Morgan OI 416 in reverse

[Allied39]

LOL!!!

I had an OI 41 for a while. It was like driving a bus with flat tires. Line up a dock a hundred yards off and it was still in the hands of the gods.:biggrin

One day I motored the OI to a boatyard, hauled it and put her next to my current boat, two days of gear moving over and put my new boat in the water.

Whoa baby!! Good bye bus with flat tires.....hello Porsche !!!

So my advice......pray.

[rgsims]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Quote: " My propwalk in reverse is soo heavy that when I reverse out of my slip I leave the rudder straight and let the prop walk turn me into the fairway! usually does it in 1 boat length! "

Make this innate characteristic work FOR you. Trying to fight it is a mug's game!

You say your shaft is off-set to stbd and that your prop is a rightie. In that case you should be able to make your boat do a pirouette without changing her POSITION in the water.

1: Lay 'er dead in the water.
2: Lay the helm hard to port
3: Engage reverse and GOOSE 'er. Prop-walk will take her stern to port. When she's gone about a boat-length, come to idle.
4: Lay the helm hard to starboard
5: Engage forward and GOOSE 'er. Prop WASH on the rudder will take her stern further to port before she accelerates. When she's gone about a boat-length come to idle.
6: Engage reverse, and GOOSE 'er. When she goes dead in the water, prop-walk will take her stern further to port and she will stop in about a boat length. when she goes dead in the water, assist the swing by laying the helm hard a-port.
7: repeat steps 3 through 7 as often as required to make her pirouette through 360º (or as many degrees as you want.

When you can do this maneuver with confidence and precision, you can position her immediately off you finger slip and turn her through 90º or 270º as required. I said "goose 'er" because timidity will get you nowhere. The trick is to get her to change heading BEFORE she begins to accelerate. In a 15 ton boat that is not usually a problem ;-0)! If you are backing into a "box", it's easiest if your float is on your port side. If you must come to a float on your starboard side, you need to take thrust off while you are still in the fairway and let her "reach" take her in while you steer her solely on the rudder. You'll need about two knots of sternway to do that. In a boat with as much windage as yours has, that takes both guts and precision if there is much wind at all.

There are times when discretion is the better part of valour. Better to come to the hammerhead even if you have to raft than to damage you boat, let alone someone else's. :-)

TrentePieds

I'm confident in this maneuver and can perform it in about 1/2 boat length (only traveling 1 and 1/2 boat lenghts) I was hoping someone had come up with another way. Not that this one is bad just looking for other options if needed.

Thanks for you input.

Greg

[Whisper Cappy]

Sold our 1981 416 last year. No problem backing out of slip or leaving a dock, however, backing into a slip was a different story. We did not perform this docking maneuver very often so not experienced enough to comment except it was difficult. The bow will respond well when backing up if you goose the throttle a couple of times.

If we were to go cruising we probably would have installed a bowthruster.

Good Luck!

[sailful]

I have a Hallberg-Rassy 42 from 1984 and I found if backing any distance she went wherever she wanted too. After 6 years of ownership I discovered that once she was moving backwards if I slipped the tranny into neutral I had complete control with the rudder! It didn’t turn quickly but it worked.

[bigreelsc]

I sailed a "Morgan 41 OI" for 7 years. She sailed like a powerboat and powered like a sailboat. Off set prop is the problem; learn to use it to an advantage but there are some things better left undone.

[Dave22q]

Same issue with my OI 33. Charlie built well but not for backing. I'm in process on adding an electric remote controlled outboard on the stern bracket as a thruster. I think 3 HP will suffice to kick the stern as needed. I post more after some usage.

[B Tegge]

I have a 1973 Irwin 37 shole draft. The prop was far enouph away from the rudder and angled in such a way that all the thrust of the prop missed the rudder completley. Made it very hard to manuver at slow speed never mind backing up. Ended up making a new rudder out of solid ss and 1/3 larger than the original rudder. Solved the backing issue and the slow speed manuvering problem. Actualy made it sail better. Long story short , somtime you have to resort to something extream.

[SteveSadler]

If you think your boat is hard to maneuver in close quarters, try a 1927 alden schooner, or a thousand other not so easy boats to dock. The answer is to practise, practise, practise. You will learn your boats desires, whims, and how to put her in her slip in all conditions, as all sailors have in previous decades. Bow thrusters are a great tool, but I avoid using mine just to keep in practice with basic boating skills.

[MartinR]

A bowthruster on a 41´long-keeled boat is wasted money. The long keel means wind will affect her much less than fin keeled boats.

And like the others said, this is only a function of training. Make the prop walk and the weather work with you. You can turn this boat basically within her own length if you know how. Trente Pieds gave a good explanation.Maybe you even do not need to shift the rudder.

[smallFry]

Tom Tursi of the Maryland School of Sail posted a nice YouTube video on docking techniques. He covers warping, used in reverse opposite the
propwalk. Since you back to starboard, you would mostly be running a dock line (warp) under your port side stern cleat and from there tied to the same side outside piling. The bitter end of the warp runs through your hand at the steering station. Close your hand and the stern swings port. Open it and the stern walks starboard.

One thing that this technique does well is the initial line up of the boat relative to the slip. Once the warp is tensioned you can spin the boat with the rub rail on the piling. Your boat will warp clockwise in reverse.

You’re going to have to reverse some time, either into or out of the slip. If you back in you get to drive it like you stole it when you leave 👍

[rphdiego]

First off I owned an OI415 for about a year in San Diego and lived aboard. My wife and I would always tell each other 'I love you' before attempting to either leave or return to our slip (dock on starboard side, another boat on the port side). There was never any current and hardly ever any wind when we went out for a bay cruise. Backing was an adventure! Even forward you need at least 2-3 knots for the rudder to be effective which means full reverse to slow down before tying up! My research at the time was leaning to a folding/feathering prop to replace the fixed 3 blade but we sold the boat before getting to try that. I heard a rumor that when these boats were popular to charter in the Caribbean the charter company would send their 'expert' out on a tender to bring the boats back into their base docks to avoid any damages. A bow thruster would definitely aid in docking. Maybe even a 'deployable' stern thruster on some sort of swing down mount and then you be docking 'like a boss'!
Ryan
Friday Harbor WA