I’m looking for tips and advice backing out of a new slip that I just moved into. In my crappy drawing above, I am the green boat, bow-in to the dock, surrounded by the red boats (and white is the docks). The exit of the marina fairway to open water is the blue shading at the top of the screen.
I went out to practice docking and departing this past weekend, and for the departure I’m reversing and thinking my best approach is to back all the way out into the open. When I practiced this recently, I lightly bumped into a boat along the way, and severely struggled getting out, needing the help of multiple line handlers on the dock and onboard to recover and exit appropriately. I practiced this three times, none of them significantly better than another, and trying to learn what I can do better. My biggest issue that I faced is getting maneuverability in reverse. It’s a 36ft boat, with a tiller, and a fin keel. I went very slowly and lightly, pushing the tiller over to port to kick my stern to starboard, and the stern wouldn’t budge at all. This meant the boat just kept tracking and basically backed into the other boats on the right side of the diagram.
I would appreciate any and all advice on how to gain more maneuverability in reverse, tips on how to depart the dock, how to get back to the dock (especially since the dock is really short for my length of boat making it difficult to jump off to hold lines and to keep the stern close to the dock), and any general boat handling tips and advice for this situation.
Some extra info- my prop wash brings me to port, and there is frequently a light to strong wind moving from the right to the left of the diagram.