BLUF: A new boat pilot who is learning the skills required to safely operate a boat benefits significantly from the development of muscle memory that allows them to subconsciously operate the boat’s controls.

I recall one night back in the day when my brother and I crewed for a friend who was fielding his first race car. We had very little money to buy tires so the driver only made a few practice laps on that first trip to the track. He basically had no track experience much less any racing experience on a crowded race track. That first night out the car performed well but he found himself caught up in a couple of wrecks. After the race was over we inspected the damage and he was shocked to find bits of concrete embedded in the front bumper. “How did that get there?” he asked indignantly. We answered in unison … “Cause you slammed the wall, TWICE.” He did not even remember wrecking much less backing out into traffic and doing a classic “Rockford Files” spin to get the car back straight again.

He was suffering from brain overload. There were too many new things going on at once and he had sensory overload. Once he got some seat time he was able to gas, shift, steer, and brake without much thought but in the early weeks those simple tasks fully taxed his brain such that he had little ability to think about how to stay out of trouble on the track. Needless to say we spent a lot of time repairing body damage on that car.

This week I spent some quality time with a woman on our dock who is in the same boat. She is in the early stages of learning to operate her single engine inboard/outboard houseboat. Every action requires thought during these early stages of learning. “Which way do I turn the wheel to back the boat to starboard?” “The boat is not reacting. Did I hear it go into gear or not?” “Why am I drifting to port? Did the wind just shift?” The mental questions come at a rapid-fire pace and create brain overload.

As I coached her through some boat docking practice I noticed that the simple act of shifting from forward to neutral was requiring multiple thought and action steps each requiring a second or two. I could literally see her brain working. “Oh I’m approaching too fast” and then a half second later I could see her turn and look at the shifter to see what gear it was in. Then after another 1/2 sec. of processing that information she would reach for that old stiff Mercruiser shifter and struggle to shift it into neutral. Sometimes she would pull the shifter back but not far enough to get it to shift into neutral and the boat would continue to drive towards the dock. It would take another couple of seconds for her to realize this was happening and to begin to figure out why. Her stress level was increasing with every second and her ability to think quickly and react appropriately was increasingly diminished as time passed. Literally the shifting and steering actions were taking so long that the wind had the boat out of shape and to the point of no return on every attempted pass. It was about then that I remembered that first night at the race track.

I was thinking to myself that she would not be struggling nearly as much if she could first master that quirky shifter. So we tied the boat back up and spent a few minutes in the slip doing nothing more than shifting from neutral to forward, forward to neutral, neutral to reverse. She did this over and over again and during the process she listened for the engine to shift into gear. She began to get a feel for how the old shifter popped out of forward and into neutral. She soon began to recognize the sound the gears make when they began to engage and shift into forward. She also experienced what it felt like when she went too far and inadvertently shifted straight from reverse into forward without pausing in neutral. It was rather tedious for her I am sure but after a while she began to gain muscle memory and she could shift without thinking.

“Ok let’s take the boat back out and try docking again”. Over the next few minutes she made nine successful passes docking the boat and she did an admirable job each time. The lag time was cut way down. I could tell that the shifter movements came more automatic to her. She did not have to think about it and this gave her more time to watch the boat as it drifted and think about her next move. Her stress level was lower and her confidence level improved markedly.

Boating Lessons Learned:  Next time out we will practice those shifter movements a few times before heading out so as to refresh her muscle memory and enable her to subconsciously operate the controls.

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This post is for informational purposes only. The content herein has a single theme: Mistakes …. or as I call them “Boating Lessons Learned”. While there may be elements of this site that appear to be advice about how to do some task you can be assured that it is not a complete and accurate “how to”. I am partially describing how I did something and what I learned. Do not rely on this information because Mcmanusboatworks.com makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and is not liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.