- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- RO Number
- 20854
- Messages
- 1,192
We were docking at a basin by St Pete on Saturday. Got in position to drop anchor, wife goes to bow.
I'm ready to pull back on throttles which have been feeling tight for a while now... well, the port one is VERY tight, I pull hard, can't move it to neutral, pull harder... it finally moves... I pull on both levers into idle/reverse but instead of moving back the boat starts to rotate clockwise.
Hmmmm... "Vanessa, don't drop the anchor"...
I throttle up on both engines in reverse and the rotation gets faster... we're doing loops like clowns between a few sailboats (thank the Lord I always leave quite a lot of room).
So I put the port control back into neutral and try backing down on just the starboard one, still just clockwise boat rotation. A bit more throttle, boat moves back but still strong stern swing to port...
So I turn the wheel hard to starboard and throttle up (in reverse) on my starboard engine (leaving port in neutral position), for sure my stern would swing to starboard... NOPE! very pronounced stern swing to port, just keeps rotating... But as soon as I go forward on both engines I control the boat just fine...
I decide to just leave and get away from all boats... soon I realized that my port engine was stuck in 'forward', and I can throttle up on it but no matter if I push or pull the lever, it throttles up forward. Well I figured out what it was, and it all makes sense when you think of it in hindsight BUT trust me, for a minute there it was tough to figure out why I was doing loops (being able to control the boat as I moved forward but simply doing clockwise circles no matter how I tried to throttle up in reverse with the wheel in any position...)
When I got to the marina I just shut off the port engine and maneuvered in on the one engine.
I'm ready to pull back on throttles which have been feeling tight for a while now... well, the port one is VERY tight, I pull hard, can't move it to neutral, pull harder... it finally moves... I pull on both levers into idle/reverse but instead of moving back the boat starts to rotate clockwise.
Hmmmm... "Vanessa, don't drop the anchor"...
I throttle up on both engines in reverse and the rotation gets faster... we're doing loops like clowns between a few sailboats (thank the Lord I always leave quite a lot of room).
So I put the port control back into neutral and try backing down on just the starboard one, still just clockwise boat rotation. A bit more throttle, boat moves back but still strong stern swing to port...
So I turn the wheel hard to starboard and throttle up (in reverse) on my starboard engine (leaving port in neutral position), for sure my stern would swing to starboard... NOPE! very pronounced stern swing to port, just keeps rotating... But as soon as I go forward on both engines I control the boat just fine...
I decide to just leave and get away from all boats... soon I realized that my port engine was stuck in 'forward', and I can throttle up on it but no matter if I push or pull the lever, it throttles up forward. Well I figured out what it was, and it all makes sense when you think of it in hindsight BUT trust me, for a minute there it was tough to figure out why I was doing loops (being able to control the boat as I moved forward but simply doing clockwise circles no matter how I tried to throttle up in reverse with the wheel in any position...)
When I got to the marina I just shut off the port engine and maneuvered in on the one engine.