 Pivoting Blowing Off Rudder Effect Propeller Effects Moving Ahead The Set Piece Short Turn Motoring Astern Berthing Coming Alongside Leaving an Alongside Berth |
Boat Handling Under Power |
| Pivoting | |
| It is easy to drive a boat under power. To drive her well is another matter altogether, though doing so need not involve virtuoso performances. Indeed, all that most of us would ever ask is to be able to slide so quietly into our berths that no one on shore notices our arrival, and our crews never realise quite how it was done. What then happens to a boat when she is under power? Unlike a motor vehicle, a boat is not guided by the movement of anything at her front end. Whatever force is making her turn, she pivots about her centre of lateral resistance. It means, amongst other things, that if your vessel is lying alongside a dock you will never work her off it tidily by shoving the helm over and motoring ahead. Before her bow can swing out, her stern must swing in. Somehow, the bow must be persuaded to come off the wall. Pushing off is the obvious way but there are others which we shall explore later. If the yacht is moving ahead and you need to steer close around an obstruction, or avoid an imminent collision, it is vital to remember the question of pivoting. Many buoys or piles have been struck by the stern of a vessel as her helmsman turned her helm the wrong way, thinking that he was steering away from it, when all the time he was swinging the stern inexorably into danger. |
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