You are reversing out of a marina berth. Once your bow clears the boat next to you, you need to swing the stern hard to right as you are facing/looking back. (If you were looking normally ahead the bow swinging to strbrd) What would be the instruction to give to the helmsman. Put the wheel hard to port or strbrd. or anything else? Is it the direction you are going takes precedence regardless of where the bow and stern is, or the rudder angle you want if you were going forward?
What do you yell at the helmsman when reversing?
- Thread starter Omer
- Start date
Snaggletooth
SA's Morrelle Compasse
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"T'orthere waye!"
TJSoCal
Super Anarchist
To my mind right rudder is right rudder, regardless of which way the boat is going.
You don't reconfigure nav lights when going astern, do you?
You don't reconfigure nav lights when going astern, do you?
- Thread starter
- #6
There must be a technically correct answer to that. What if you are the captain of a large ship (or worse a navy vessel) reversing into a tight channel or what. What orders would you give to the helmsman? ''I want to park my ass there first and then get the hell out of here... do what ever is necessary'' might not be good enough.
Monkey
Super Anarchist
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This isn’t rocket science. Port is still port, starboard is still starboard. Do you unbolt your running lights and flip flop them when you back up?
sailman
Super Anarchist
European Bloke
Super Anarchist
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No, the other left.
Sail4beer
Usual suspect
Solve this problem by berthing Mediterranean style with the bow facing out.
The Q
Super Anarchist
Left hand down a bit!!!!
For those not remembering 1950s 60s UK radio comedies, that comes from "The Navy Lark"
Ps, all the helmsman needs to know is "bow clear", if can't manouver the boat after that, he shouldn't be at the helm.
For those not remembering 1950s 60s UK radio comedies, that comes from "The Navy Lark"
Ps, all the helmsman needs to know is "bow clear", if can't manouver the boat after that, he shouldn't be at the helm.
nolatom
Super Anarchist
On a large ship, the helmsman isn't able to see the stern anyway. And you'd have tugs for turning maneuvers in tight quarters. And the third mate aft to tell you what's up. A tidbit worth knowing--A US-flag ship, in US waters typically uses left and right as rudder commands. For the non-US flag ships in US waters (and elsewhere) it's Port and Starboard. The local pilots will do likewise in giving the rudder commands. "Midships" is the same world-round.
I'd agree that trying to give any order "adapted" to looking aft, is asking for confusion and uh-oh. Hard right means turn top of the wheel to the right,with the
helmsman "facing forward" regardless of which way he/she is actually facing (I know, duh). Keep it simple.
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On a Navy ship the conn (and ONLY THE CONN and NOBODY ELSE) gives orders to the helmsman. (If the captain were to give an order to the helm, the next words out of the conning officer's mouth are "Captain has the conn." Eventually the captain gives the conn to whoever he wants, whenever he wants. But otherwise the helmsman is trained to listen to one person only.) And in tight maneuvering the conn gives orders what to do with the wheel and that's all. "Left ten degrees rudder," etc. And the helmsman turns the wheel left until the rudder is ten degrees over.
If you decide to shout "left ten degrees rudder" at the skipper of your sailboat as you back out of a well, let us know how that goes.
gullwinkle
Member
Clear
Israel Hands
Super Anarchist
"Bow clear...swing the bow to starboard" sounds both descriptive and nautical enough to me. :huh:
Grande Mastere Dreade
Snag's spellchecker
clear...... lookout.... dammit
Huggy Bear Brown
Anarchist
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Usually it's my wife on the bow yelling back "what the f*ck are you doing??"
Monkey
Super Anarchist
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Somebody Else
a person of little consequence
If you are yelling at all, you've already lost.
Hand signals are inoffensive. Headset communicators can work well.
G
Guest
Guest
Say nothing and enjoy the show
