Are you a Thruster?

[JanetAnne]

I occasionally resort to the use of a bow thruster on my halfdecker, when I've misjudged the strength of the wind and have come up just short of the mooring I intended to sail gracefully in to. My 'thruster' consists of her majesty kneeling on the foredeck with a paddle.  The view I have of this spectacle, from the cockpit, is but a mere bonus

 

 

Thrusters can make quite an annoying noise although it's less annoying than the sound of banging. I think twin screwing has to be the best option.

You humans...

 

You never hear us boats going on like that.

 

 

Now where's that gorgeous Broom Captain when you need someone to spend a night beside

[imtamping2]

Dreadful.....

No thrusting for me I'm a bump and grind kind of guy.

[Hockham Admiral]

I was watching a boat moor the other day.

There was a thrust here, a thrust thrust there, here a thrust, there a thrust, everywhere a thrust thrust.

And he was still in the middle of the broad!

Too far out to ask the audience, couldn't phone a friend. (No signal)

Has the Thruster taken away basic boat handling skills?

Sometimes you can hear them like an over excited egg beater, achieving, well it has to be said..............not a lot.

Sometimes all that is required is a little nudge in forward, with the throttle to bring the stern round. Sometimes in a strong wind or tide that may be the sensible thing to do.

I have never used one, never had the need. Perhaps I am too old for all that thrusting malarky!

 

Right!

 

I am 74 years old in 6 weeks time; I don't move half as fast as I used to. Mary-Jane has very limited hand strength and moves a lot slower than me; her balance isn't too good at times.

 

We own an Alpha 35 Forward Drive (our choice as there's no stairs for M-J to negotiate).

 

Not only do we have a Bow Thruster but also a Stern Thruster AND I have a gismo that hangs around my neck so that I can control the Thrusters from wherever I am.

 

Mooring side-on I am completely solo and in any sort of tide or an off-shore wind I have to arrive at a mooring, stop the boat, stumble 30 odd feet to the rear, pick up the stern and forward warps, step off and finally hope to fasten both warps to wherever...... SOLO.

 

Without our Thrusters we would have sold Friday Girl at least two years ago...............

[deebee29]

We have been hiring since the early 80’s where there was no such thing as thrusters ( didn't even have heating) and if I say so myself, I can handle a boat.

Last year we had electric bow thrusters for the first time and I thought they were a useful aid to mooring that I could take or leave. We were on the Northen rivers

In April this year we had hydraulic bow and stern thrusters onSilver Elegance and have to say they are amazing. Colin at Silverline was really enthusiastic about them when he showed us the boat and called out instructions from the quay to get us out onto the river (anyone who knows Silverline will know how tight it is to turn a 44 ft boat there).

The beauty of hydraulic thrusters is they don't run the batteries down.

We had some quite windy days in the south and found these thrusters invaluable on a couple of occasions but do agree that we all see them being misused for steering while underway.

I think thrusters are an advancement in technology to be embraced but not relied on (like air conditioning in cars) and as John says they enable some people to continue boating loger.

So it's a yes from me

[Matt]

Thunder has an additional battery for the bow thruster and mudweight under the front helm seat. Brooms fitted and whilst not cheap it is a quality install.

[alexandlorna]

Braveheart has separate batteries for the thrusters and huge cross section (95  or 120 mm2 ) cables to handle the current 

Otherwise most of the thrust is lost anyway, similarly long tunnels through the stern are a waste of time 

Incidentaly, I tried some thrusterless mooring today and can still manage fine so have not been tainted!

But the divine glow experienced by some traditionalists has yet to descend upon me!

[deebee29]

Out of interest, with the Silverline system do you need to put the boat into neutral and give it some decent revs to get the best out of the hydraulic thrusters?

We found that we didn't need to any major revs to get the thrusters the way we needed them to but if more power was required the increase in revs would help that.

All in all I was very impressed with the system and Colin (fron Silverline) was certainly singing their praises when we picked the boat up.

[Seriously]

We have joined the thruster club  £2.500 worth every penny , as the kids will have a mummy and daddy for the foreseeable future without them the divorce courts would have been fast approaching

[JawsOrca]

We were advised not to get a thruster on Orca as everyone promises we would learn how to handle her.. But instead to get a quick drop anchor winch.. We haven't quite agreed with the advice and will probably put one in at some point sadly not this year though.. I'd be bloody pleased just to have her back in the water at the mo. 

[Polly]

Perhaps we should ask Coo Wee what he does with his.

[Baitrunner]

I'm a bit late to the party here, but I'm a thruster man. I would have one up the back as well if I was specing a boat out from scratch. Ours is a bit under powered, but it was on the boat so not going to change it until it dies.

Most boats have separate thruster/winch batteries so I can flatten mine as much as I like and the beer fridge still stays cold all weekend.

Sure a good helmsperson shouldn't need one, but as someone pointed out if your inexperienced, a bit rusty, just making a cock up and need a get out of jail free card or just not needing the stress of not having one then why not. We use our boat to enjoy it not to test my boat handling skills (although, yes I do try to avoid using it and often try a little tricky maneuver now and again to test myself.

Cars never had heated screens, rear window demisters, air con, wing mirror heaters, heated seats, parking sensors etc, etc, but they have them now and why not use them if they make life easier? In fact I had a nice warm backside this morning on my early start. Who would deny a man that?

I also want one of The Admirals gadgets and as we get older and slower (not suggesting your old and slow John) I damn well intend having one.

A bit of thrusty, thrusty now and again has to be better than listening to a genny kicking in every 15 mins from a leccy boat? And at least you know when someone is coming in to moor - whether it's to gawk or get ready with the fend offs!!

Each to their own and I wouldn't be without my little thruster!!!!

[oceandawn]

Hi

Fitting a bow thruster was by far the best money that we have spent on our boat. A 30 foot Broom. Taking it back to the moorings would make me feel sick at the prospect. It is not only so much  easier to handle but it gives you confidence. If we sell the boat we would certainly have another one fitted to any future purchase. Couldn't manage without it now!. Moonfleet Marine fitted it for us and did a first class job.

 

Pauline

[Regulo]

I've got one, and use it. I, too, am pretty much single handed when it comes to mooring, and find it reassuring that the bow can be kept "on bank" without me having to handle two lines at once. Especially if I'm simultaneously trying to knock in two rhond anchors. In a gale. In the rain. And it's a boon while backing into my mooring between two boats with barely a foot to spare each side.

I'm also a bit mystified as to why we're informed we need a separate battery for these things. Mine runs off the starter battery with no trouble at all, and the battery recovers the charge taken almost immediately. Work it out. If you use the thruster (3kW) for 30 seconds (a long time to be thrusting), at 250A, you'll take about 2Ah from your battery. As long as you use thick enough cables to connect up, what's the trouble? A 5 second thrust will hardly register any more than you use to start your engine anyway. Also the engine is running when you're using it, so the alternator will be providing quite a bit of juice to assist things.

No doubt someone will beg to differ, but if it's worked OK for 8 years, that'll do me.

[DaveRolaves]

My Vetus bow thruster runs off the starter motor battery its been like that for over 10 years. It works fine and I don't have any battery problems.

[Baitrunner]

Regulo

   I am going to assume the main reason is to reduce the need for very fat, very long cables - obviously depends where your battery back is. Mine would be in the water if it went any further to the stern and my thruster is 30ft away - that's a lot of very expensive copper compared to a £100 battery. Mine also powers the winch - which is another 8ft further forward.

As a secondary reason it probably is to make sure you don't flatten the starter battery - especially if you use the winch without the engine running (which I occasionally do when I forget to drop the weight at the front - worse when I forget to winch it back up though!!!).

I am sure it's not necessary, but these are about the only reasons I can think for having a thruster/winch battery.

I guess if you are a bit heavy handed, the point at which to take the draw from the battery is about 10 seconds before you turn the engine off so in theory wont put much charge back in. Maybe just safe rather than sorry.

[BroadScot]

Cars never had heated screens, rear window demisters, air con, wing mirror heaters, heated seats, parking sensors etc, etc, but they have them now and why not use them if they make life easier? 

Gosh Mark, I never for one minute thought you were that old! "Heated Screens" what about vacume windscreen wipers 

Iain

[riyadhcrew]

I remember them on an old Ford Anglia I had. Put the foot down and the wipers stopped. "Singing in the rain" had nothing on them!!!! It was "Tick-over in the rain". 

[Baitrunner]

Iain, the heater in my old Viva had 2 settings - winter and summer - to change between these 2 settings I had to fiddle under the bonnet so it wasn't handy for making adjustments on the go!!

Most demisting involved a rag and opening the window in the summer. It started every time though and never had a dodgy electronic component failure - it never had any

What was wrong with 2 bits of string tied to the wipers? Vacuum - very posh.

I also had an auto dimming rear view mirror - when it fell off!!

[BroadScot]

Iain, the heater in my old Viva had 2 settings - winter and summer - to change between these 2 settings I had to fiddle under the bonnet so it wasn't handy for making adjustments on the go!!

Most demisting involved a rag and opening the window in the summer. It started every time though and never had a dodgy electronic component failure - it never had any

What was wrong with 2 bits of string tied to the wipers? Vacuum - very posh.

I also had an auto dimming rear view mirror - when it fell off!!

Mark, I drove HA Bedford vans in the 60's there was a sign and a switch that said HEATER aye right, de-icing took forever in the mornings. brrrrr.

Iain

[Regulo]

Regulo

   I am going to assume the main reason is to reduce the need for very fat, very long cables - obviously depends where your battery back is. Mine would be in the water if it went any further to the stern and my thruster is 30ft away - that's a lot of very expensive copper compared to a £100 battery. Mine also powers the winch - which is another 8ft further forward.

 

Yes, I agree, in that situation it would make sense. I still think in MOST cases it's unnecessary overkill and complication.

[Baitrunner]

I'd be interested to know if stern thrusters get fitted with their own battery as well? 

[Regulo]

I presume the same logic would apply. If the starter battery is close to the stern why not use it? I wonder where the "crossover" distance is, i.e. when does it become cheaper to fit another battery, than a long run of thick copper? Depends on the price of copper against the price of a battery, I suppose. And the amount of current required, too. Too many variables, I think. Each installation should have each option priced on survey would be the best way to decide.  

[TheQ]

I've never needed a thruster on our elysian 27, But I can see the advantage. ( especially when we get older)

I've often assisted/ instructed Hire boats how to get off the, often lee shore, just in front of the southern comfort. they could do with a thruster for when there's no one around, the last boat of the private boats moored on the Swan green there, often gets a bash as they drive forwards and backwards held on the bank by the wind.

 I have seen / heard Hire boats coming down the river entirely steering by thruster, what that does to thruster life I don't know , it can't be good.

[SteveO]

I have a bow thruster on our Aquafibre 35 and I use it frequently and without prejudice.It saves my nerves and my gelcoat, as well as the gelcoat of boats around us, so I will continue to use it and will take the risk regarding the possible decline of my traditional boat handling skills. What rubbish!

Steve

 

 

[Hockham Admiral]

I'd be interested to know if stern thrusters get fitted with their own battery as well? 

Barnes Brinkcraft  fitted ours. It's a Max power supplied by Peachmnts. It has its own battery right next to it.