Exiting tight marina berths with a sail drive

[Bavchi32]

In our Marina once we have backed out of our finger pontoon, we have 4m between us and the opposite boats, to make the 90° turn to the channel.  Our Bavaria 32 is not new, but its newish to us and our first saildrive boat. With no prop kick how do you manage on your boat to make a tight turn? 

Returning is no problem as our speed gives steerage, just like our old boat, Chichester Marina has minimal ?tide? so excluding any help or hindrance from the prevailing wind. 

Whats your best technique ?

[Sadlerfin]

I'll be interested in the replies, last year I replaced my Sadler which had a strong prop warp to port with a Bav with sail drive.

The prop warp could be at times a real pain and other times a real help. I now love the fact that I can go astern in a straight line, well almost. The issue I've found is the delay in power to the rudder so the first  few times I tried to turn there was a delay before she turned. I've found a quick burst of high revs will get her to turn quicker. I can now get onto my mooring astern which is a great help

The other point is the windage the old Sadler being low in the water had little with the bav she will be blown down wind if I don't get it right first time.

Any other tips?

Derek

[Yngmar]

Saildrives do give prop walk (I think that's what you call prop kick) in reverse. Mine wants to turn to starboard, so that's the way I turn when reversing out of the berth - going the other way she's less willing and has a much larger turn radius. So step one is to make sure you are turning in the direction the boat prefers. For me that means going backwards down the fairway until I can turn, but that's no problem as the boat tracks fine going astern.

If you have a single rudder, you can stop the boat, then turn the rudder hard over so the prop wash is pushed sideways by the rudder, giving you a lot of rotation and almost no forward movement. Using this, you can rotate the boat around the keel while standing still. Practice this somewhere with a bit of room first - it's the most useful thing ever.

If you have twin rudders, you can't do the above and that's why they sell bowthrusters  Ok, you can probably do some awkward looking things similar to doing a three point turn in a car even with that.

Found a video illustrating these two things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TMB4-EPMAI

[dawntreader]

What you have to remember is that the sail drive is in front of the rudder. When going forwards and in 'drive' the propeller pushes water backwards at speed onto the rudder allowing for more controlled movement. However, once in reverse drive the water is pushed forwards (towards the keel) and the rudder only has water at 'boat speed' to steer with. This reduces maneuverability. Therefore, she will be a pig to steer in reverse. You will find - to your dismay - that with the wind in the 'wrong' direction she may not want to turn at all going backwards. When appropriate I often reverse out until the nose is clear and then use a series of quick bursts in forward with the helm right over and then back into reverse with the helm straight to do the equivalent of a 3-point turn.

[Lyra]

As Yngmar wrote saildrives do have prop walk (any prop has it, 2 blades more than 3) but due to its location closer to the pivot point it has less effect than in props located way astern - just find out which way your is going and assuming no wind or current effects turn to the direction where it helps the rudder.
Also remember that when reversing your pivot point goes backwards so turning the wheel hard over will give the bow more turning momentum then to the stern, so I would say that once the bow is just clearing the pontoon turn the wheel over and the boat should turn without backing too much from the pontoon.
As a last resort (wind in wrong direction or just feeling unsure enough) you can use a slip line to the corner of the pontoon.
I have a small book on the boat which I find useful for reference - "Illustrated Seamanship" by Ivar Dedekam - small size, less than 100 pages, more picture than words, 3 chapters - ropework, boat handling under power and anchoring. BY the way he also has a good booklet about Sail theory and tuning.

[Salty]

In our Marina once we have backed out of our finger pontoon, we have 4m between us and the opposite boats, to make the 90° turn to the channel.  Our Bavaria 32 is not new, but its newish to us and our first saildrive boat. With no prop kick how do you manage on your boat to make a tight turn ?

Whats your best technique ?

I rig one of my stern lines as a slip rope that can be slipped and recovered from onboard. As I back out from the pontoon the rope is slacked carefully in order to allow the boat out straight until there is room to start to turn at which point the rope is then checked and only slacked sufficient to allow the boat to turn. This causes the boat to start to turn while ensuring that you don't get too close to the boats secured on the opposite pontoons. Once turned and pointing in the right direction the rope is slipped and rapidly retrieved onboard. It is very important to ensure that there are no knots or splices on the end of the rope you are retrieving that might get caught up and jam, and also that the rope is retrieved fully before it sinks and might get caught around the prop. May be best to use a line that will float such as polypropylene, in which case only use it for this purpose and not as a permanent mooring as polyprops can degrade in sunlight.
My alternative method is to determine before leaving which way the wind will cause the boat to swing as you leave your berth, and use that swing to your advantage.

[Bavchi32]

Thank you all for your tips and suggestions. I'll do a bit more experimenting and see if I can make some improvements
 thanks again