sternway, and turn the rudder hard to port. When I had enough sternway to feel the rudder bite, I would drop to idle and shift into neutral, and steer the boat into the slip. Probably 60% of the time I could use a short burst of power in forward to stop the boat in the middle of the slip and just start grabbing lines off pilings. Remember the old henny Youngman joke: A young man dressed in a tux and carrying a violin rushes across Times Square and in a frantic voice asks and old Jewish man "Quick! How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice....Practice." I have another tip that has not been mentioned yet - install walklines on the sides of your slip. Walklines are tight lines that run parallel to the water from the outer pilings to the inner pilings on the sides of your slip. In the case of my boats, they run from the bow to stern pilings on one side, and from the bow piling to the end of the pier on the other. Any old line will do, but something that you can make tight with little stretch is best. I've used cast off lengths of old Dacron sheets. Remember I said I can get into the slip with little problem about 60% of the time, but circumstances are not always optimal because of wind and current variation - or sometimes I just screw up. With walklines rigged all I need do is get the beam of the boat to rest against the outer pilings, and I can walk the boat forward or aft and then swing it into the slip without using the engine. Or, all I need do is get the stern between the outer pilings, grab the nearest walkline, and walk the boat backwards into the slip. The walklines are also a big help when single handed - grab the line on the upwind/upcurrent side and use it to pull the boat over as you walk forward or aft to get the lines off the pilings, then let the boat down to get the lines on the other side. Rick Brass Imzadi -1976 C&C 38 mk1 la Belle Aurore -1975 C&C 25 mk1 Washington, NC -----Original Message----- From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Curtis Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 10:25 AM To: CnC-List@cnc-list.com Subject: Stus-List C&C 30 MK1 backing help As a new sailboat owner and no experance backing. can I get some insite as to how to back one of these boat into a slip. I am on a inside finger dock in the AICW Is South carolina. We have 8 foot tides and a 2 knot current at times. My bow faces the north and we have a predomanently southerl wind 4-12 knots. Any help would be great. -- "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
