Thoughts About Thrusters

[Broads01]

Bow thrusters seem to have become an essential piece of kit over the last ten or twenty years. More recently, stern thrusters have become more popular also and I was certainly very glad of them when I hired in Scotland this year (first time I'd experienced using stern ones).

Here are some of the things I've learned:

1 - Thrusters are a useful tool but they don't replace the old fashioned rudder and you shouldn't use them to steer the boat.

2 - They're more effective when the boat is stationary or hardly moving than they are when the boat is moving.

3 - They're especially useful for stern mooring, leaving a side on mooring and turning around in a tight spot.

Have I missed anything?

[CeePee1952]

Don't think you've missed anything out!  I also found them very useful when on Sovereign Light (HW) in Sep this year.  Once when turning the boat around after a pumpout at Ludham bridge and again to "crab" out sideways from a mooring at Thurne Dyke before reversing out of the dyke.  One thing I noticed is that if using both stern and bow thruster at the same time, the "pointy" bit of the boat will move quicker than the stern (for obvious reasons ). Sovereign Light's thrusters are hydraulic driven which I've been told are more efficient than electric driven thrusters?  I can't comment on that fact as I don't have any real experience of electric driven thrusters! To use the thrusters when on the upper helm on Sovereign Light, the keys had to be in the ignition located in the lower helm station and turned on otherwise the upper helm thruster controls wouldn't operate (even though you could start the boat from up top if desired!!).

Chris

P.S. Awaiting a comment from Griff! 

[Lulu]

We wouldn’t want to be without the bow thruster now.  We dont regard it as cheating.  It’s been a valuable tool for us especially when its windy as it was over the Christmas weekend.  It was a challenge getting out of the marina and it just kept things in check. When we were leaving a mooring I used it a little bit just to keep the boat alongside while Selsie got on.  We have a bow thruster and not embarrassed to use it! 

[rightsaidfred]

Bow thrusters are good in certain situations, stern thrusters I will refrain from the obvious  

Fred

[Mouldy]

We don’t have one on Norfolk Lady.  Generally, we get on well enough without one, although there are times when having one would be beneficial.  She’s due to be lifted again in the autumn, so we’ll have to check the finances to see whether we can afford to have one installed, or whether other updates will need to take priority, such as an electric macerating toilet, instead of the manual pumping one currently fitted.

Like with some home improvements, it would be a good selling point if and when the time comes to move the boat on, but I can’t see that we’d recoup the cost of having one fitted though.

[Bluebell]

As a mostly solo helm I find the occasional use of the bow thruster very useful when approaching or leaving a mooring…😎

[Wussername]

The thruster is a wondrous thing. The panacea of all mooring problems. It has many variants. Some make a lot of noise, a reassuring noise, like that of an over excited egg beater. A feel good factor. In effect, under pressure, useless. In high wind situations, in severe tidal conditions, the private owner, the hirer, must be aware of its limitations. 

Mooring in tight spaces, in placid waters, fantastic. 

However, all helms must know when to be able to fall back onto their primary power, the boats engine to resolve difficult and problematic situations.

[SwanR]

We always look to hire a boat with a bow thruster if we can. Gives me reassurance when mooring as there’s only ever the two of us. While hubby gets on or off I know I can at least keep the bow in to the bank. But against the wind there’s only ever one winner and it’s not the boat! 

[WherryNice]

We(Dad and myself) have many years experience between us(not that we are experts) but have only used a thruster on one brief hire a couple of years ago; we both thought it excellent, very handy when manouvering in Herbert Woods yard, great for leaving a side on mooring without having to do the pushing it off bit and equally handy for keeping the bow in line whilst reversing etc but I dont feel it's an essential item for me yet, I would choose a powered mud weight windlass first.

[Wussername]

It is my belief that you should learn to handle a boat without thrusters before you handle a boat with thrusters and have to rely entirely on its benefits,  just in case those benefits are not adequate for a given situation.

Old Wussername 

[Lulu]

The other useful thing is if you hear a bow thruster in the vicinity, you know something is going on near your boat and you can go into meerkat mode!

[Wussername]

5 minutes ago, Lulu said:

The other useful thing is if you hear a bow thruster in the vicinity, you know something is going on near your boat and you can go into meerkat mode!

Instinctively your go to the worst tool in your arsenal. The boat hook. The most useless,  dangerous, implement imaginable. To all concerned.

Old Wussername 

[kpnut]

It's good for propping up the mattress to get the air flowing underneath when leaving the boat empty in th winter!

[BroadAmbition]

P.S. Awaiting a comment from Griff!

Well you got one!

Imho bow and stern thrusters are an aid to navigation, specifically coming alongside and leaving a mooring, no more no less.

But that is all they are - an aid.  How many of us hear them being used when a craft is underway? Pointless, damned intrusive not to mention a tad embarrassing too

If your boat has them - Fine, good for you.  I've helmed craft with both bow and stern thrusters, the biggest to date in my civvy life was Robins 'Indy' and did find them very useful.

The Tracker class and P2000 RN fast patrol boats, twin screw around 60 tons, no bow or stern thrusters and we managed just fine, in some tight corners too

It's akin to electronic navigation out on the salty stuff, all well and good until it all goes t1ts up, how many modern sailors could revert back to paper, pencil, dividers, three point fixing and dead reckoning to keep the vessel and crew safe?  How many skippers could berth or leave a tight spot in difficult conditions if the thrusters suddenly went inoperative?

I would never limit my hiring of craft as to whether they are fitted or not, if they are fitted all well and good, if not - 'What's a thruster'?

Griff

[Vaughan]

6 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

if not - 'What's a thruster'?

The boat hook!

Speaking as a hire boat operator, they are a blasted nuisance and I am quite glad I was retiring at about the time when they were becoming an "essential accessory".  I have even had customers ring in, to say the thruster has failed and they refuse to drive the boat anywhere until it is fixed.  Often fixing it means craning the boat out of the water.

Most of them have shear pins on the propellors and some are not accessible from inside the boat.  Most electric ones have plastic propellors which are easily chewed up and all electric ones cause electric problems, some even needing their own separate battery and charging circuit.  Some electrics will overheat and cut out after only 10 seconds running.  You then have to re-set a switch somewhere in the bilges.  They easily clog up with weed and debris, unless bars or gauze are fitted over the tunnel mouth either side but these are very easily damaged and also weaken the power of the thrust.

The best ones are hydraulic but this needs a hydraulic drive boat and they also need regular maintenance as well as good cathodic protection.  They can also stall the engine if the tick-over is not set high enough.

Griff doesn't need a bow thruster because he has a classic design of Broads boat with an underwater shape that is easily handled at slow speeds and a long keel so that the boat does not blow easily sideways.  He also has a large, balanced rudder.  A boat designed for the job!

The main thing to remember when mooring is to place the bow where you want it.  You can always get the stern in later.  If you have a thruster, you ONLY use it if the boat is stationary.  If you have "way" on, ahead or astern, they don't work.

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

I've never had a boat,hire or our own with a thruster.Thats not to say I wouldn't use one if I had one.I agree often there misused,often seen boats in the middle  of the river using it yet not about to moor.As Griff and others have said.Use it as an aid only

[CeePee1952]

Slightly off topic but still about thrusters!  I've noticed that there are a lot of narrow boats now being fitted with thrusters (bow and stern).  What's that all about?  Most canals are fairly narrow (Oxford, Grand Union etc) and the banks are reasonably straight and accessible for mooring without the use of thrusters.  It seems to me that the general thinking is that if it floats - fit a thruster!   Narrowboating isn't for us personally, too much faff with locks etc at our age and the interior too narrow 

Chris

[grendel]

some of the corners an be very tight for a 60 foot boat just steered by the stern, so I guess they are using them to push the bow round, remember in the horse drawn days the horse was attached about the mid point, so could assist pulling a boat around a corner.

[RS2021]

16 minutes ago, CeePee1952 said:

Slightly off topic but still about thrusters!  I've noticed that there are a lot of narrow boats now being fitted with thrusters (bow and stern).  What's that all about?  Most canals are fairly narrow (Oxford, Grand Union etc) and the banks are reasonably straight and accessible for mooring without the use of thrusters.  It seems to me that the general thinking is that if it floats - fit a thruster!   Narrowboating isn't for us personally, too much faff with locks etc at our age and the interior too narrow 

Chris

Big issue on canals with people using thrusters to move the bow away from the bank when leaving a mooring. Many canals are on embankments and this causes serious damage to the bank below water, possibly leading to breaches. Nothing proven, but there do seem to be more major breaches on the canals in recent years.

[RS2021]

33 minutes ago, grendel said:

some of the corners an be very tight for a 60 foot boat just steered by the stern

Just tow a butty! As Vaughan says a large rudder is effective. A butty on cross straps is effectively a 70 ft rudder. I've been round Hawkesbury Junction (a 180deg turn) without touching the bank in a pair of 70 footers.

[Vaughan]

I think any skipper of commercial barges on waterways will tell you that you are driving the bow of the boat, not the stern.

[floydraser]

I haven't got one on my boat and I won't even consider fitting one. They are clearly not essential so just an expensive luxury from my point of view. I can see that hirers could have one for little if any extra cost so fair enough. As a beginner I see it as something I have to learn to do without.

Like electric movers on caravans; as long as we are fit, we won't bother.

As for narrowboaters, don't get me started.. it's a fashion accessory!

[Smoggy]

I've never used a thruster but would quite like a "girly button" at the helm as my boat has no keel whatsoever and very small rudders and goes sideways in the slightest wind but I'm way too tight to fit one so will have to live without.

Two engines helps a lot but if one is down for any reason it's an absolute git to manouver and a burst or reverse will spin it round by 90 degrees when you least need it.

[annv]

What is there not to lke about thrusters apart from cost and not using them to steer when situation make it helpful. i use mine when required, I do however have hydraulic thrusters that are more controllable than electric. Electric one's are effectively a starter motor and are on or of, and dreadfully noisy compared to hydraulic. Now if they are cost effective or not is if your pocket's are deep enough, Quality costs. Do you spend 5,000=00 pounds to stop you bumping the Quay heading twice a year. I would not build a boat with out them being fitted BUT! i would buy a boat without having them fitted. Thrusters are best fitted/designed when initially boat is constructed, and perhaps small electric ones with proportional control could be better than hydraulic to fit and use when/if made. John

[grendel]

I think the worst use of bow thrusters I ever saw was a boat cruising past st benets (where I was moored), using the thrusters every few seconds to keep the boat going straight, then turning right up the ant, just on the bow and stern thrusters, not a sign of steering input in the prop wash, just a repeated whirring of the thrusters at full chat.