I've pondered the idea after trying it and failing, over several delicious Miller Lite's and have come to realize it is not possible from a physics basis,* A boat steers by rudder by pushing the stern in the oposite direction as the intended turn.*** To turn to port the rudder swings to port, creating stern thrust to starboard.* If the prop is considereed the axis of rotation for the turn, then pushing to starboard behind the axis, pushes the bow to port, and Voila! we turn to port.* When the rudder is in front of the axis, the opposite happens.* swinging the rudder to port pushes to starboard and the boat pivots about the axis and turns to starboard.* Damn that''s backwards.**** I didn't know this when I tried it.*** It is really amazing how smart the delicious Miller Lite's make a guy.
All kidding aside, over a long distance, I might have been able to steer backwards, but the boat became very directionally unstable, as the things you compensate for, wind, current, etc became more of a problem.