Instructing a Total Newbie

[Me-and-Boo]

[QUOTE=jackdale;939743]

BTW could you mount a tube on a powerboat that would hold an MOB pole? I have seen that design on some sail boats.

QUOTE]

The boat I bought has a tube on the stern pupit and a MOB pole. I think the MOB pole line was handy for a sailor singlehanding the boat to have pulled in the pole in the water on the way over.

[chala]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

This list includes:
location and use of life jackets
MOB drill (actually do it with a float cushion)
?
?
Any more suggestions are welcome... Capt Phil

“location and use of life jackets” in the same locker I have harnesses and portable spot lights.
Location and operation of fire fighting equipment.
Location of all seacocks. On my boat they can all be lit up by a master switch, a good way of finding them in the dark and an easier way of inspecting and working on them.
Location of the wooden plugs and mallet to suit water inlets and outlets. The same locker contain Epirb, flares, code flags, signal and thermal blankets.
Location and operation of the bilge pumping system.
Location of fire axe or emergency knife.
Location of grab bag.
Location of first aid kit.
MOB drill (actually do it with a float cushion) including the location of dedicated retrieving lines, each line is marked with its length.
Location of life raft and launching procedure
And so on

[Capt Phil]

good suggestions, chala, thank you... and jackdale, I suspect there my be some skiing off this boat so the anderson turn used to pick up a skier is a good one to practice.
One thing on MOB drills that I used to mention was that everyone should pay attention because I wasn't worried about doing the drill myself because I was familiar with what I needed to do to pick up a MOB but if I went overboard, I wanted someone else on board to be able to come back and pick ME up. All these suggestions are really great and not only help me out but the thousands who follow this thread are learning as well. Cheers, Capt Phil

[David_Old_Jersey]

Have only done the zero to hero thing once, and that was on a small Motorboat. I took pretty much the same "hands off" approach as OP. I did major him in dancing around a field of mooring bouys - some with boats on!, many without......with me calling out distances (and the odd suggestion) - but mostly about him trying things out via trial and error whilst getting confident in using the boat / throttle / steering wheel. Back and forth and sideways. The point of using Bouys rather than fenders was a) that they were fixed so could play with currents and wind and b) wasn't sure we would get the fender back! Whilst I appreciate the advice about approaching a dock faster than you want to hit it - nonetheless useful to be comfortable with using a lot of power, if sh#t is about to happen!

I also explained (constantly!) that Docking don't have to be pretty and that everyone stuffs it up now and again, the "answer" is a Gallic style shrug - as long as no one dies all is good - and even then not always a disaster . To practice Docking initially I was onboard doing the fending off / tying up and for setting off doing the reverse (with a decent shove)......I then graduated to doing the same from the dock, albeit I didn't tell him the first time! - just a good shove and some words of encouragement .....practiced that a dozen times, until we both got bored. I also used simple hand signals, especially on distances to dock or whatever.....plus lots of thumbs ups.

Anyway, he never sank the boat - and did quite a few trips to foreign shores over several years, both with crew and also solo. Boat now safely sold.

But Two things I never cured him of:-

a) calling Warps: "Wraps".....my fault as was a typo on his basic equipment list . he still does it .

b) head buried in Chartplotter a tad too much for my comfort - but he is an IT wallah, so I guess that is to be expected........

[Capt Phil]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, DOJ... I was a little uncertain about starting out with this whole 'hands off', it's your boat, you need to learn how to drive it approach, but it seems to have worked out well... he is up for another lesson this pm. Will work on more docking practice before the marina fills up, some MOB drills with the help of previous posters and start the checklist scenarios.
All here have been very helpful with suggestions and corrections... cheers, Capt Phil

[Tony B]

I was a commercial crew boat Capt in the Gulf of Mex for a few years. We ran men and equipment back and forth to the oil rigs all day long. Whenever I had a new Capt to train my emphasis was on how slow can you dock and not how fast.
When you come in 'hot', you have to throttle down and then reverse and the boat does not always respond the way you want it to so now you have to do corrective maneuvers and all this while bumping the boats next to you and waking up people from sleep. Not a good way to make friends. Point being is that you should dock as slow as you can while still maintaining control.
I never handles a twin engine pleasure boat but I am sure the principles are the same. I have only owned single engine rec boats so a twin should be a walk in the park.

[Capt Phil]

Great suggestion, Tony B, thanks... I told the new skipper to never come in to the dock faster than he wanted to hit it and that really stuck with him. He is a cardiac surgeon and is used to threading stents through blood vessels so he pretty savy about putting things in small places. Twin IB/OB are a big help. Your advice is right on the money, however... cheers, Capt Phil