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Prop-Walk Is Your Friend

There is or was a thread on another forum about prop walk. I don't remember where I saw it but what caught my attention was a contribution made by our friend by Stu J - I always read his stuff because he makes good sense. I didn't have time to respond when I first saw the thread so decided to include it here.

Prop walk is something every skipper has to deal with so here's how to make prop walk work for you.

First, let's assume you have clockwise right hand rotation. If you have counter clockwise left rotation just reverse what I'm telling you. Secondly, increasing acceleration will just make things worse so go easy with the accelerator. Thirdly, what I'm about to tell you is hard to visualize sitting at your computer and also when you decide to practice do it in a turning basen until you get the hang of it.

PORT SIDE DOCKING: approach the dock at slow speed with the bow slightly angled toward the dock. Center the rudder and put the engine in reverse. The stern will swing nicely and easily toward the dock. Here's where skippers get in trouble in this situation. Instead of centering the rudder they turn it to port with the engine in reverse. Nothing happens at first so they goose the engine. As soon as they do that the stern turns to starboard. To correct that situation they then turn the rudder to starboard and that is when things start to really get screwed up. What they should have done with the centered rudder is NOTHING.

BACKING THE BOAT: At my dock I needed to back out and have the stern turn toward starboard so I can exit the slipway to the turning basin. Here's how I would do it. The first part of what I do is obvious but the second isn't. I obviously start with rudder centered and engine in reverse. Once about 3/4 of the boat is in the slipway I use prop walk to my advantage and I put the engine in FORWARD. Sounds weird but the stern swings slowly turns to starboard.

Say something is happening in the slipway and I don't have time to fool around because another boat is coming and I have to get out of the way. To whip the stern around I'd still be in FORWARD but I would turn the rudder to port and goose it. The stern will rapidly turn to starboard.

Spend a few minutes in your turning basin to get the idea of how the forward or backward motion of the boat is influenced by the position of the rudder with the engine in forward or reverse. Also, you want to see what happens when you goose the engine in each situation. What you'll notice is that if your rudder is not in the correct attitude thing go badly very rapidly.

In the next post I'll explain how to use prop walk to spin the boat completely around on its axis.

Don Guillette
SAIL TRIM CHART
SAIL TRIM USERS GUIDE
"Take the guess work out of sail trim"
Sailboatowners.com (books/reference)

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