I'm trying to find a way to get my 240 Sundancer to turn sharper when
leaving the slip. Would lowering one trim tab have any affect on
turning while moving at slow speeds? Any other suggestions for making
it manuever better at docking speeds?

nope
wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm trying to find a way to get my 240 Sundancer to turn sharper when
leaving the slip. Would lowering one trim tab have any affect on
turning while moving at slow speeds? Any other suggestions for making
it manuever better at docking speeds?

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:05:51 GMT, "jamesgangnc"
wrote:

nope

LOL!!

I'm trying to find a way to get my 240 Sundancer to turn sharper when
leaving the slip. Would lowering one trim tab have any affect on
turning while moving at slow speeds?

No, they won't do anything to help rate of turn at slow speeds.

Any other suggestions for making
it manuever better at docking speeds?

More practice. Combinations of more power and better use of reverse would
probably help. Going so slow you don't have enough control is a problem.
Going faster and being ready to apply reverse generally helps more. When
you go "too slow" you run afoul of currents, prevailing winds and the
general lack of keel (compared to a sailboat). Those combine to push you
around in ways that generally don't help what you're trying to accomplish.
Power, under control, is your friend.

First off.....what works for one person may not work for another, so a
different point of view.........

More practice. Start with the basis- anything more than idle in gear (ahead
or astern) when maneuvering, means you've screwed up the approach/undocking.
Is this an absolute? Of course not. It's an ideal you strive for.
With that in mind, you need to become totally familiar with the abilities of
your particular propulsion system, be it inboard, I/O, outboard, single or
twin, right/left hand prop, inbd/otbd turning, rudder power, and affects of
wind and current.
Never treat prop walk, wind or current as your enemy....make them your
friend, working for you, not against you........ i.e., attitude adjustment.
Waddahey, for all I know you're all ready making as tight a turn as possible
with your particular boat (hard to tell without being there,doing that) but
one thought..... if you need a tighter turn while backing out of a slip,
while you still have sternway, put you wheel hard over and go ahead at
minimum power. Make the turn part of your braking maneuver......may or may
not help for your boat.

"Bill Kearney" wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote in message
...
I'm trying to find a way to get my 240 Sundancer to turn sharper when
leaving the slip. Would lowering one trim tab have any affect on
turning while moving at slow speeds?

No, they won't do anything to help rate of turn at slow speeds.

Any other suggestions for making
it manuever better at docking speeds?

More practice. Combinations of more power and better use of reverse would
probably help. Going so slow you don't have enough control is a problem.
Going faster and being ready to apply reverse generally helps more. When
you go "too slow" you run afoul of currents, prevailing winds and the
general lack of keel (compared to a sailboat). Those combine to push you
around in ways that generally don't help what you're trying to accomplish.
Power, under control, is your friend.

anything more than idle in gear (ahead
or astern) when maneuvering, means you've screwed up the
approach/undocking.
Is this an absolute? Of course not. It's an ideal you strive for.

Uh no. It depends entirely only the vessel and how it's set up. Some boats
handle fine at idle, some do not. "Striving for" is stupid if the boat
handling won't benefit from it.

Never treat prop walk, wind or current as your enemy....make them your
friend, working for you, not against you

Indeed, since you have no brakes and water doesn't slow you down very much
(aka traction) you need to take advantange of any sources of force present.
Use your prop wash to 'walk' the boat with it. Or keep that spring line
handy to add some extra pivot force in close quarters. Even if practice
eventually teaches you to do without it, you'll have a skill ready to apply
in other situations.

"Bill Kearney" wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote in
:

anything more than idle in gear (ahead
or astern) when maneuvering, means you've screwed up the
approach/undocking.
Is this an absolute? Of course not. It's an ideal you strive for.

Uh no. It depends entirely only the vessel and how it's set up. Some
boats handle fine at idle, some do not. "Striving for" is stupid if
the boat handling won't benefit from it.


Uh no. I stand by my statement. No matter what the set-up and how it
handles or what the conditions may be, you strive for that. Not every boat,
every operator, every condition will allow that, but you always strive for
that.....if you don't..... G then you end up thinking " "Striving for" is
stupid" and you let the boat, the conditions, or your own abilities or lack
thereof govern the outcome.

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 03:40:18 GMT, otnmbrd
wrote:

Uh no. I stand by my statement. No matter what the set-up and how it
handles or what the conditions may be, you strive for that. Not every boat,
every operator, every condition will allow that, but you always strive for
that.....if you don't..... G then you end up thinking " "Striving for" is
stupid" and you let the boat, the conditions, or your own abilities or lack
thereof govern the outcome.

It's called adaptability. You learn how the boat handles over time
and adapt your techniques which allows you to handle different
situations correctly.

I have a friend who has a really old bubble boat and I can't dock it -
literally. It's got so many quirks/quarks/quibbles in the steering
and shifting that you really have to know the boat to do it correctly.

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote in
:

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 03:40:18 GMT, otnmbrd
wrote:

Uh no. I stand by my statement. No matter what the set-up and how it
handles or what the conditions may be, you strive for that. Not every
boat, every operator, every condition will allow that, but you always
strive for that.....if you don't..... G then you end up thinking "
"Striving for" is stupid" and you let the boat, the conditions, or
your own abilities or lack thereof govern the outcome.

It's called adaptability. You learn how the boat handles over time
and adapt your techniques which allows you to handle different
situations correctly.

I have a friend who has a really old bubble boat and I can't dock it -
literally. It's got so many quirks/quarks/quibbles in the steering
and shifting that you really have to know the boat to do it correctly.


LOL ..... you handle enough boats, and no matter how good you are you'll
eventually run into one that will give you nothing but trouble every time
you try to handle it..... sometimes sooner than later.
I've never met one I couldn't beat, but there are some that continuously
bruise my ego all to hell.

It's called adaptability. You learn how the boat handles over time
and adapt your techniques which allows you to handle different
situations correctly.

Exactly my point. I take issue with folks that insist on espousing
absolutes when it comes to close quarters handling of a boat. All this
nonsense about what you MUST do, without taking the setup of the boat into
account, is stupid.

I have a friend who has a really old bubble boat and I can't dock it -
literally. It's got so many quirks/quarks/quibbles in the steering
and shifting that you really have to know the boat to do it correctly.

And you'll never learn the nuances of the boat if you get hung up on stupid
advice like not using throttles or rudders. It may well prove to be true
that a given boat will handle just fine with no rudder action at only an
idle. But you'll never know until you try.