Cruising next week for first time in new boat!

Richie89

Richie89

Active Member
Aug 20, 2012
599
Miami Beach, FL
Boat Info
450 Sundancer
Engines
Twin Cummins 480 Zeus
Brought my new boat home last Nov. Have had a great summer with it at our new yacht club. Had many shake down small projects. Pretty much everything on boat is now like I want it. Heading out next week to final do some cruising. Our plan is to leave St Simons Island offshore to Fernandina Beach. From there, stay inside, maybe run up St Mary's River some, and make it down past Jacksonville to our final destination of St Augustine. Looking forward to spending some overnights on the boat!
 
Richie,
i hope you have a blast! Enjoy and take plenty of pics. We want to take a trip from Savannah to St. Augustine soon.
 
Enjoy. Did that last January. Easy and fun trip. I put a night in at Fernandina and then just did a slow ICW cruise to St Augustine the next day.

One thing. My insurance won't cover me if I cross the FL border between June 15 and Nov 15. I assume you have no such restriction.
 
Have a great Trip !
i’m hope the journey is trouble free and sun filled.
keep us posted on how your venture is performing - i am still looking at possibly moving into one .
 
yeah Mark, that was a long but memorable trip bringing it home! so glad i naively didn't listen to all the advice to have the boat shipped :D
IslandTime, we still love the boat! big enough, but not too big, handles great running offshore, the 1'6" draft is awesome. i've gotten stuck in some skinny water and made it thru. love the outboards. now that i'm getting the feel for the differences in operating, docking is good. it is a beautiful boat that gets lots of attention everywhere i go.
i've also loved the transition to 100% saltwater coastal boating. learning a ton, and getting more competent.
 
Sounds like a fun trip! How did you make out with the maneuverability in reverse? Did you figure out the "trick" for that boat?
 
Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, or it was someone else with whom we discussed this? Doesn't matter, either way. If I recall, you had mentioned in an earlier post that reversing was tougher with this boat than you were used to? One of things that is (obviously) different is that you don't have Bravo III drives back there, anymore. That one... it is what it is, until a counter-rotating lower unit is designed for the Verado's, anyway!!!

The other part of this (although I'm not sure if your boat is affected by this or not) could be similar to what I experienced with a new-to-me Grady that has the outboard mounted on a bracket. When I first got this particular boat, I was taken back by the lack of reverse maneuverability. It's not that I haven't operated hard-to-reverse-boats (like an inboard Mastercraft), but this one threw me for a bit of loop as I wasn't expecting it. It turns out that the prop wash is blasting into the transom, effectively voiding some of the ability to turn the boat in reverse. I found that if I trimmed the engines up, it would allow the propwash to go under transom and things improved. It still isn't as great as having a B3, but it definitely improved. I don't know if this is the case with the Venture and whether or not trimming would help, but it might be worth a shot. For me, I trimmed up the beginning of the tilt range.
 
thanks! i have tried trimming up and it didn't effect much on my boat. also, i'm pretty sure i do have counter rotating props. the part i had to get used to, partly because of outboards and probably mostly because of coastal boating was just using much more throttle docking. in my lake boating, it was always idle speed around docks. not anymore. with all the wind and current, plus the outboard need for more rpm's, i come in and go out under power. i used to be worried about having no wake at all, and now that is pretty far down the priority list for me and everyone else in my yacht club. on exit, i'm hard out, getting the boat crabbed quickly then settling in leaving. on entry, i'm getting in my slip under a fair amount of power then backing down fairly hard and trying to keep the boat hard to starboard until tied down. i almost always have a strong easterly wind pushing me away from the dock. i'm starting to get the hang of it.
 
Last edited:
I should have been more specific about the "counter rotating" comment - what I meant was in regards to the Bravo III drive with the two props on one shaft (that counter rotates). Those B3's kinda make us spoiled when going back to a single prop. That would, however, explain your comment about having to use more throttle now than you're used to. Of course, wind/current/etc certainly adds to the challenge! I haven't run a Venture yet so I'm out of "suggestions" - and admittedly that one was a long shot, but I suppose worth a try. I think most boats hold certain challenges when dealing with low speed maneuverability and it usually just takes a little time to figure out, which it seems like you are doing. Nice boat name, by the way!
 
Richie, you two go out and have just one heck of a lot of fun. Just remember us po' boys stuck up here in the PNW who don't get to see that beautiful scenery from down thar in the SE.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,170
Messages
1,427,768
Members
61,080
Latest member
Jfeg
Back
Top