General Category - Pearson Owners and Enthusiasts > Boat Handling

Backing up my P323

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Dolce_Vita:
Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your choice of boat!  We really love ours.  You will have many fine trips on her!


As for your backing, that is the exact same prop I'm running on Dolce Vita.  Backing was tough at first, but it gets better as you learn the boat.

Three things that might help you:
1)  Reverse incurs an additional 1.3:1 reduction.  You need to increase throttle a good bit after shifting into reverse to achieve the same thrust as in forward.

2) Reverse, unlike forward, has no detent, and is a "friction " engagement.  Often it is necessary to hold the shifter lever in the reverse position with some force to get it to engage quickly without slipping.

3) In my experience, reverse is much more sensitive to any fouling on the prop.  When I did the bottom this past spring, I coated the prop and shaft (but not the zincs!) with Pettit's "Barnacle Barrier"

My Atomic 4 is freshly rebuilt, with about 60 hours on it.  The difference in full throttle RPMs before and after was substantial, and greatly helped backing up.  Even without a rebuild, there's a lot of easy things you can do to your A4 to help it out.  There's a really good A4 discussion forum on the Moyer Marine web site:
http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/index.php

If you don't already know it, Moyer Marine is the PREMIERE place for A4 support.  Out of about 40,000 A4s built, about 20,000 are still in operation, thanks in no small part to Don Moyer.  The folks on the forum are a wealth of A4 knowledge and are eager to help.

Chelsea:
Thank you!
I will try higher RPMs sailing in the AM..

My next challenge is lighting to the mast.  Steaming, anchor and spreader lights are all out.  I don't know if it's bulbs or wire...

dooley1:
The first thing I'd suggest is can you back your boat into your slip?  I agree with Dolce Vita that you need to get some speed up in reverse to gain steerage.  I go about 20 yards out from my slip (guessing many of you don't have that luxury), then put her in reverse and put the throttle to high rpm's for about 20 seconds.  Once I start moving in reverse, I actually put her in neutral to eliminate prop walk entirely.  Then it is like backing a car.  Since my prop walk moves my stern to starboard, I tend to favor the port side of my slip... if I start to slow down too much I just engage the engine for a few seconds at low rpm which gives me another boost and the short blast of power moves the stern to port a tad.  Of course, having a cross wind makes the whole exercise a bit more of a geometry test.  However, once you have backed her in, there are NO problems whatsoever pulling out bow first!

Blue Spray:
Hi everyone:
Thanks for all your tips on backing up my P323 hull number 135. I now have a good handle on backing up using more RPMsin short burst and she responds well when underway. She is now on the hard getting ready to put her away for thr winter.
Thank you,
Gerry

Ed Sakowicz:
It is good to get with other P323 owners to help each other understand the boat's performance characteristics. With mine equiped with the diesel, the port side dock is my preference. That way, in reverse I can just keep the rudder straight, and let the prop walk take me away from the dock. This year I was stuck with a Starboard Dock, and need to constantly fend off in reverse. The only benefit is the ability to come into dock, put the transmission in reverse, and have the boat hug the dock due to the prop walk. I have a 3 blade fixed, and am looking to go to a 2 blade folding or perhaps a 3 blade folding. I would hope the 3 blade folding performs close to the fixed. I know from prior boats, the 2 blade folding needs to spin faster, but is close to matching the 2 blade fixed.

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