Westsail 32

[Harry Black]

Does anyone have any experience trying to reverse away from a dock and turn the boat to the right before going forward and turn the boat to the left? Do the Westsail 32s respond at all in reverse?

[Sailmonkey]

To pull that off you’re likely going to need to “back and fill”. This involves moving the boat backwards, then with the rudder hard over thrusting ahead. This pivots the boat without moving it forward. You stop fwd thrust as soon as the boat begins to move ahead and immediately begin backing again.

[Weatherbird]

I find that when reversing my modified full keel, the boat will stick with whatever direction it first starts to turn in. Pulling on a piling from the bow on the way out is enough to counter both the prop walk and a strong cross breeze and have me half way turned before I need to shift into forward.

Backing and filling alone wasn't enough to turn the boat against a strong breeze and I would have to turn 270 degrees the long way around to use the prop walk to get the boat pointed in the right direction.