Communication from helm to bow
- Thread starter Tim Musolf
- Start date
We've been using Sena SPH10 motorcycle headphones for four years now and wouldn't be without. We tried several other solutions but they all had static or broke. With the Sena I can be standing on the bow in a 25 knot wind and have a normal quiet conversation with my wife at the helm while using both hands to hold a boat hook. No "What?". No tension. Many situations are fine with just hand signals so we don't always use the headphones. But we always use them when picking up a mooring. My wife is at the helm and I "talk" her onto the mooring from the bow. She repeats each thing I say so I never have to take my eye off the mooring to see if she understood me. "A little left..neutral..slow forward..right..straight..slow reverse...harder reverse...neutral...got it" as the line drops on the cleat. She used to dread picking up a mooring because it was always tense. The only problem with the Sena is that they are pricey - $150 each.
+1 for the Eartec. Communications as clear as if we were standing next to each other. We were fortunate to acquire a set of these from very generous friends.
This comes up quite often on these forums and my wife and I fail to understand what it is that people think they need to communicate when anchoring, docking or picking up a mooring, that can't be communicated with a few simple hand signals.
The depth and when to drop when anchoring (one finger for every ten feet of water, is near enough and a thumb down like a Roman Emperor), pointing to the mooring with the boat hook after it is under the bow and out of view from the helm, or distance of the bow from the dock are about all we ever need to communicate (again fingers to feet).
I think it's just practice and teamwork.
The depth and when to drop when anchoring (one finger for every ten feet of water, is near enough and a thumb down like a Roman Emperor), pointing to the mooring with the boat hook after it is under the bow and out of view from the helm, or distance of the bow from the dock are about all we ever need to communicate (again fingers to feet).
I think it's just practice and teamwork.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,959
Kermit, It is only that they see you hopping all over the place that they want you to pick 1 space.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,959
Perhaps that is because you are challenged at hearing your own directions.
If you have a properly sized power windlass there are not a whole lot of signals required. The helm puts the boat on location, stops the boat, and points to the bowman to deploy the hook. On recovery the bowman signals ready and the helm stands by with engine running/neutral for the "off the bottom" signal. The windlass does the work unless there is a need to power out the hook. If conditions are modest we may hoist the main and the helm works the mainsheet for boat control. I have seen a lot of gelcoat go in the water from guys overrunning their rode and taking chain down the topsides.
We came up with hand signals for anchoring. I had hoped to find some standard set of signals but didn't find any consistency with what I found online so I came up with my own. I explained them to my wife and she then corrected them to something that made sense to her (and to her credit, were more simple. Simple is good).
She has three controls at the helm. The wheel, the throttle, and the gear shifter. We have signals which directly correlate to these controls.
To tell her direction I point to where I want her to go. As she turns the boat my arm straightens out until I'm pointing straight ahead while she centers the wheel.
For the gear selection I point up for forward, make a fist by my shoulder for neutral, put a flat hand down by my side for reverse. All gear changes have to be done at low idle so there's no reason to combine signals like hard reverse, medium forward or whatever. If she's at hard reverse and I tell her to go forward, she knows to drop the throttle, then shift, then wait for my next command.
To increase throttle I do the the whirly thing with my index finger pointed up. I do it once for 1/3 throttle, again for 2/3 throttle, and a 3rd time for balls out. To reduce throttle I do the cut the throat thing. That's a full drop to low idle.
I love doing this in front of guests when we anchor. They've remarked at how well we worked together.
She has three controls at the helm. The wheel, the throttle, and the gear shifter. We have signals which directly correlate to these controls.
To tell her direction I point to where I want her to go. As she turns the boat my arm straightens out until I'm pointing straight ahead while she centers the wheel.
For the gear selection I point up for forward, make a fist by my shoulder for neutral, put a flat hand down by my side for reverse. All gear changes have to be done at low idle so there's no reason to combine signals like hard reverse, medium forward or whatever. If she's at hard reverse and I tell her to go forward, she knows to drop the throttle, then shift, then wait for my next command.
To increase throttle I do the the whirly thing with my index finger pointed up. I do it once for 1/3 throttle, again for 2/3 throttle, and a 3rd time for balls out. To reduce throttle I do the cut the throat thing. That's a full drop to low idle.
I love doing this in front of guests when we anchor. They've remarked at how well we worked together.
Well, I can do either alone, but it means actually hurrying along the side deck, which spoils my buzz. If there is a 90-degree wind over the dock, the bow gets blown over into the dock, or the neighbors slip, if it's not held with a bow line. I find that having crew on the bow holding a line until the engine is reversed keeps everything straight until we're moving. I can rig a long spring line, and motor back against it until it is released, but that means I have to handle 50 feet of line quickly - again, more work. How do you do it, say with 15 knots breeze pressing you into your dock with only handling lines from the cockpit?
Once we got the dodger and now have a dinghy in the front deck making mooring ball pickups harder, much less docking and anchoring, hand signals and yelling did not work well enough so our kids got us the Sena My Team Talks Bluetooth Headsets from Cruising Solutions for a Christmas present and there is no going back. They work great for us and allow us to speak to each other in a reasonable voice while being heard and still have our hands free for other tasks. Even gotten complements coming into anchorages form other cruisers sitting on their boats and watching the show.
We use Sena SMH10 blue tooth on our motorcycle helmets.
I'm going to see if I can take a pair of Harbor Freight ear muffs and convert them to headsets using the Sena parts that go in/on our helmets. The gear comes out of the helmets in just a minute and we don't need them while on the boat. The Sena products are great.
On the Mac if someone else is on board we've always used hand signals with me at the bow directing where I think we should go and the Ruth or now Dottie at the helm letting me know depth. On the Endeavour with the added distance and a dodger in the mix and wanting to know depth I want verbal communication over a headset if at all possible.
As Terry said, easiest way to get around all of this is to just singlehand
.Sumner
==================================================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
Last edited:
[QUOTE="Parsons, post: [How do you do it, say with 15 knots breeze pressing you into your dock with only handling lines from the cockpit?[/QUOTE]
If the 90 degree wind blows onto the pier..I do
nothing. Walk onto the pier with spring in hand. (Single handing.) Let the wind do the work.
With crew I have em ready with a midship spring.
The dock boys will only screw up a good dock job by yanking on the bow line. I hardly ever rig the bow line until the boat is secure with a spring and stern line. Just watch the power botes sometime with a beam off dock wind when Muffy hands the marina crew a bow line. Thats FUN!!
Thats how I do it.
If the 90 degree wind blows onto the pier..I do
nothing. Walk onto the pier with spring in hand. (Single handing.) Let the wind do the work.
With crew I have em ready with a midship spring.
The dock boys will only screw up a good dock job by yanking on the bow line. I hardly ever rig the bow line until the boat is secure with a spring and stern line. Just watch the power botes sometime with a beam off dock wind when Muffy hands the marina crew a bow line. Thats FUN!!
Thats how I do it.
Last edited: