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Sunday, August 30. 2020

Basic Life Skill: Boating

The Maggie's List of Basic Life Skills is from some old post that I can't find, but let's note managing watercraft today.


Here's an idea for the no-foreign travel era:  Learn at the Helm at Chapman School. It's a 5-day hands-on  course, based in Florida.  They claim that, by the end of the course, you will be able to back a 40-ft boat into a slip. I can not do that.


Clearly, if you have been a Naval officer or a Coastie, attended the Maritime Academy, etc, this might be redundant. Studying Charles Chapman's classic Piloting and Seamanship is good, but it's not hands-on.




Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:28 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yeah, but it's a 500-ft slip, so..... there's that.
#1 Aggie on 2020-08-30 17:05 (Reply)
One of my favorite books is Crenshaw's Naval Shiphandling. I have the second edition (1960).

It's great to read, especially if life ever requires you to bring to dock an aircraft carrier. Or to unmoor a cruiser and get underway in the Bosporus, with the current and winds opposed and other traffic around. Or just simply how to pass a refueling line to another ship while both are underway with a moderate sea running.

Total Walter Mitty, unless you're in the business. Fun read.
#2 PubliusII on 2020-08-30 20:17 (Reply)
It takes incredible patience and motion sensitivity I used to ride some of our anchor handlers on occasion, ~300-ft long, 16,000 hp supply vessels. Bringing it alongside in port for loading, amongst moored pleasure boats in a fairly tiny harbor, could take about an hour. Amazing to be on the bridge, the captain sitting in his chair about 3 stories up, commanding a full view, controlling props and thrusters with a simple joystick. Nudge. Wait. Nudge. Wait. Incredible patience but easy for them. Out at the rig, with 50 knot winds, 5 knot currents, 15 ft swell - now that's a little bit trickier, staying on station so a rig crane can snatch the loads off your deck. Dynamic positioning helps greatly.
#2.1 Aggie on 2020-08-30 20:42 (Reply)
Don't know about a 40 footer but at 18 I could put both a 28 ft cruiser and a 28 ft sloop in their marina slips by myself. Dad was a hard taskmaster.
#3 John Fisher on 2020-08-30 20:41 (Reply)
One of those life skills, that as a native Nevadan, I doubt I'll ever learn, let alone master. (Although I can operate a canoe or kayak, if pressed).
#4 Mark on 2020-08-30 21:29 (Reply)
THIS retired Naval officer couldn't do it, either. Of course, after 21 years in the Navy, I have zero sea time - but 6000 flight hours in P-3C Orion anti-submarine warfare planes.

21 years in the Navy, but I've only spent 3 nights aboard a ship. And that was aboard the RMS Queen Mary, which is WELDED to the pier in Long Beach.
#5 Kenneth Mitchell on 2020-08-30 21:47 (Reply)
Putting a boat in a slip is not real hard if you know two things and are patient. 1) where the boat will pivot 2) what the boat will do when it is put into reverse. Start with going slow, and when the pivot point is between the two side of the slip, turn fairly hard. If the boat is not going in the slip properly, go in reverse, and do it again correcting for wind and wave. The American Boat Club - formerly known as the United States Power Squadron has a hand's on class. Oh, the pivot is about 1/3 back from the bow when going forward and moves 2/3 back when going in reverse. Good luck.
#6 Christopher Leavitt (Link) on 2020-08-30 23:03 (Reply)
In the summer of 1913, there was an Assistant Secretary of the Navy named Roosevelt. On vacation at Campobello Island, Roosevelt ordered a destroyer, the USS Flusser (DD20) to come to Campobello and pick him up. Roosevelt wished to inspect naval installations on Frenchman Bay, Maine.

After the inspections and on the way back to Campobello, Roosevelt suggested to the destroyer's skipper that the ship could take a shortcut through a strait between Campobello Island and the mainland, and he, Roosevelt, would serve as pilot.

Put on the spot, the skipper gave FDR the conn (steering control) but remained close by on the bridge. He was much relieved to see, however, that when making a turn, Roosevelt looked aft to check the swing of the destroyer's stern. When turning, about two-thirds of the ship lies aft of the pivot point, so the stern swings through an arc about twice as large as the bow. Roosevelt showed himself as no novice at shiphandling.

So it ended well, and this incident began a long-lasting friendship between Roosevelt and the commander of the USS Flusser, Lieutenant William Halsey.
#6.1 PubliusII on 2020-08-31 10:25 (Reply)
I happen to be an expert at boat parking, it's all about having enough confidence.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuahFTJDbo/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
#7 Ron Liebermann on 2020-08-31 00:51 (Reply)
Being able to conn a ship is on the Heinlein list of things a human should know how to do, but he was a Navy man.
#8 Another Guy named Dan on 2020-08-31 10:41 (Reply)
On the subject of basic life skills, someone once said to me: "Everyone should know how to swim and how to shoot a gun." You will be surprised to know who said that - Senator Patrick Leahy. He and I were standing together in a lunch buffet line for this event in 2008 (the year he was inducted), and we were visiting about college rifle teams. Senator Leahy was a top shooter on the rifle team for Saint Michael's College when he was an undergraduate. I was on the University of Maine rifle team when I was in college some years later.

I think knowing how to pilot a boat would be a good skill, too. One I lack, alas.
#9 The Switchel Philosopher / The Switchel Traveler (Link) on 2020-08-31 21:25 (Reply)
Meh. Learn to sail to a mooring or pier, and stop the boat where you want to using wind alone. The engine makes it too easy.
#10 Bruce Anderson on 2020-09-02 06:39 (Reply)

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