New cruising from Canada (west coast)

[alctel]

Wow, how did you manage to get a slip in Vancouver?! Last I heard it was multiple year wait lists.

Congrats on the boat!

[TrentePieds]

Macblaze said: "...remember to take the bloody boat out of gear when you hop off..."

Quite! But let's expand on that: MOST 35 footers, when in "forward gear", will move at two knots with the engine idling. That is FAR too fast for docking!!

So what to do? WELL before you get close to anything hard, like a dock, select "idle", then "neutral" (in that sequence for the sake of the transmission).

Then let the boat run off her speed until she's going at the speed you want, say a half knot. From then on you control the speed with the GEAR SHIFT, leaving the RPMs at "idle" all the time. If the boat is moving too slowly, you give her a dab of "forward" on the transmission. Just for long enuff that she's back up to the half knot. Then you select "neutral" again. And so on, again and again, till you've gotten from where you were to where you want to go.

So how do you know when you are going half a knot? Easy. Just do the math at home. And then remember it!

I'm gonna do it for you now :-). One "knot" is one nautical mile per hour, i.e. it is 6076 feet per hour and "half a knot" is therefore 3038 feet per hour, or a tad over fifty feet per minute, which is a little less than a foot a second.

But spurious accuracy is the sailorman's bane, so in practice it means that if you can can count "one elephant, two elephant.....thirty elephant" while your 35 foot boat passes by a fixed point, stem to stern, you are going "half a knot".

Practice that sort of stuff out in English Bay. Heave your life ring over board to use as the fixed point. You can always pick it up again as you pass by it by glomming it with your boat hook when you've finished the exercise.

And remember: For someone homeported in False Creek, sailing is the least of it. Learning to handle the boat under power is FAR more important. So forget about sailing for now, and go out into the bay and practice, practice, practice handling the boat under power.

Sez I, having taught sailing out of False Creek for many a year, and out of Coal Harbour long before that, way back before they forbade sailing "between the
bridges".

All the best

TrentePieds

[mattydee99]

Thanks for all the great comments and tips you guys (and girls)!

[Adelie]

Welcome.

I would suggest updating your profile with your general location and your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.

[NorthPacific]

Don't listen to all these old guys whining. Just do a Captain Ron!! LOl

It will come with lots of practice the first 30 years are the tricky ones ;-)

[Davidjones666]

Hey! Hola! Howdy! Ive just rolled up into the crick here thats the false one. Here till awhile and happy to take your whip out with ya. Have over 10 years aqua tramping it on the coast here. Sailing docking sailing into tight anchorges no momo. Ect. Dont sweat it! its all easy piesy. Lemme know if you want.
Ps dont be intimidated by the username im a fkg angel! (I think
..)

[Adelie]

Welcome.

[Marathon1150]

Welcome to the Forum and welcome to sailing in Vancouver. This must be one of the best places in the world for cruising on a sailboat.

When we bought our first keel boat in Vancouver about 25 years ago we hired a skipper for a day from Coopers. We were particularly interested in docking (getting on and off) and anchoring. We had previously owned a 1/3 share in a keel boat in SE Asia but the conditions there are different enough from here that we wanted some additional help. It was a great idea and compared to the cost of buying the boat (a 28' Sunstar), a good deal. The day was well spent and we became much more comfortable with docking and anchoring that boat.

I'm sure that you will have some dock neighbours who will offer to help too, but having a professional who is familiar with the challenges of teaching important sailing skills can be at least initially, be more effective than a keen neighbour.

Good luck and have fun!