Bow thruster dependency increasing

[dunedin]

Clearly bow thrusters are very helpful for many boats and short handed crews when manoevering in harbour.

But these seems to be a sudden trend this year for the thruster to be used (and often used very extensively) in situations where I have never experienced this before:
- anchoring - surely the bow can be positioned sufficiently by engine alone, hardly requires milli-metric precision for anchoring?
- picking up a mooring - which is surely a candidate for a Darwin Award as moving towards a mooring with floating rope will likely suck in the pickup line!

The above prompted by an otherwise experienced looking boat arriving nearby and then nearly wearing out their bow thruster whilst anchoring in a space 400m wide - and still ending up needlessly close

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Have also seen plenty examples on the upper Hamble of larger motor yachts - inevitably twin engined, steering at low speed down the fairways or the open river, using the bow thruster. Seems to display a lack of understanding of the boat's basic characteristics.

 

[dunedin]

Have also seen plenty examples on the upper Hamble of larger motor yachts - inevitably twin engined, steering at low speed down the fairways or the open river, using the bow thruster. Seems to display a lack of understanding of the boat's basic characteristics.

There is one situation where we very briefly steer with the bow thruster in a marina channel - with a retractable bow thruster plus wireless remote, there are a lot of ways the system may not be ready to work. So we often turn the last corner with aid of the thruster - just to check all systems are “go”. Plus it retracts if not used for a period, so occasionally needs a 2 second burst if waiting for something (eg a boat to clear the fuel berth).
But mixing with mooring ropes does not bear thinking about!

 

[SaltyC]

Clearly bow thrusters are very helpful for many boats and short handed crews when manoevering in harbour.

But these seems to be a sudden trend this year for the thruster to be used (and often used very extensively) in situations where I have never experienced this before:
- anchoring - surely the bow can be positioned sufficiently by engine alone, hardly requires milli-metric precision for anchoring?
- picking up a mooring - which is surely a candidate for a Darwin Award as moving towards a mooring with floating rope will likely suck in the pickup line!

The above prompted by an otherwise experienced looking boat arriving nearby and then nearly wearing out their bow thruster whilst anchoring in a space 400m wide - and still ending up needlessly close

I agree, they can be useful.

However I do not have one so manage perfectly well without (37 foot), but I have noticed with many it is the 'Go to option' Very annoying when a 24'Sportboat comes in at 4am totally dependent on the Bowthruster!

No doubt a certain forumite will arrive shortly to tell me I should embrace technological advances.

 

[ashtead]

When you first have a boat with a retracting thruster it’s quite alarming when it automatically prematurely withdraws -you soon learn to keep giving it a burst of thrust when approaching the chosen spot as said. Hence while say crew are fendering up etc up a quick burst is advisable otherwise you be caught out normally as you are just at the pontoon-it’s not like the old tunnel thrusters in that regard-I haven’t used a stern thruster but maybe same applies

 

[Irish Rover]

Personally I don't see any issue with boaters using their bow thrusters where older school skippers might not think it appropriate. In some ways it's good they use it regularly, as they'll get more experience of its capabilities and limitations. I don't have thrusters on my catamaran, but I do other very amateurish things like autorouting, which a real sailor wouldn't be caught dead doing.

 

[capnsensible]

In my view, what ever people want to do with their own bowthruster on their own boat has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. Is that old fashioned?

'They annoy me' is self centred tripe. In my opinion.

Free bowthrusters from discrimination, liberty, justice and the pursuit of pleasure!!!!

 

[johnalison]

It comes from a generation of boaters who believe that they can transfer their driving skills onto the water. I have friends who have had bow-thrusters, but in each case there was something about the boat or its crew (= wives) that made it desirable. I have no doubt that if I had one of those new boats with twin rudders over a certain size I would be very grateful for having one, but for the mainstream I believe they should be unnecessary.

Although it is up to the owners, I believe that there is such a thing as overuse and that it is undesirable. For one thing, the noise from some installations can be intrusive, the worse for being unnecessary. Also, as indicated, it displays a fundamental lack of training or ability in boat handling, though it has the virtue of warning the rest of us to be wary. Because a bow-thruster can make certain manoeuvres relatively easy, I suspect that it gives those over-reliant a false sense of security and possibly of their own lack of skill.

 

[Irish Rover]

as indicated, it displays a fundamental lack of training or ability

I've heard the same nonsense argument in relation to drivers of automatic cars.

the noise from some installations can be intrusive,

Not as intrusive as a loose halyard banging against a mast all night in a marina or anchorage.

 

[greeny]

Clearly bow thrusters are very helpful for many boats and short handed crews when manoevering in harbour.

But these seems to be a sudden trend this year for the thruster to be used (and often used very extensively) in situations where I have never experienced this before:
- anchoring - surely the bow can be positioned sufficiently by engine alone, hardly requires milli-metric precision for anchoring?
- picking up a mooring - which is surely a candidate for a Darwin Award as moving towards a mooring with floating rope will likely suck in the pickup line!

The above prompted by an otherwise experienced looking boat arriving nearby and then nearly wearing out their bow thruster whilst anchoring in a space 400m wide - and still ending up needlessly close

Maybe they were trying to get close to you so from their point of view it was a successful operation.

 

[DownWest]

I can think of a couple of times I would have liked a bow thruster in tight corners, helming other's boats in marinas. It is a very useful aid in the modern crowded spaces.
I was bought up sailing on and off moorings, very different now.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Personally I don't see any issue with boaters using their bow thrusters where older school skippers might not think it appropriate. In some ways it's good they use it regularly, as they'll get more experience of its capabilities and limitations. I don't have thrusters on my catamaran, but I do other very amateurish things like autorouting, which a real sailor wouldn't be caught dead doing.

Autorouting ... awesome, you naughty boy! ... Do you also follow the route on autopilot ... I do when motoring - please don't tell anyone.

Still don't use the bow thruster though, I always turn it on and test it every time I think I might need it - and then I forget it is there and it turns itself off in a huff.

 

[Irish Rover]

Do you also follow the route on autopilot

I do, even though the chart subscription on my plotter is more than 5 years out of date. I think it's probably the luck of the Irish, but I haven't hit any new islands or outcrops in the Aegean, Ionian or Adriatic yet.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

I do, even though the chart subscription on my plotter is more than 5 years out of date. I think it's probably the luck of the Irish, but I haven't hit any new islands or outcrops in the Aegean, Ionian or Adriatic yet.

Got a nice new island in the Solent. Lentune.

 

[johnalison]

I've heard the same nonsense argument in relation to drivers of automatic cars.

Not as intrusive as a loose halyard banging against a mast all night in a marina or anchorage.

I’m not aware of any cars where the driver has the option of engaging automatic when required. There is an argument about deskilling in many fields, but the ability to select a gear is not fundamental to the ability to drive a moving vehicle. The ability to control one’s craft is fundamental to managing a boat in a confined space however.

I’m not sure what loose halyards has to do with anything, any more than playing loud music. It is true that bow-thruster noise is necessarily self-limiting, but for much of the time sailing is a quiet, even reflective, pastime, and needless mechanical noise is always an intrusion and best avoided. If noise is your thrill, then there are plenty of places to enjoy it, from motor/bike circuits to ‘clubs’, but for most of the time it is something that a good proportion of us can do without.

 

[Bouba]

When you come to the Med ....the boats are squeezed in like sardines....and they face another row of boats barely a boat length away....less if you want to avoid getting caught on the underwater slime lines. Those small yachts without a thruster are forever getting caught out by even small breezes ....they come in sideways...get hung up on the mooring lines...crash land. It’s not like the port come out with their ribs to park every little boat....in fact I will go as far to say that the rows of boats are put so close because they assume everyone has a thruster

 

[Sticky Fingers]

I’m not aware of any cars where the driver has the option of engaging automatic when required. There is an argument about deskilling in many fields, but the ability to select a gear is not fundamental to the ability to drive a moving vehicle. The ability to control one’s craft is fundamental to managing a boat in a confined space however.

I’m not sure what loose halyards has to do with anything, any more than playing loud music. It is true that bow-thruster noise is necessarily self-limiting, but for much of the time sailing is a quiet, even reflective, pastime, and needless mechanical noise is always an intrusion and best avoided. If noise is your thrill, then there are plenty of places to enjoy it, from motor/bike circuits to ‘clubs’, but for most of the time it is something that a good proportion of us can do without.

Loose halyards were mentioned because they’re f’ing annoying. And go on for hours, or days at a time, unlike the much-derided bow thruster which last a second or few.

 

[doug748]

I agree, they can be useful.

However I do not have one so manage perfectly well without (37 foot), but I have noticed with many it is the 'Go to option' Very annoying when a 24'Sportboat comes in at 4am totally dependent on the Bowthruster!

No doubt a certain forumite will arrive shortly to tell me I should embrace technological advances.

The elephant's mating call.

Bow thrusters at 5am in a flat calm, tideless marina.

.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

When you come to the Med ....the boats are squeezed in like sardines....and they face another row of boats barely a boat length away....less if you want to avoid getting caught on the underwater slime lines. Those small yachts without a thruster are forever getting caught out by even small breezes ....they come in sideways...get hung up on the mooring lines...crash land. It’s not like the port come out with their ribs to park every little boat....in fact I will go as far to say that the rows of boats are put so close because they assume everyone has a thruster

That describes my marina perfectly ... in a strong northerly cross-wind my boat will not turn fast enough to guarantee clearing the bow lines of the boats opposite, so I go straight out of my berth and let the wind blow the bow off, keeping the stern in the middle of the channel with the engine .... once blown round I reverse out of the marina.

It's because many marinas have been there for decades and in that time the average boat has increased considerably in both length and width .... pretty much the same as trying to park a modern car in a garage built in the 60s. .... as well as the obvious financial incentive to pack as many boats into the available space as possible.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I’m not aware of any cars where the driver has the option of engaging automatic when required. There is an argument about deskilling in many fields, but the ability to select a gear is not fundamental to the ability to drive a moving vehicle. The ability to control one’s craft is fundamental to managing a boat in a confined space however.

I’m not sure what loose halyards has to do with anything, any more than playing loud music. It is true that bow-thruster noise is necessarily self-limiting, but for much of the time sailing is a quiet, even reflective, pastime, and needless mechanical noise is always an intrusion and best avoided. If noise is your thrill, then there are plenty of places to enjoy it, from motor/bike circuits to ‘clubs’, but for most of the time it is something that a good proportion of us can do without.

My last few petrol cars have been automatics where you can engage manual when required. But I don’t really see the parallel. Bowthrusters are a useful addition for modern berthing, space being at a premium. If I’d spent that money to get one, I’d use it every single time I thought it was useful. Maybe take it more softly at 5am though. Since it's so often quiet, wind wise, that should be possible.