www.iFourWinns.com

Hi everyone.
Well I am embarassed to admit that I still can't master the sideways maneuver of "walking" (with the boat that is).
Has anyone here with twin drives been able to do it and just what the heck is the proper proceedure?

I've been told two almost exact opposite ways of doing it.
Method one says to turn the helm away from the dock with the dockside engine in reverse and the other in forward.

Method two says turn the helm into the dock with the dockside engine in reverse and the other in forward.

Both swear that they're right.

I haven't been able to try either yet this year due to wind and current conditions but its been bugging the heck outta me and I just can't wait until I get back to the boat... which won't be for another two weeks.

Can anyone help??... anyone????

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"ROCKHOUND"
2005 Vista 298
Georgian Bay, Ontario.

What I've been told is you turn against the pivot. So if you pivot away from the dock, you turn the helm towards the dock.

Of course, I have yet to try this so I don't know. I've also been told that walking is more of an inboard trick and doesn't work quite as well with outdrives. Maybe this weekend I'll give it a shot.

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'01 Vista 298

"Walking" or moving laterally with your boat is possible with stern drives, but really associated with inboard boats. Since you only have rudders with an inboard, you have little to no steering control in reverse. With sterndrives, you can actually steer the boat in reverse. Associate walking with parallel parking in a car. I have done it with some success with sterndrives, but the method is more akin to inboards. This is my over simplified version that works if you need to do it. Reverse the side you want to walk towards, forward the other side and turn the wheel toward the side in forward gear. Fine tuneing can be done by adjusting the throttles and the degree you turn the wheel.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

I like the way Cap'n described how to try and "walk" your twin engine boat.

On a similar note, if you have your drives facing directly forward and you place one drive in forward and one in reverse (to turn your boat without using the wheel) you need to allow for the fact that your boat tends to move forward a bit if the rpm's of both engines are the same. The drive which is in forward gear seems to have a better bite into the water than the one in reverse, thus you need to bump the rpm's up a bit on the reverse engine if you want to stay in the same place to pivot.

Where I think the above is important is say when your backing into a well with a breeze or current, you just get your stern inside the pilings a bit and want to straighten up your bow to continue to back in. So you use the forward/reverse of your drives to straighten your bow up, but if you don't allow for the tendency for the boat to creep forward with the same engine rpm's your boat may actually move its stern back out of the well. Not real good if you have a longer boat beside you with a nice big anchor sitting in its anchor pulpit waiting to say hi to your clean shiney boat side.

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

This has to be hard to do? I would go out on a claim day and a slow boating day (a week day), and practice. At my club, some of the new 2 engine boat owners, will take out the more exparinced owner's. You may be able to ask some one were you are.

After four years of stern drive boats (twin), I found the best for me was to neutral steer (aka straight forward) the boat, and use the fwd and rvs gears only. As you move parallel to the dock or where ever you are going to tie up, then put the outside drive (the one furthest from the dock) in fwd gear (idle speed) and the inside drive in reverse. then as the boat begins to move (walk) you alternate the drives (one forward and one reverse) until you get a lateral movement going. In my experience, when I tried to steer the boat, it only magnified the amount of movement in a certain direction, thus creating "oversteer" and causing me to make big corrections and it did not work well. Docking laterally was all about "slow is steady, and steady is smooth" concept.

_________________
2008 378 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
IPS 500 Volvo-Penta D6

Previously
'06 318 Vista
'97 258 Vista
'98 195 Sundowner
'87 180 Horizon

Well said Bob. We all envy you, now for you to walk your boat, it's just a move of the joystick, and you are in !

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Yeah, in "theory" it's possible. But for all practical purposes it's not worth the effort. The in/out of gear changes are going to be harder on the drives than necessary. I've managed to do something like it exactly twice and that was with dead calm conditions. I've got better things to do that try juggling all of the variable necessary to make it work. As in, dealing with passengers on the boat, on-lookers on shore, winds, currents, obstacles, etc.

Instead it's just easier to nose into the dock, attach a bow line and then pivot the stern in to the dock. When the boat is free you can spin it around. But by securing a bow line to the dock you prevent the boat from spinning the bow over. Put the dockside engine in forward and the outside engine in reverse. This will then walk the stern inward toward the dock. It's a relatively easy task to master too. The real key to it is getting that bow line on and secure quickly.

I've found it's better to NOT give the bitter end to shore personnel. It's better to have someone on the bow make a loop at the end of the line and put that over the piling. Then cleat the bitter end down on the boat. This way you don't have someone on shore getting it wrong by not attaching the line RIGHT AWAY. You can always change the lines later once you're securely docked. People are on the dock often have NO EFF'IN IDEA what they're doing. So by using they loop you eliminate their "help" from the process. Trust me on this.

Computer-controlled systems like Zeus or IPS handle this properly. And those systems have transmissions rigged up to tolerate the changes necessary to make it work. Doing it manually just seems a lot harder on your sanity AND the transmissions than necessary.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Thanks to all for their suggestions.

I generally don't have any problems doing any other maneuvers and am quite proficient at docking under most conditions. The only reason I was asking is that I witnessed the salesman that sold me the boat do this on several occasions. He could literally move the boat sideways at will with just the helm and one in forward and the other in reverse and made it look like child's play. He did show me how to do it at the time however I hadn't practiced it in years so when I needed a sideways maneuver to snug me into the fuel dock the other day, it was obvious I had forgotten.

I no longer deal with that salesman or the dealer for that matter so I won't be going back for a refresher course.

I guess I just need to get back out there and play around with it.

Cheers,
Pete

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"ROCKHOUND"
2005 Vista 298
Georgian Bay, Ontario.

This is something I really need to learn to do as well.....one of the biggest struggles I have had with the new boat is backing into my slip (especially with a crosswind).

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I stern into my slip as well and I do not have much room between my pilings and the sides of my boat. Because my boat well depth is typically about 4 feet deep with a silty bottom, I perfer not to use the engines (forward one engine reverse the other) to turn my boat as it stirs up the bottom big time and I don't like to think my engines are sucking that stuff up.

As such I approach my well while considering wind direction and typically only use one engine at a time to swing the bow out and back in. If I muck up (does not happen often) I will use the forward/reverse method to straighten things up.

If I had a deeper well, I might come to the front of our well and use the engines to turn the boat and back in.

I actually enjoy considering all the docking variables and reacting accordingly.

Mike.

_________________

Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

Thanks Cap'n....yep, hoping the IPS is so easy the admiral wants to do it! Anyway, wkearney99 is right, it can be hard on the transmissions, but I found with the VP drives there was almost no slaming of the gears when I moved fwd/rvs. But...again it was SLOW and STEADY. I always slipped my boat stern in first, and became quite adept at doing these maneuvers with the engines only. I also was never too proud to pull away and try again, and again....and "sigh" again at times, much to the enjoyment of onlookers! But, then again I never did any damage to my boat trying to get into and out of docks/slips/or fuel docks! If there were dock attendants the I always did what wkearney99 suggests and saved the stress on my drives!

_________________
2008 378 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
IPS 500 Volvo-Penta D6

Previously
'06 318 Vista
'97 258 Vista
'98 195 Sundowner
'87 180 Horizon