Prop Walk

[huffco]

prop walk can be used to your advantage, but spped, hence, rudder sction can overcome the walk. take a little more runway area ahead, and then go into reverse allowing you to use the rudder to overcome the walk

[irwinsailor]

I have been using my boat when I can and I'm getting better at handling it, however the prop walk is just unbelievable! It is just like the boat is on a turntable when I put it in reverse. I have tryed using the rudder kicking up the rpm's and taking it out of gear because I hear that works well on many boats. Not mine! This boat was made to live on a hook. It is a great boat in just about every other way, but it does not like to be in a slip.

LerningCurve had (has?) pretty bad prop walk before we repowered. One would have to gun the engine quite a while to get an reverse momentum. We added a max-prop and the walk is much less. I attribute that to the Max-Prop's superior reverse power. The boat gets reverse momentum, thus helm, before the boat has a chance to move laterally. One then does not have to gun the engine so much.

-rob
sv learningcurve

[IdoraKeeper]

Ahh the humility of it all. Been there, still there. Boat new to me, excellent in open water, hates the marina. Heavy boats act different than the 26 footer I ran for 20 years. My own method? Keep the insurance paid up, suck up to the marina manager
and pass out beer to the peanut gallery after one of my spectacular landings. It increases their indignantness and creates fear and loathing. Just the thing one wants from a bunch of suits.

[Seahunter]

I've come to the conclusion that prop walk is inherent to cut back full keels with stern canted rudders. Our solution is when backing out of our slip; hold a spring port side (ours walks to starboard) on bow cleat while powering up in reverse (1200 rpm rudder centered) in order to get the water moving under the hull; back to idle, feather transmission (reverse) to start building up speed, release spring line and start the turn. You have to "fool" the hull into thinking its going 2+ knots when its barely moving. If we back into our slip, we have to make a reverse port turn most of the time (tough with starboard walk), but we slowly approach (back and forth) until we get a 10 deg. angle to the slip, then use the starboard walk to pull us into the slip. If we can (depending on the tide) make a starboard reverse turn, we pass the slip at 25 deg. with the stern pointing to the port side of the slip opening and let her walk herself in. Needless to say, bow in with these types of boats are much easier than stern in. My rule; if it's not going to work: start over.

[Randyonr3]

A year or so ago, I saw a boat on the hard with a tube over the prop.. when I asked the guy who owned the boat, he said it was to keep crab pots from getting tangled in the prop.. he also mentioned that the prop walk was gone..
I've seen them on outboard motors where they are bolted to the plate above the prop and on fishing boats but this was the first time I had seen it on a sailboat..
seems like it might be a simple build if you need it..

[HHNTR111]

Both my last boat and this one have prop walk, and i have learned to use it as a tool, not so much a problem. When we get sternway on, when backing, the rudder can be used to compensate for prop walk, so prop walk is only an issue for the firsrt few feet. Gentle throttle is key. Also, what kind of keel configuration do you have?

[Rex Delay]

Go out into open water and practice - a lot. Prop walk, and mine is severe, can be your best friend. With mine, I can pull into a small hole between boats on a long finger by just coming to a stop well out from the dock, idle in reverse, and the boat goes straight sideways into the chosen spot. Takes practice.

[fmastin]

Before I went to the Panama Canal to pilot ships, I was an instructor in small boat handling for the US Army (did you know they have a larger fleet than the US Navy?). When the students couldn't grasp the idea of the stern "walking" one way or the other, I used the example of pretending the vessel's prop was just touching the bottom. Hence a normal right hand prop, when in reverse, would walk the stern to port.

Prop walk is also a function of the pitch of the prop. I don't know your prop's pitch, but if possible, you could try a prop with less pitch. It would affect your forward motion as well, but there may be a compromise in there somewhere. You may even be over pitched. Does your engine get up to full RPM when going ahead? If not, it is a sure indicator that you have either too much pitch or too big a diameter prop.

As stated above, you have to learn to use it to your advantage, as Scalawag so rightly mentions. One statement I do not agree with (and remember, all boats/ships are different - even from the same mold/shipyard), I would go astern (from a stopped or nearly so position) easily until the vessel has a little sternway. Then shut down the prop (neutral) and try to steer with the rudder as you go astern. Using a lot of stern RPM will only force the stern over harder.

All this being said....you have a large boat to be maneuvering in and out of slips in possibly poor weather. Good luck, and I'm not so sure I wouldn't look at the bow thruster when feasible.

Fred

[Stillraining]

We could not get a thruster installed in my boat with out major compromise to the forward cabin sole...which almost doubled the installation cost originally quoted and would have ruined the boat anyway...so the project was scraped.

I was worried about not having one but have done OK so far...There is going to be times when getting off a dock will be a pickle though.

We were in Ganges harbor a few years ago holding station 200' off the pump out dock waiting for our turn...there was a nice 15 Knot steady breeze blowing square on the dock...Two sail boats and a large trawler were closely spaced on the dock..The sail boat in the center was about 40'...he was trying to get off the dock but the wind had him pinned...they tried everything ..crew was pushing the bow and running this way and that..poles bristled in all direction..they finally gave up and sat there to wait for one of the other boats to move first.

Well the trawler wasn't going anywhere..I think they were in town provisioning...so that left them waiting on the sail boat behind them which was a 50 footer with about 6 crew on board....they untied all the lines and everyone jumped on board...the sound of a thruster is unmistakably if you have ever heard one...well he hit that thruster and that bow leaped off the dock to about a 45 degree heading in about 7 seconds...he tossed it in forward and they were gone...lick-it-de-split....I was sold on thrusters right then and there...I bet the crew on the 40 footer were as well.

They had to back clear off the end of the dock to let the stern swing down wind to get the bow pointed away from it so they could leave..it was 30 min of good entertainment and a lesson I will never forget... so as not to get myself in that same predicament.

[roger.waite]

At last! Propwalk. A problem I don't share. My problem is wind.

Don't know your berth's layout, which way you go in, etc ... but various pre-positioned warp arrangements might help.

A pre-positioned spring (accessible as I enter the berth) helps me when things are not badly awry. Also have an old fender on my favourite point of impact. Partial solutions, but they give options when things go wrong.

Originally Posted by Rex Delay

Go out into open water and practice - a lot.

This advice is great advice. Slack water. Pick a soft buoy with plenty of water around it, and park up into the wind, cross wind, etc.

Good luck. We all need a bit of it!

[forsailbyowner]

I am a big believer in using springs. Getting off a windbound dock can be safely done by tieing a spring to the stern cleat on the away from dock side, loop it around the dock cleat and back to stern cleat. Turn the boat hard away from the dock and throttle up. You can safely in a controlled manner point 90* off the dock if necessary. Coming into a small space I point in till shipmate gets a bow line on then reverse using the propwalk to bring the stern in. I have no problem running an anchor out to use as guide or brakes in difficult situations.

[Stillraining]

Cool trick...I'll try it someday

[dan104]

So before I started dumping all my money into sailing I was a race car driver (another way to dump money by turning it in to noise).


Each ride (that's what drivers call a paid job), found a new car with new and different handling. As time was short to learn them I used a old tried and true method, called driving by the seat of your pants.

The concept is you are strapped into a seat, but your base (Butt) will slide a bit one way or another. As you make a turn you are pushed to the outside, so you don't adjust or add in the next turn until your butt is stable.


Backing with a sailboat is like dancing with a fat lady, you don't try and change her direction while she is pulling on your arm, wait till she is neutral and the change.


Now I have a LH prop and a full keel, so my boat pushes to port under reverse. Thankfully I have a tiller so I can swing the ruder fast and full when I need it. My docking into a slip is really quite easy as I can use that prop walk to swing the boat stern into the slip via a 90 degree turn.


I come in slow along the row of slips and just before mine I swing the bow out and then put on some reverse. That kicks the stern to post and bow to starboard and gets boat moving into slip. Pop it into neutral and glide in using rudder. Wind chances the power needed but makes life real easy for dancing with my fat lady (9500#).


Capt Ron would be proud!