260 Reverse issues

[Lucky Day]

260 Reverse issues

Our hunter 260 is equipped with a 9.9 Evinrude outboard that it is linked the Edson wheeled helm controls, we recently have moved into a marina that requires us to back the boat up into our slip, the boat is very unresponsive when reversing with very little reverse motion except for prop walk sideways, I have checked and you can see the prop rotating in reverse. The leg on the outboard is a standard leg and not a long leg, how much difference would that make in reverse propulsion?

Thanks in advance

Bruce & Jackie

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Lucky Day;

Your engine is located on the starboard transom. Even with centerline prop shafts on larger boats of any kind to include sailboats, you will have what is called prop walk until you have flow of water over the rudder to give you steerage. Not much you can do about that except for two methods I use to teach my customers. First if there is enough clearance away from the dock for backing up, back up a long distance to get steerage from the water flow over the rudder. Secondly, you can start backing at a right angle say about 30 degrees (starboard transom positioned to the right of the dock) and when the prop walk gets you into position being straight to the dock, you should have water flow over therudder to give you steerage control by that time.

There is a trick if you over to the left too much, then you could put the throttle into forward and turn to the wheel to port to straighten up the boat.

I suggest that you go out and practice this somewhere away from the marina until you have the hang of it. When backing up and you do not feel comfortalbe with the approach, leave and start over so no damage or injury happens. Also, do not back up fast and use the forward throttle to slow you down

crazy dave condon

 

[cephius (Dave)]

Do you have a connection from the rudder to the motor. Being able to direct the outboard thrust really adds to the H260 maneuverability at lower speeds.

Even so, this is a bear of a boat at low speeds. Like Dave states, you need more speed than most boats of any size to get the rudder to bite. I give a big burst of throttle to get moving, and then back off. I also use a good deal of thrust in the opposite direction to stop. Not ideal, but needed on this boat. I keep my motor in tip-top condition so I can rely on it.