heavydutychevy

We were at a lake house on a canal that was fairly skinny this past weekend (without the boat). It would have been nice to have had the boat but I was worried about getting down the canal from the lake and not being able to turn the boat around. Effectively I would have had to reverse the boat about 500 yards to a wider point in the canal to turnaround.

Just wondering what sticky situations related to turning you guys have encountered.

Maritime_Eng

When I was a kid my Parents had a Cruiser with a Volvo duo prop outdrive, it stuck in reverse. We idled back in reverse for somewhere around 7 or 8 miles.
500 yards you will be fine....

Mentalpause

Back in the day when the LOTO shootout was at Shooters 21 you had tons of 40+ foot go fast boats docked up going in and out to make runs. By the time your drives cleared the end of the slip so you could turn to leave, you were within inches of the nose of a 42 or 43 foot boat slipped opposite from you. If you didn't know how to spin a boat in an area that was not much bigger than the length of your boat, you were in trouble. So was the nose of the boat opposite from you.

ThisIsLivin

My wife wanted to take her boss and her family for a ride so we launched the boat and backed out of the launch. When I put it in forward nothing, I was headed for a pier and fortunately I got the boat turned to miss it. I had to back out to an open area so I could open the hatch to see what was going on. By then I was 300-400 yards away from the dock and managed to back into a slip. After fussing with the shift cable going to the drive, I could tell it was toast. I had to push out of the slip and then back to the launch and get the boat flipped around so I could put it on a trailer. I did learn my boat backs up really well for a single drive I/O. I would do 500 yards no problem, but it does depend on your boat. My brother-in-laws Glastron has no control at all in reverse so you have to know your boat.

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

It's not a big deal. I had to back a BRAND new Active Thunder down a fairway that was INCREDIBLY tight with pointy go-fast boats on to the port, and props from flats boats on lifts to the starboard at the Tiki Bar during the FPC Miami Boat Show Poker Run, in front of God and everyone, and our slip for the weekend was right next to the bar/pool table in the Tiki Bar; and I had to angle the boat into the slip.
Talk about an audience!

If you have a boat with staggered engines you will have a little harder time controlling it. But you will still be fine.
Do you have a single engine boat or twin? If you have a twin, just leave the wheel straight, and turn around in your bolster to face backward, and use the shifters to back it all the way down like a skid-steer.

Boatlesss

it would be nice to know your outdrive as a bravo does not know what is forward nor what is reverese. a velit transmission does know the difference as it has clutch for both but less for backwards.

techman

A long time ago....I was in the family 13 foot Thunderhawk tri-hull with a 25HP Envinrude long-shaft far out in the Passamaquoddy Bay New Brunswick with my Mom and baby sister. They were nervous boaters, I was a naïve teenager in command. Lost forward gear on a out running tide and if you know the tides, currents, weather in this area that was a bad situation. Reverse lasted about 2 miles before that went too, shift shaft broke. Luckily, weather was good, a weekend, and we flagged down another pleasure boat. Another 3 mile tow behind a smoky 2 stroke of the kind Samaritans' got us back to the dock. Never got my mom in the boat again! No cell phones back then and didn't have a radio. Ignorance of youth!

heavydutychevy

great story. Never underestimate the confidence of a 13 year old!!

Steve H

About five years ago I went for a solo winter cruise on the Columbia here in SW Washington. It was beautiful night, cool drink, cheap cigar, loud music, life is good...........then BOOM tie bar breaks in the middle of the shipping channel. Of course there was a ship about two miles downstream from me coming up stream. Starboard drive sounded like all hell broke loose when I put in gear, and I had no steering on the port drive. The boat would go relatively straight in reverse with a slight turn to the right using port drive only. I could run it for about 50 yards at a time, then shift to neutral, and use the bow thruster to get pointed in the best direction, then shift into reverse, and start the cycle over again. After an hour or so I was out of the shipping lanes and near my boathouse. By this time the tide was hauling ass and it was dark.
By sheer luck I was able to get boat (42' Harley) tied to a neighbors boathouse without damaging anything. I found a boat hook on the dock, and was able to get a line around the tie bar and tied it out of the way of the starboard propeller.
Easy peasy getting it back in the boathouse with a steerable drive. I'm guessing I was about 5 miles away from home when everting went to sh#t. It's amazing what you can do, when you have to.

Helmwurst

About a mile in my Flotilla I used to have, with Mercruiser Twin Prop. Put it in forward to leave a friends house, it went clunk and that was it. No forward, went right into reverse, so I backed it home. That really sucked. When we took the drive apart, the forward gear separated at the the seam where the gear floor and the teeth were welded. Shop had a wrong ordered set, installed them at cost, back on the water a week later.