I BOAT NY HARBOR - BOAT HANDLING

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 NY Harbor is a commercial/recreational mixed-use harbor and your boat handling will differ from your boat handling in your normal cruising grounds: 

  • Primary use of VHF channel 13

  • Commercial vessels approaching you head on

  • Commercial vessels overtaking you

  • Ferries crossing your course

  • Larger wakes reinforced by more traffic and reflective bulkheads of the "wide canals"

  • Many human powered vessels

  

Primary Use of VHF Channel 13

You should add VHF channel 13, the bridge-to-bridge channel used by commercial vessels in the harbor, to your VHF radio's channel scan or watch.  If a commercial vessel (liner, tanker, freighter, tug/barge, ferry, etc.)is trying to communicate with you, channels 13 and/or 16 will be used.

 

Commercial Vessels Approaching You Head On

["Boating with Mad" cartoon showing small vessel claiming right of way over commercial vessel]

 

You're cruising down the Hudson gabbing with your family opposite Chelsea Piers when you  look up and see a northbound large commercial vessel headed for you and your family: 

  from globalsecurity.org

You remember that the pilot may not be able to see you as you approach:

from http://www.boatingsafety.com/watchout.htm

You also remember that the vessel may take a half-mile to a mile to slow to a stop and that the vessel may be slow in changing direction.

What do you do?

Give way and make your change in direction drastic enough so that the pilot or helmsman of the large commercial vessel understands that you've gotten out of his way. 

The GOLDEN RULE in NY Harbor:  Assume a commercial vessel is restricted in its ability to maneuver and YOU GIVE WAY EARLY.

 

Same situation, except you didn't give way soon enough and you hear one short horn blast or two short horn blasts from the vessel. 

What do you do?

from http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/images/navrl1.gif

 

Same situation, except you hear 5 short horn blasts from the vessel. 

What do you do?

This is a danger signal or the vessel's pilot or helmsman does not understand your intentions.  Get out of the way ASAP and contact the vessel on VHF 13 if necessary.

 

Commercial vessels overtaking you

from http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/images/navrl3.gif

 

Ferries crossing your course

http://www.panynj.gov/

 

For those ferries running their routes by the Stevens Institute guidelines, you'll generally have a perpendicular crossing with a slow-moving ferry and the standard Rules of the Road crossing applies:

 

 

from http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/images/navrl2.gif

However, most ferries still run their routes fast point-to-point (contrary to NYS law prohibiting speed greater than 5MPH within 100' of a pier and NJS law requiring slow speed within 200' of a pier) and you'd be wise to have a lookout, have all persons off the foredeck and be ready to communicate on VHF Channel 13.

                                            

Larger wakes from more traffic and reflective bulkheads

Avoid Zephyr - one of the largest wakes in the Harbor

 

There are approximately 1200 wakes-producing trips in NY Harbor on a typical weekday.  These wakes reinforce each other and the reflective bulkheads of NY Harbor, a "wide canal", further reinforce the wakes.   About 800 wakes daily are from commuter ferries:

from http://www.worldshipny.com/nycferries2.htm

 

and you should try to avoid the area extending between the Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn Bridge, known as the Manhattan Maelstrom,  during ferry rush hours:

 

 Following are tips for crossing wakes:

  • Keep all persons off the foredeck.  It's dangerous (and illegal) for kids to be dangling their legs over the bow when a boat's underway but in NY Harbor, it's an accident waiting to happen.

  • Announce the wake to your passengers:  "Wake coming on a count of three.........One, Two, Three".

  • Approach the wake either at a 45 degree angle or at an angle with the bow flare tangent or parallel to the wake. Heading straight in to a wake will cause your boat to pound or hobby-horse and taking the wake on your beam will cause your boat to roll.

 from http://www.boatoregon.com/Library/WatchWake.pdf

  • For a moderate wake, throttle back to raise your bow.  As you pass over the final wave of the wake, throttle up to lower your bow again.

  • For large wakes and rogue wakes, throttle down to idle speed until through the wake.

  • If you're in a multiple wakes area, keep your crew and passengers seated until you clear the area.

        from http://www.geocities.com/palmbeachboating/wakes.html

        from http://www.boatingandfishing.com/stories.cfm?NewsFile=/NewsArchive/062906/wl6.htm

Vessels passing W. 79th St Boat Basin - June, 2006

 

HUMAN-POWERED VESSELS

In NY Harbor there are kayaks, canoes, rowboats, outriggers and dragon boats either running singly or in small flotillas.  These HPVs run off the pier heads but you should be alert for river crossings and heavy activity around the launches shown on the Wakes page.

At night, some kayaks display confusing "identifying" lights of various combinations, e.g., a green light on the bow and a red light on the stern, rather than regulation-required lights.

 

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SLOW
 Safe Level Of Wakes