Docking 101
Peter and I met Travis at the boat on Saturday morning for our first session of “training” on the boat. We spent time walking through the checklist guide that Travis had created for operating the boat.
My immediate concern was in getting sufficient time and practice operating all the systems on board this boat. The J24 that we’ve been sailing for the last few years has almost nothing but fiberglass below decks. So getting used to operating electronics, engine, plumbing, etc, is a big learning curve.
The next challenge is learning to maneuver a full keeled 42′ boat in and out of dock, and around the marina. I’ve had several sessions out sailing the boat with Travis, so I’m not too concerned about operating the boat in sailing mode. Driving mode is a different story.
Peter and I each took turns practicing circles, throttle, and forward reverse gear outside the marine for a while. Travis demonstrated how the boat can do a starboard tight circle by alternately using forward and reverse to benefit from the port pulling prop walk inherent in the boat.
After getting comfortable with that we reentered the marina and practiced some docking at the long side tie fuel dock. All in all it went pretty well, we selected a relatively light wind morning and took things nice and slow in order start the long process of building up our on-water experiene with the boat and developing a feel for how to it manuevers.
More practice is scheduled for this weekend, when we’ll work on getting out and in of the boat’s slip.
