Prop walk
Put a single right-hand prop astern and the stern kicks to port before the boat even moves. Inboards do it most. Fight it, or use it to tuck the stern in.
Boat-handling practice yard
Practice the docking before the dock.
Helmyard puts a boat in your browser with the things that make docking hard: prop walk, a pivot point, wind on the topsides and current under the hull. Nine graded drills, from a calm slip to a fuel dock in a running current. Every run is timed and scored, and your best ones go in a private logbook.
Yard Pass $1.95/month or $19.50/year · Free during preview for all nine drills and four boats.
9graded docking drills
4boats, outboard to twin inboard
20 knwind you can set (Pass)
2 kncurrent you can set (Pass)
Why docking is hard
Three forces most people meet for the first time at the dock.
The yard models each of them in code, so you can feel them where a mistake costs nothing. How the model works.
Wind
Stopped, a powerboat lies across the wind and its bow blows off first. Slow down too early on a breezy day and the wind steers for you.
Current
The water itself moves, and the boat goes with it. Point the bow into the current and it becomes a brake you can steer against.
The route
Nine drills, marked like a channel.
Green cans are free. Red nuns come with the Yard Pass. Each has a par time and a par number of shifts; three clean runs in a row on a drill earn it a steady mark in your logbook.
-
Leave the slip
Back out of a slip, turn in the fairway and leave bow first.
Free Par 50 s · 4 shifts -
Between two boats
Side-tie in a gap of 1.7 boat lengths, with a light breeze.
Yard Pass Par 80 s · 8 shifts -
Fairway turn
Turn around in a dead-end fairway and leave the way you came.
Yard Pass Par 70 s · 8 shifts -
Pick up a mooring
Stop with the bow at a mooring buoy, heading into a 10-knot wind.
Yard Pass Par 60 s · 6 shifts -
Crosswind slip
The straight-in slip with a 12-knot wind blowing across it.
Yard Pass Par 75 s · 8 shifts -
Fuel dock in a current
Come alongside the pumps with a one-knot current running.
Yard Pass Par 75 s · 8 shifts
How a run is scored
Touches cost the most. Time and shifts cost a little.
Every contact is measured by how fast the hull was closing on what it hit. Under 0.30 m/s (about half a knot) is a soft touch, the kind a fender takes. Anything faster is a hard one.
Worked example: drill 1, Straight in
A run that tied up in 1:14.0 with 7 shifts and one gentle touch on a finger pier. Computed by the same code that scores your runs.
- Time
- 1:14.0 par 1:00.0
- Shifts
- 7 par 6
- Soft touches
- 1
- Hard touches
- 0
- Start100
- Soft touches-5
- Time over par-2
- Shifts over par-1
Score
92
5 per soft touch, 20 per hard one, 1 per 5 s over par (up to 20), 1 per shift over par (up to 10).
Four boats
From a center console to a twin-engine cruiser.
Each handles differently: an outboard steers by pointing its thrust, an inboard needs water over the rudder, and twins can turn nearly in place. The 20 ft outboard is free.
20 ft outboard
Steers by turning the engine. Light, quick, blown about by wind.
Free
24 ft sterndrive
Steers like an outboard, carries more way, a little more prop walk.
Yard Pass
30 ft single inboard
A rudder behind a fixed prop. Strong prop walk astern; steer with bursts ahead.
Yard Pass
34 ft twin inboard
Two levers. One ahead, one astern, and she turns nearly in place.
Yard Pass
Pricing
Three drills free. The whole yard for $1.95 a month.
No account and no email: your logbook lives at a private link. Full pricing.
Free
$0
for as long as you like
- Drills 1-3 in calm water
- The 20 ft outboard
- A logbook of 30 runs
- Yard notes and how-it-works
Yard Pass
$1.95 / month
or $19.50 a year (two months free)
- All nine drills
- All four boats, twin levers included
- Your own wind (0-20 kn) and current (0-2 kn)
- 2,000 runs, printable card and CSV
Free during preview. Checkout is not switched on yet, so every Pass feature is open to everyone and nothing is charged.
A practice game, not a course.
The physics are simplified on purpose and real boats differ: weight, hull shape, prop size and sea state all change how a boat answers. Use the yard to understand what the controls do, then practise for real at low speed in open water, and take a hands-on course from a qualified instructor. Helmyard is not boating instruction, not a NASBLA or state course and not a certification.