Captain John of www.skippertips.com shares his docking a boat secrets on backing and filling.
Learn to dock a boat smooth and easy once you how to twist–or pivot–your small sailboat inside a tight space. Know this and you will be able to turn around, back into a slip, or change direction within the length of your boat. Use these easy steps to master this boat handling technique.
Pivot Your Boat with Rudder and Engine
Use backing and filling to turn your small sailboat in a distance almost equal to her length. Practice this in an open space before you try it in a narrow, confined area like a canal, marina, or tight channel.
Seven Steps to Back and Fill Success
1. Attach a 10 foot length of light line to a fender, life jacket, life ring, or plastic milk-jug. Weight the end of the line with a heavy shackle; enough to keep the object in place, but not enough to cause it to sink.
2. Find an open area clear of boat traffic and outside of a channel. This will prevent another boat from running over your float. Pick a calm day to practice with light wind and slack (or no) current. Drop your float into the water.
3. Steer your boat to a position about three boat lengths away from your float. Align your boat so that the object lies off your beam. Your objective will be to pivot your boat while you keep the float in the same relative position.
4. Pivot to the right. Turn your wheel hard (to the stops) to the right or hold your tiller hard to the left. Give a short burst of ahead propulsion of about one second (count one-hippopotamus or one-thousand-and-one).
5. Put the engine into neutral for 1/2 second. Then shift right away into reverse propulsion for one second. Continue this sequence. Keep an eye on your float once in a while. Increase of decrease astern propulsion time by no more than one second as needed to maintain station. Continue backing and filling until you have completed a 360° circle.
6. Pivot to the left. Turn you wheel hard to the left or hold your tiller hard to the right. Follow the engine sequences outlined above. Continue backing and filling until you have completed a 360° circle.
7. Practice backing and filling in breezier conditions. Start from a position with the bow or stern pointed into the wind. That way, you will have the most control when you begin and end your pivot.
Stay One-Step Ahead in Narrow Quarters
Follow these easy safety tips when you enter any marina. That way, if you need to turn around, you will be ready in a pinch.
Set up to Pivot the the Right.
Most small sailboats come with right handed propellers. This means your propeller rotates (walks the stern) to the left in reverse. Take advantage of this and back and fill to the right if possible. That way, each time you reverse in the maneuver, your stern will “walk” to the left. This will help you get around faster.
Favor the Windward Side.
Slow down or stop a boat, and you will blow downwind. And that applies when you pivot your boat. Stay on the upwind side of a channel or canal if possible to allow for this and give you more room for tight maneuvers.
Ready a Stern Anchor.
You will have your hands full in the cockpit. Rig a small, throwable anchor with a strong, light line. Attach the bitter end to a stern cleat. In case of emergency (i.e. loss of engine), toss the anchor over the stern to slow to a crawl or stop your boat. Attach the bitter end, pass the anchor and line over the stern pulpit or rail and coil it near the helm.
Avoid the temptation to ease the rudder–or shift your rudder–when backing and filling.
Hold the wheel or tiller hard over to one side throughout the maneuver for best results.
Should you pivot right for a right hand prop and left for a left hand prop, to get the extra advantage of prop walk?
Hi Reggie,
You are correct. As suggested under “Set Up to Pivot to the Right“, sailboats with right-handed propellers will make a tighter circle to the right. The burst ahead takes advantage of prop discharge current hitting the rudder blade in forward propulsion, which forces the stern to port. You get an added advantage when you back, because the prop rotates to the left in reverse to keep the bow moving to the right. Sailboats with left-handed propellers make a tighter circle to the left. Their props walk to the right in reverse to make the circle tighter.
You won’t see many left-handed props around but they are out there. Years ago, I remember watching the Gloucester fishermen of Chesapeake Bay dock single-handed. Their work-boats carried left-handed props, so they always approached the pier starboard side to at a narrow angle. As soon as they got close, they gave it a burst of astern propulsion to slide the stern in smooth as you please.
If you are going to spin to the right why would you not swing the rudder over when you start your reverse propulsion? Seems like that would pull you around faster.
The main effect of the rudder occurs when one has water passing over her foil, most effective when going ahead, less when astern, and certainly very little when pivoting on your centerboard or keel, (when your stern is swinging side to side). It’s the blast of the prop wash that induces a jet of “push” deflected off the rudder, (most effective if the prop is indeed forward of your rudder(s)), and in reverse, the effective “prop creep” again walks you port or starboard based upon your screw design. Each boat is different, but yes, try giving your helm a work out, but be aware, the time and turbulence created by shifting helm is generally distruptive to a smooth pivot.
In backing and filling, reverse propulsion is used to stop forward momentum and keep the boat in one spot. Prop-walk is a secondary advantage–only if you pivot to the favored side, as described earlier.
Shifting the rudder often causes the effect described by Commodore Chin. The constant shift of the rudder creates a “feather” effect. Actually this very motion is another specific boat handling technique, unrelated to backing and filling. Feathering–or fast shifting of the rudder from right to left will help slow down a boat approaching an object too fast.
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