- Oct 4, 2006
- 2,335
- Boat Info
- 2003 280DA and 1995 Sea Ray 175
- Engines
- Twin 4.3l and 3.0l, all w/ AlphaI GenII drives
It's a bit tough to visualize, but think of a shopping cart. If you're pushing a shopping cart forward and want to stop you pull back with both hands. If you want to make a gradual turn to the left, you push forward with your right hand while holding the left hand still. If you want to make a very sharp turn (as in doing a 180* turnaround) you would pull back with one hand and push forward with the other. It's the same principle with twin engines. If you can drive a shopping cart you can drive a twin engine boat.
The shopping cart analogy is another piece of great advice from Gofirstclass and is easy to recall in moments of panic.
To go along with that, the shopping cart will pivot around you...where you are standing. A good thing to know is where does your boat pivot when you cross-control the throttles? This will help when needing to make a 90 degree turn. You'll then know how far you need to pull forward to then turn in that direction. I know for my boat with twin sterndrives, the pivot point is nicely situated about where I am standing at the helm. So I can look to my right or left, line up the fairway or other point to turn (accounting for wind/current), remove all motion, and then cross the shifters and end up pointing right in the center of my new direction.
Good luck!
Tom