We all have our fears when it comes to boats. Some imagine drowning, others the terrors of the sea. My nightmare is close quarter manoeuvring - primarily when I'm not helming, though sometimes even when I am !
The acquisition of a new boat is always exciting - and, for me, initially terrifying. The jump from 29 feet LOA to 41 feet caused me to panic. It's hard to recollect the worries we had in the early days of the transition - including trying to turn round in a dead-end in Ramsgate Marina on an August Bank Holiday. After a while we took the whole thing in our stride and did what she did best, with a deep keel heavy boat and did everything incredibly slowly. Moving to the cat was scary initially but the answer is always to look at what a boat does well - and then practice !
Close Quarters Manoeuvring
The Solaris was a whole new world - just about four-square which looked thoroughly intimidating when looking forward. Not like any boat we'd ever manouevred - dinghy cats are nothing like this.
Approaching a pontoon needs to be approached quite differently - the Solaris side-decks are quite high and leaping off onto the pontoon is not an option. So we have a splendid Heath Robinson tool which we inherited with the boat - a loop attached to a broom handle and thence to a piece of rope. Place the loop over a cleat on the pontoon and fix the line to the mid-ship cleat on the boat. Now add your other lines at will, allowing the engines to do any slow adjustment.
Windage can be an issue - although it's true of every boat you need to pay extra attention if trying to get onto the leeward side of a pontoon - fortunately with decent sized rudders plus the folding props and distance between the props its easier than it might be.
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Hanging a U-ey !
Once you have both engines going (as you do for manoeuvres) and if you've watched the YouTube videos to see the method you'll be amazed. Single-engined cats, for example the Prouts with the Silette leg are not as easy. Props about 15 feet apart (and in our case two 29hp engines for about 5 tons of boat) are just amazing. Without every touching the wheel - in fact its a very good idea not to fiddle with the rudders - using the throttles you can turn the boat round in her own length.
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Motoring a Distance
I'm not sure that any sailor really likes motoring but I freely admit that motoring the Solaris Sunrise is a much pleasanter experience than I'd imagined. The engines are buried under the aft berths and a reasonable distance from the cockpit so it is quite quiet. The helmsman gets a nice comfy seat and the rest can lounge about - indoors or out and still have a view.
We'll make hull speed 6-7 knots unless the sea state is poor so it's not a bad pace.
Back in 1999 we had guests arriving in Dartmouth for the total solar eclipse and we had been sitting out bad weather in Fowey. Sadly when the last day arrived it was flat calm so we ended up motoring about 60 miles in the day - in a monohull that was not a comfortable experience. These days
if I had to I'd look at a long motoring journey I'd do so without blinking.
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