The Bowthruster Story

Sat Jan 17 7:55 am AS
ST Almost forgot to tell this story. Dennis...it happens to us all at one time or another....remember...throttle... Last Saturday as we were leaving the marina in PR our bow thruster went south on us. As I motored slowly out of the slip with the wind at 15 knots pushing us to port, I pressed the thruster button to swing the bow into the wind and screech, I get nothing. As our friend Dennis will tell you, turning a sailboat in a little more than its own length is a bitch, compounded with the wind....damn. To do this you hard right the rudder, hammer down on the engine...then as the boat starts to swing , you put the boat in reverse, hammer down so you don't hit the boats off your bow. The trick is to keep the boats swing momentum going while not hitting the boats in front or behind. We were maybe 10 - 12 slips from the concrete T that connects the docks. The wind neutralized the swing moment em and I would get stuck half way around before i had to reverse to keep the bow off the other boats. I made 7 or 8 tries...each time getting closer to the concrete pier. It was all concrete...about rail high. By this time we were the afternoon entertainment. 10 or so boat owners were on the concrete dock...each with their own solution to our problem. Joyce was doing a great job getting the fenders in the right places to prevent damage. We were finally pinned to the dock. Our first try was to back down on the fenders then power the bow into the wind....no go wind was too strong and not enough room to make the swing. We then tried to back off with the bow secure to the dock. We got off the dock but now we needed even more swing to get turned around. I was able to get our stern into a vacant slip, I pushed the throttle to the stops....the bow started to swing, but the boats forward were close....I had to center the rudder to keep the stern from smashing into the forward boats. Once we has enough speed I was able to get into the center of the fairway....with a cheer form the other boaters we we on our way. No harm...no foul...except to the Captains ego...