Is you spouse capable of driving your boat?

[midway]

Mine has driven the boat a little pulling tubes and now that I have a gps on board so she can follow the dotted line back I think she could get home. She has never tried to dock, she drops and pulls anchor and catches the dock when docking, I just have to be sure I am not coming in to the dock too fast and if I am tell her not to reach out for the dock cause she will try.

 

[everthing's irie]

MY wife is capable and can drive the boat but she will not dock the boat. I know she is capable she just Will not try.

 

[Stray Cat]

Wifey likes pushing the throttles forward, not so much pulling them in reverse. We navigate with red nuns and green cans...and she understands the importance of staying between them. She does a great job on the fore deck handling lines and keeping the fenders off the slimey lock walls.

 

[Larry&Leisa]

Depends on which boat.... she handles the 240 quite well, cruising ,pulling boards,fueling or docking. The 370 is a bit intimidating for her right now and she won't even attempt close quarters. I think I've got her convinced that once she gets use to the seperate throttle and tranny's, she'll actually see how much easier it is to dock than the 240.

 

[rondds]

Here's my girls...

The small one tells me she'll only drive when we're on the ocean, as pictured here... (apologies to those of you who have seen this picture a dozen or so times)

Does this answer your question about the big one?

 

[Air O'Nautical]

I clicked the maybe.
The wife is my first mate and handles the lines and fenders during docking. We make a great team and togather we can dock the 400 almost anywhere. Twelve years of practice helps too.

 

[surfinjoe]

I am trying to teach mine to drive so I can enjoy drinking more. She says she doesn't want to be my DD....time to upgrade to a DA so we can park her out in the middle of the lake for the night and both drink

 

[W'EYE NOT]

My wife has been in boats all her life and will take the wheel on a long trip. She has no interest in approaching the dock or manuvering close to others. When I asked what would happen if I had a heart attack, she said I will call on the radio and get us as close as necessary for help.

I am kind of happy she does not want to learn to dock her. I don't ever want to get home and find her out in it without me. With 45' around her and a 14'8" beam, it takes getting in and out with care.

That would REALLY cause me to have a heart attack, while standing on the dock looking at our open slip!

While under way, she makes a great 1st mate and me a happy Captain.:smt038

 

[The Bill Collector]

My better half runs the boat on occasion, but does not like most docking situations. (just like me in the beginning). She is excellent at running lines, hanging fenders and being a another set of eyes for me. We use wireless headsets that I found in a RV catalog for $79 (and have been told they are better then the $299 marine ones) anyway I highly suggest the headsets for any boat 30' and above. These headsets have saved our relationship. For those high intensity docking situations where voices are raised, everyone on the dock is watching, listening and we can have quiet conversations without the dock audience hearing us.....
:smt038 http://www.rvheadsets.com/

 

[VTSeaRay]

Kim is one of those "no man can do anything better than me" types.

So when we were in the market for a new boat we were doing a demo on a Crownline. We were crusing down the Tennessee river @ about 45mph or so, Kim was at the helm & the young boat salesman looks at Kim & says to try not to get too overwhelmed by the boat as they have courses for women to learn how to properly handle a boat.

We'll I've been around her long enough to know that that statement was like waiving a red flag to a bull. Without even looking up I found something to hang on to & staring the salesman straight in the eye she hit the throttle & cranked the steering wheel as hard as she could never once taking her eyes off the salesman.

Lol.....the salesman about $hit his pants then made a comment to the effect that maybe not everyone needs the course. I still tease her about it.

Good for her!!!! LOL

I spent all of last summer learning how to handle my new boat, and worked with my gf so she could drive it anytime she wanted to or I needed her to. That included docking and launching. She still doesn't like to back up the truck and trailer since a few yrs ago she put my old boat trailer up on one wheel, and dented my truck bumper trying to back it down a steep ramp while I stayed in the boat. She's been around boats all her life, spending weekends as a kid on her Dad's Trojan 30-ish on Erie so she's good around boats. It's great to see the sense of accomplishment on her face when she brings it into the dock on her own, or leaves the dock on her own!

-VtSeaRay

 

[Jack F]

Never mind the wife, I need to learn 1st, then have someone else teach her.

 

[Nehalennia]

I'm in the maybe category. Right now that's one of the things we'll be working on this spring. I'd like her to get more comfortable.

 

[Skip]

My wife runs the 420 periodically.
When we got married I had a 19' Supra inboard ski boat and we went water skiing every weekend. My choice was to teach her how to back the trailer down the ramp with the Ford F250 Crew Cab, or to drive the boat onto the trailer. I chose the "drive the boat onto the trailer" option. She got very comfortable with it..to include getting the Supra on the trailer the first time in a severe thunderstorm in Texas with about thrity bass boaters watching and thrity plus knots of crosswind.
She is fairly comfortable at the helm of the 420. She can also pivot the boat and back into a slip....but she prefers I do the close quarters maneuver.

I look forward to my boys (now 4 and 7) getting a bit older so I can teach them how to run the boat. And run the Makita Polisher. And the Porter Cable. And service C Series.

That is another thread.

Skip

 

[Sweet Dreams]

We both drive and dock and she drives it onto the trailer. Funny story about docking...
First trip out in the new boat we neither had docked. Plans were to pull into a slip and eat at a restraunt in Georgetown. But we had to dock it to do that! We saw this very large bouy shaped mooring in the harbor just out from the restraunts and dedided that would be "our dock". I bet we practiced pulling up to it for an hour before we decided we had a feel for the boats behavior and were willing to try it up against the HARD dock. lol. It was the first weekend in Feb and COLD but we were both sweating! After a very slow and cautious but sucessful docking and a couple hours later, we were putting up the camper canvas and this guy stopped to chat. Before he walked away he says, "You know, I have been around boats all my life and seen alot of stuff, but WHAT in the world were you guys doing out there circling around that bouy all that time?" Yeh, we were embarrassed a little. But hey, no calamities!

 

[rondds]

circling around that bouy all that time

It took a calamatous docking incident for me to do what you thought of doing ahead of time. My disaster led me to spend an afternoon backing down on a no-wake marker. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You were a LOT smarter than I!

 

[water rat]

Kim is one of those "no man can do anything better than me" types.

So when we were in the market for a new boat we were doing a demo on a Crownline. We were crusing down the Tennessee river @ about 45mph or so, Kim was at the helm & the young boat salesman looks at Kim & says to try not to get too overwhelmed by the boat as they have courses for women to learn how to properly handle a boat.

We'll I've been around her long enough to know that that statement was like waiving a red flag to a bull. Without even looking up I found something to hang on to & staring the salesman straight in the eye she hit the throttle & cranked the steering wheel as hard as she could never once taking her eyes off the salesman.

Lol.....the salesman about $hit his pants then made a comment to the effect that maybe not everyone needs the course. I still tease her about it.

Your wife rocks. Sounds like something I would do.

I was the one who got my hubby into boating. I grew up on boats, he didn't. He caught on super quick, and actually does a good portion of the driving now; we split it up about 60/40.

 

[water rat]

We both drive and dock and she drives it onto the trailer. Funny story about docking...
First trip out in the new boat we neither had docked. Plans were to pull into a slip and eat at a restraunt in Georgetown. But we had to dock it to do that! We saw this very large bouy shaped mooring in the harbor just out from the restraunts and dedided that would be "our dock". I bet we practiced pulling up to it for an hour before we decided we had a feel for the boats behavior and were willing to try it up against the HARD dock. lol. It was the first weekend in Feb and COLD but we were both sweating! After a very slow and cautious but sucessful docking and a couple hours later, we were putting up the camper canvas and this guy stopped to chat. Before he walked away he says, "You know, I have been around boats all my life and seen alot of stuff, but WHAT in the world were you guys doing out there circling around that bouy all that time?" Yeh, we were embarrassed a little. But hey, no calamities!

Nothing to be embarrassed about! Many moons ago, when we got our first real boat, the hubby and I wanted to practice docking. My dad gave us great advice - go to the marina during week (as opposed to the weekend)- no one is there to watch you, and you won't be as nervous. It really did calm the nerves to be in an environment where you didn't feel there a dozen sets of eyes on you.

 

[NorCal Boater]

My wife has driven all the boats and even towed the smaller ones. Well the last one was the 26' 4Winns. At 8600 pounds on the trailer I guess it wasn't that small.

When we bought the 340 she did not want me to teach her. :huh: She enrolled in the Power Squadron Skipper Saver course and passed beautifully.

She drives very well. The only problem now is we fight over who gets to drive.

I lost the coin toss on this day. :smt013

 

[rblatter]

The admiral loves to drive the boat, but only at high speeds... I will never forget her yell when at the helm of our 97 270 Sundancer, she floored it and sreamed yahooo... Idle speed bores her. It is great to have someone take over and let me enjoy the scenery. I have a real problem with the lines, so that is her responsability. Fifteen years ago she got me interested in boating, her cousins all had boats. Funny she does not drive a car....

R.Blatter
310 Sundancer 2001
5.7L Bravos IIIs

 

[Four Suns]

I even got one of my wife driving with the famous "I'm going to shove the camera up your ass" looks: