The basics
What moves the boat when you don’t want it to: prop walk, wind, way, current, and what the type of boat changes. Understood once, useful in every manoeuvre.
Wind and windage
In harbour the boat moves slowly and the wind counts for a lot. It pushes mostly on the bow, which is high and shallow: the bow blows off downwind, and going astern the stern comes up into the wind. Everything else follows from that.
Read the guideProp walk
A propeller doesn’t just drive the boat ahead or astern: it also pushes the stern sideways. Going astern from a standstill, this effect is almost all there is. Better to know it than to be caught out by it.
Read the guideCarrying way
A yacht has no brakes. In neutral she carries on under her own momentum, and she only steers while water is flowing past her rudder. Every harbour manoeuvre sits between those two limits: enough way to steer, not so much that you can’t stop.
Read the guideCurrent
Current carries all the water around the boat, and the boat with it. The rudder only feels speed through the water; the pontoon only sees speed over the ground. Manoeuvring into the current means gaining the first without paying for the second.
Read the guideWhat the boat changes
Two yachts of the same length can handle very differently in harbour. Where the propeller sits, how many rudders there are, the shape of the keel, the helm and the bow thruster all change what works and what doesn’t.
Read the guide