Understanding Speed Boat Controls

Series Summary

A motorboat is a water vessel propelled by an internal combustion engine driving a jet pump or a propeller. A speedboat is a small motorboat designed to move quickly in races, for pulling water skiers, as patrol boats, and as fast-moving attack vessels in the military. Motorboats can differ greatly in size and configuration, from the Boston Whaler to the luxury mega-yachts that can cross oceans.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Albert Hedgepath with Expert Village. Operating a boat can be a lot of fun, as long as you know what you're doing. Some of the basic things that you need to understand are how to steer the boat, how to start the boat, how to actually watch your gauges, and understand those, how to initiate the boat into gear, and how to operate the basic gauges that are around. One thing that you definitely need to understand how to do is how to run the bilge pump. It's very simple. Most boats have a bilge pump switch. You need to understand how to turn on your navigation lights for anything that you're doing at night. You also need to understand how to turn on the cockpit lights in case it's dark and you need to see what you're doing around the boat. You also need to understand how to turn on the windshield wipers, just like in a basic car in case it's raining. You need to know how to prime your water system, turn on your refrigerator, and, basically just have fun while you're driving. It's very simple. It's just like a car. You turn the wheel to the right while the boat is in gear, it goes right. You turn the wheel to the left, it goes left. Backing up is a little different. Whenever you back up, it is the opposite. Whenever you have the boat in reverse, when you pull the throttle back, you're actually going to be pulling the nose of the boat around, so you spin the wheel in the opposite direction. You actually want to pull the back of the boat in the direction where you want it to go. One of the major things that you also need to know about is how to initiate the boat into gear. That happens by pulling on the release trigger that's under the throttle mechanism, and pushing it into gear. The boat will then travel forward. Reverse is the exact same with the trigger, except you pull the throttle backward, and it'll pull you straight back. Being able to understand how to use the throttle, understanding how stiff it is, and understanding the trim tabs that are on it are very important to successfully driving a boat. The trim tab actually adjusts the plane of the engine so that the boat can get on plane easier. As long as you understand these basic components of a boat, and you understand how to operate each item that's on the console, and understand how to read your gauges, most boat trips are a lot of fun."