New to forum "switching from sail to steam"

[gohawks]

I've lived aboard and cruised in various sailboats mostly in the Caribbean and the East coast of the States with a bit of time in the Gulf of Mx for over 25 years. We sold our 45' Island Packet last year and just bought a 45' Sea Ray Fly Bridge currently docked up the New River in Ft. Lauderdale. Any words of advice from those who have been there and done that would be great. Trying hard to learn how to maneuver in close quarters at low speed especially with the tight turns and currents in the river. Also have plenty of stories and opinions about sailing to share.

Paul

[ranger58sb]

Maybe you can get under the bridges on the Dania Canal, now, so doing that loop from time to time can be a pleasant diversion... Gotta pay attention when meeting the steamboat sometimes...

-Chris

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Paul.

[tkeithlu]

Greetings, Paul.
Ours was a new boat, heavy, single left hand screw, no thrusters, big rudder. My wife and I did just what you would do learning to drive a car -- we went to a quiet area (bay with little traffic) and practiced.We approached channel markers, "docked" beside them, hovered in place, backed, made tight turns, learned the effect of wind and current, got a feel for the effect of throttle and gear shift, and all that. Then for awhile we warned marinas as to our situation and experience, so they supplied line help and didn't put us in slips that were very difficult for our boat, independent of experience. Ditto on locks. It helps to talk with the person on the dock, not the secretary in the office, and to caution against things like grabbing a bow line and pulling, which with our round bow pivots the stern in the other direction, messing up the entire approach. We found dock folks to be very helpful when asked; after all, they don't want you to crash, either.

[gohawks]

Thanks, will do.

[tkeithlu]

Early in the game my wife expressed concern that we were going to have to do a tight 180 degree turn coming away from the dock with a string of fiberglass sailboats directly across from us, and our being solid steel. The dockmaster told us it was fine to go ahead and turn them into kindling, because they hadn't paid their slip fees in months......

[a64pilot]

I am not familiar with what you bought, but assume it's a twin screw boat with small rudders like a Sportfisherman?
If so your biggest thing is going to be to forget the rudders in tight and going slow and steer with power only, but your going to be so more maneuverable than you were with the IP that your not going to believe it, and you don't need speed anymore to get steerage in reverse like you used to, going slow, real slow is your friend now, and you can always "go around" and try again, don't try to salvage a bad approach, go around and set up again, but you already know that from the IP.

I did the reverse, I grew up with power and transitioned to sail

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

Maybe you can get under the bridges on the Dania Canal, now, so doing that loop from time to time can be a pleasant diversion... Gotta pay attention when meeting the steamboat sometimes...

Ah. I saw the Sea Ray part, but missed the Fly Bridge part. Sorry... no Dania Cut loop for you.

-Chris