Inboard type towboats

[rp23g7]

Hey everyone.

My brother in law and his family are going away for the week on vacation. They want me to watch their dog.........

Anyway they have a 2007 Centurion Cyclone 23' they said we could use while they are gone.

I have never operated a inboard before, just sterndrive boats, 2 20' and a 17'

Is there any handling slow speed/reverse/turning characteristics is should be aware of?

Its a inboard with a 370 CID motor in it, bowrider etc

 

[pontoonokie]

Re: Inboard type towboats

the biggest thing i think imo is to remember to run the fans on the motor compartment.. they can get to hot.. i don't remember any handling or operating characteristics someone that currently has an inboard might lend more insite...

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Inboard type towboats

the biggest thing i think imo is to remember to run the fans on the motor compartment.. they can get to hot.. i don't remember any handling or operating characteristics someone that currently has an inboard might lend more insite...

engines are water cooled, not air cooled. if you need to run the blower to cool it, something is SERIOUSLY wrong! the blower doesn't move enough air to even begin to cool an engine. There is a reason inboards/IO's have a warning about running the blower for explosions, but absolutely no mention to run it to avoid overheating.

besides, the OP said he hadn't operated an inboard before, no mention of an I/O though, so there is a pretty good chance he already knows that.


Anyway, true inboards are a little more sluggish at low speeds. The rudder becomes much less effective if you coasting or any other time without much power. SOME inboards are fairly bad at controlling direction in reverse also.

 

[salty87]

Re: Inboard type towboats

reverse is a little different but the boat always responds the same so it just takes a little time getting comfortable.

in reverse, the rudder does very little...moving the wheel isn't going to do you much. the torque of the engine and the prop will do most of the work. the boat will want to pull to one direction in reverse...which side it pulls to depends on which direction the prop spins.

so, first determine which way your stern is going to drift in reverse. it will always drift to that side.

in order to reverse to the other side, you'll need to use forward gear and the steering wheel. you can move from forward to reverse as long as you're not rev'ing it up....don't approach any harder than you want to hit, sort of thing...keep it slow

anyway...as you're floating and need to reverse to the other side...give it some forward gas with the wheel turned hard in order to kick the stern to the direction you're trying to go. then some more reverse and you'll drift in the direction you've just kicked the stern toward. keep repeating as needed.

it reads like a mouthful but it's reliable. the boat will drift to one side by design in reverse.... to go the other way, use small bursts of forward to line the stern up where you want to go combined with reverse to finish the drift.

that boat should be able to spin 360 degrees within its own length working forward and reverse properly.