Bow thruster noise machine

[Seajet]

Dan,

a good link; myself I will be mainly sailing without GPS this year, as I can see the target - Cowes - from Chichester.

Andy

 

[Greenheart]

Cheers Andy! :encouragement: I can see the sea from my boat, but it'll probably take me till the end of the season to reach the beach!

I'll get round to replying to your PM soon.

 

[Woodlouse]

I find bow thrusters an anomaly. The noise is surely cavitation, isn't it?
Why has no designer produced a longer-pitch, slower-rotating design which just moves water?

A big part of the problem is that most modern yachts are too shallow in the forefoot for the bow thruster to work at maximum efficiency. I think for example that your bog standard vetus now thruster should ideally be mounted at least 70cm below the water line. I imagine most units on modern production boats would be lucky to be at half that.

 

[Greenheart]

...now thruster...

Sounds like an updated, X-rated version of Now, Voyager...classic movie.

 

[Bobc]

I suspect that if there was one on my boat, I'd make use of it and think it a wonderful piece of kit. However I don't have one fitted, and have never failed to park/un-park the boat without one, so couldn't justify the cost and hassle of fitting one.

I'm sure that they are a great help on occasions, but what annoys me is the way some people seem to use them all the time whether they are needed or not, and often make more of a horlix of parking because they ignore the wind, tide, and prop walk.

 

[Seajet]

Sounds like an updated, X-rated version of Now, Voyager...classic movie.

Dan,

there was an old song ( Shirley Bassey ? ) ' What now my love '; the RAF in Cyprus ran a competetion as to how many ways this could be pronounced, ' What, now my love ? ' !

 

[Greenheart]

"What, now, my love?"

:biggrin-new:

I now recall numerous lavatorial jokes from my schooldays, about the rotten diet requiring pupils to be equipped with bowel-thrusters.

Makes me realise, they're really really not a very modern invention.

 

[NickRobinson]

The astonishingly beautiful, just out of the wrapper DS ketch

Any chance of a pic? Any further details of it? Thx

Hi npf1- I've just updated my blog and included a cropped pic I found.. Sylvana is the name. I don't think the owner would mind me praising their boat.

See pics in 'Across the north Channel to Islay' http://britainbyrivendell.weebly.com/

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

On a wall nearby is a painting of the clipper Thermopalea ( sp ) in some Chinese harbour - Foo Chow ? - and I can't see any sign of a bow thruster, just seamanship.

Here is the Thermopylae leaving Foo Chow. Yes, I cannot see any bow thrusters either...

However, I can see a Bow puller in front of the clipper and I think that there is his friend tied up alongside.

Perhaps their "seamanship" had improved by the time you got the painting of their ship...

 

[Seajet]

Here is the Thermopylae leaving Foo Chow. Yes, I cannot see any bow thrusters either...

However, I can see a Bow puller in front of the clipper and I think that there is his friend tied up alongside.

Perhaps their "seamanship" had improved by the time you got the painting of their ship...

That's the one, thanks !

Are you any relation perchance to the Dragon ' Puff ' moored in Cowes roads ?

 

[Seajet]

:biggrin-new:

I now recall numerous lavatorial jokes from my schooldays, about the rotten diet requiring pupils to be equipped with bowel-thrusters.

Makes me realise, they're really really not a very modern invention.

My ex - RAF boss recalled when on National Service they were billetted at an ex- Chelsea Pensioners' home; his chum emerged saying " the food here must be bloody terrible; they've got straining handles in the loos ! "

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Are you any relation perchance to the Dragon ' Puff ' moored in Cowes roads ?

I don't think so. The only 'connection' that I have with Cowes is that my grandfather used to work there, towards the end of the nineteenth century / beginning of the twentieth, at a shipyard that was called "White's" or something similar.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

It's strange how some people have such strong views about what equipment other people should not have on their boat. I can't imagine having an opinion about what boat equipment someone else shouldn't own.

 

[Hadenough]

It's strange how some people have such strong views about what equipment other people should not have on their boat. I can't imagine having an opinion about what boat equipment someone else shouldn't own.

Totally disagree! If I recall you have a Walker Bay dinghy in your davits. There is no way you should own that, I think you should give it to me, especially if it has a sailing rig. Oh but hang on, I have a bow thruster so by implication I don't have the skills necessary to sail it

 

[Greenheart]

I can't imagine having an opinion about what boat equipment someone else shouldn't own.

I reckon it's only observation, with a hint of wistful nostalgia. A hundred years ago, how many 30ft sailing yachts had engines? Whatever the inconvenience (and overall detraction) which the difficulty of handling a yacht with no auxiliary represented, people still owned them and used great skill to cope, although certainly many were wrecked too.

In the last fifty years, the gadgets which make sailing a pursuit requiring less physical and mental effort, and which reduce the learning process (thus tempting more to take it up) have more or less gutted the old way of doing things.

I dislike the word "commitment" on the whole - it puts a cloud over all ventures of any significance in any field. But it's possible to admire the way yacht-owners in the past were by necessity prepared to commit their vessels and their safety to nothing more than their learning and judgement.

The more mechanical and electrical assistance we rely upon, the less confidence we exhibit in our judgement to proceed without that technology - the less independent skill we need. And however sensible, safe and preferable to historical hardship and losses that may be, it's a bit sad as well.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

Totally disagree! If I recall you have a Walker Bay dinghy in your davits. There is no way you should own that, I think you should give it to me, especially if it has a sailing rig. Oh but hang on, I have a bow thruster so by implication I don't have the skills necessary to sail it

Since we fitted The Kipper with a bowthruster I've had to ditch the Walker Bay's sailing kit, I'm totally de-skilled.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

In the last fifty years, the gadgets which make sailing a pursuit requiring less physical and mental effort, and which reduce the learning process (thus tempting more to take it up) have more or less gutted the old way of doing things.

I dislike the word "commitment" on the whole - it puts a cloud over all ventures of any significance in any field. But it's possible to admire the way yacht-owners in the past were by necessity prepared to commit their vessels and their safety to nothing more than their learning and judgement.

The more mechanical and electrical assistance we rely upon, the less confidence we exhibit in our judgement to proceed without that technology - the less independent skill we need. And however sensible, safe and preferable to historical hardship and losses that may be, it's a bit sad as well.

You seem to be missing out one very important factor:manpower.

People who could afford to keep a yacht one hundred years ago were also people who could afford to keep a crew of able-bodied hands to 'work' their boats. Pictures of sheets being hauled aft usually show up to a dozen 'monkeys' pulling together on a rope. Today most of us prefer to use a winch: it is simpler, less expensive, but just as effective.

 

[ricky_s]

You seem to be missing out one very important factor:manpower.

People who could afford to keep a yacht one hundred years ago were also people who could afford to keep a crew of able-bodied hands to 'work' their boats. Pictures of sheets being hauled aft usually show up to a dozen 'monkeys' pulling together on a rope. Today most of us prefer to use a winch: it is simpler, less expensive, but just as effective.

I think that's the point, things have moved on and boating in general has become easier. Nothing wrong with that, I do my shopping on line from Sainsburys but if I really needed to I could go to the store and queue with all the other poor sods.

 

[Greenheart]

True, things have changed - but amongst these is the necessity to know how to do things. Winches ended exhausting toil; other gadgets make handling know-how irrelevant.

So many people of advanced years or limited strength must be sailing today despite tasks which, prior to mechanised solutions, required effort that would have confounded them.

So, good for the gadgets! Let me make that clear. But, I never watch them in use and think, "well done! That's a real show of skill!" Because let's face it, none is being exhibited.

I know various people who have a fabulous gift for mental arithmetic, their minds work faster than I can work a calculator. It's genuinely amazing, it's impressive. Some of the same folk can recall innumerable facts about historical figures and dates, and recite the periodic table and hundreds of global locations...

...but they're not geniuses, their brilliance is learned, it was revised, and its use is practiced, which takes more effort than I can summon up, but I recognise it in others.

I don't think bow-thruster naysayers are opposed to these gadgets' use, except as in the OP's case, when their use represents a nuisance locally. But as an increasingly popular option on new boats, bow-thrusters must represent a sort of palsy in their users' inclination to cope without assistance. We used to manage without; now we needn't.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

But as an increasingly popular option on new boats, bow-thrusters must represent a sort of palsy in their users' inclination to cope without assistance. We used to manage without; now we needn't.

Why?

When my boats were on a single-point swinging mooring I was quite able to sail up to the pick-me-up and stop the boat in its track at the precise point. Most of us were able to do that. We then had the room in which to do it. Nowadays we do not have that luxury any more because most of us are tightly packed in marina berths, most of which are stern-to on simple pontoons, i.e., no fingers. (Mediterranean style).

Does that make me a lesser brand of sailor in the eyes of others who believe that they are superior boat-handlers? See if I care!