Carol,

The first time we took our boat out we had exactly the same thing! We tried to get the back end to swing round, and (with the assistance of a marina hand and a very experienced friend) failed completely to get her to go the way we wanted. She went in the opposite direction quite happily though!

First trick we learnt was which way the prop kicked - starboard in our case - getting her to back to port is impossible unless you have enough space to get some steerage on. Even with the wind on the transom she is tricky to back even in a straight line. A few tricks we've picked up - in reverse give her short bursts of power this gets her moving backwards but removes the majority of the prop kick and you can try and steer her where you want to take her. She will always seek the wind with her transom, so bear this in mind.

When coming into berths - slowly does it - we are notorious for taking for-ever in a day to get into a marina berth. We do the last 100 yards with the engine in neutral - if we need any power to get steerage on its a quick flick into gear and then back to neutral. We managed to come alongside like this last week with 38knots blowing us off. We have, like you a heavy(ish) boat at 11 tons fully laiden, so her momentum carries her a long way, and conversely she takes a lot of reverse to stop her in her tracks (you can't simply slam full astern and stop on the spot like you can in a lighter AWB). Thinking of which - bear in mind the prop kick when stopping her too - in our case I can make a perfect port side to approach and be in exactly the right place with 2 yards to go, if I then give her a little reverse to stop her her stern kicks away from the pontoon and it all gets messy - this is why we do it slowly, so we can get a couple of lines on before we need to stop her using the engine (ideally in the above scenario we get a stern line on and then the prop kick works against the line to bring the bow in).

Lots of fenders too ... a few hundred quid on fenders seems a lot - but wait until you see the repair bill for some GRP work on topsides!

The other thing we have found useful is to scout the area well before you get into the berthing run - we have fenders and lines on before we enter the marina to give us time to see where the berth is and plan once we are in the marina. If it looks too hard, find another berth, raft up to someone else or see if someone will take you lines - any of these is preferable to making a huge mess of berthing - and if you choose another berth and need to move you can always muster up some helpers once your on shore

.

Ours is a medium / heavy displacement and has a semi-long keel with full skeg on the rudder so I would imagine is fairly simalar to yours. I would love to come and man fenders/ropes/boathooks while you practice, but Plymouth is a little far from Newcastle! Have you tried going out on a calm day and motoring around (forwards and backwards) in a bay to get an idea of how she handles under power - you can learn quite a lot this way without worrying about hitting anything!

Hope it all goes well - we were very worried the first time we had to berth our boat, but it seems to get easier every time you do it!

Jonny