Does anyone have experience in driving a rudder boat with fixed drives. What is the pros and cons. docking, steering, etc.
Thanks

No one has driven one?

I have 42 cabin cruser w inboards and rudders and a child could drive it,if that helps.

Try posting in the MTI section. I know there are several boats in there with rudders.

Forgetting about steering when backing up. You'l be using your throttles and shifters to steer the boat in reverse. I've never done this in a go-fat, but my go slow boat is twin inboard, and that's how we get it back into the slip, which can be tricky with the rippin' current by the slip.

When I dock I don't turn the wheel so it's probably the same. Although, a surface drive like an Arneson may be different, not sure never had to do that.

Inboards are the easy, V drives are the easyest. They pivot really nice because the props are under the boat.

Single engine rudder boats, they suck!!! Try docking a single engine 40 ft sailboat sometime... Darn boats are useless going backwards...

You don't touch the wheel on cats with #6s when backing or docking forward. The only troulbe with rudder is when you lose power or drive.

I steer my #six cat all the time docking. Backwards and foward. I even have crashboxes. Most of the time I coast in, since in gear on one engine is about 8mph.

So it sounds like it would be easy to dock.

No rubrail and no scratches yet. I find it very easy to dock.