[8gv]

Originally Posted by Dave R

Being powered with a single Bravo 3 and having a deep-V stepped hull, your boat will react pretty much exactly like mine. It will not want to back straight and will tend to pull the stern to starboard under power in reverse. The simplest way to overcome this issue is to do most of your backing at a drift. Just put it in gear long enough to get it moving, then go to neutral and let it drift backwards.

You can adjust course very easily by (in neutral) turn the wheel toward the direction you want the stern to go, then go into reverse for a second or so and back to neutral. If you are going backwards too fast, straighten the wheel and put it in forward briefly. If you are going too fast in reverse and you need to adjust course, turn the wheel (again in neutral) to the direction opposite of the way you want the stern to go, and briefly put it in forward. this will kick the stern sideways rather effectively, so use very little forward gear time.

You can use the wheel turns and gear changes from reverse to neutral to forward to neutral to reverse etc. to spin the boat on it's axis, however, the axis (pivot point) will likely be forward of the helm and not on the boat's centerline, it will be to starboard quite a bit, perhaps directly in front of you at the helm. This is due to prop walk of the rear most prop having a longer lever to twist the boat.

In all the tricks mentioned above, you should never have to use more than idle power, assuming there's no wind or current to deal with. If you find that you are using more than idle power, you are doing it wrong.

My absolute favorite device for assistance with docking is my Edson steering knob. I think they should be standard on every stern drive boat.

When I went from a single I/O Alpha drive to a single I/O Bravo III it seemed that all the prop walk was gone. I had to relearn backing in because, with the Alpha, it was factored in for so long.