iains123
New member
is it viable to fit a bowthruster to a 38' wooden boat- any info or views welcome-are there any structural reasons why not?
bowthruster-wooden boat
- Thread starter iains123
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ccscott49
Active member
I thought about it myself, but would need a team of cornish tin miners to drive a shaft through my bows! I guess it is possible, but I personally think it would be weakening the structure of your boat, just where you need it. IMHO Also depends on how your boat is built, an afterthought.
Trevethan
New member
I can probably sort out the miners... just tell me where you want them to start digging. *g*
ccscott49
Active member
I looked into this myself, my bow, where I would need to fit the bowthruster, is three feet thick of laminated iroko! as it's just where the turn of the bow joins the keel, knees etc. So I will need two miners at least and they can bring there own pasties with them, I cant cook pasties! They'll have to bring their own cider aswell, I can't find any cheap in Ibiza! I just cant imagine hacking all that wonderful timber away, and 38' what do you need a bow thruster for? Use warps as springs, or get another berth!
charles_reed
Active member
Wooden boat usually = long keel.
An unlikely combination, apart from the fitting difficulties.
An unlikely combination, apart from the fitting difficulties.
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Wooden boat usually equals older boat which has been parked successfully without b/t for years. So why now?
cngarrod
New member
There was a 35 foot + boat visting one of the local marinas a couple of weekends ago.. he had a Bow thruster fitted last year.
Claimed it made all teh difference... and meant that she could turn where he wanted her to in forward or astern.
Watched and it seemed to work very well... only problem was that one of his crew (first timer i think) dropped a rope over the side and it found the prop... oops!
Cheers
C
Claimed it made all teh difference... and meant that she could turn where he wanted her to in forward or astern.
Watched and it seemed to work very well... only problem was that one of his crew (first timer i think) dropped a rope over the side and it found the prop... oops!
Cheers
C
Mirelle
N/A
Agree with CCScott and Ken
Have 38ft wooden boat.
I cannot see any need for a bowthruster in a boat of this size.
It is not just the bowthruster, it is the battery capacity that you would need to run it, and associated wiring (in the bilge -where are all those stray milliamps going?) and so on and so on.
If you are keeping the boat in a marina, and this is the cause of your worry, may I offer a suggestion - put the boat on a swinging mooring and, with the change out of the marina fees that you save, buy a diesel launch - keep that in the cheap part of the marina and use it to get to and from the boat and you have the best of both worlds. It's what I do.
Have 38ft wooden boat.
I cannot see any need for a bowthruster in a boat of this size.
It is not just the bowthruster, it is the battery capacity that you would need to run it, and associated wiring (in the bilge -where are all those stray milliamps going?) and so on and so on.
If you are keeping the boat in a marina, and this is the cause of your worry, may I offer a suggestion - put the boat on a swinging mooring and, with the change out of the marina fees that you save, buy a diesel launch - keep that in the cheap part of the marina and use it to get to and from the boat and you have the best of both worlds. It's what I do.
Caronia
New member
Re: Agree with CCScott and Ken
I agree, no need for bowthruster, much simpler to bounce off pontoons/posts/walls/other boats etc. until berth has been found.
nb. use of extremely large fender makes bounces inoffensive and saves on insurance claims.
I agree, no need for bowthruster, much simpler to bounce off pontoons/posts/walls/other boats etc. until berth has been found.
nb. use of extremely large fender makes bounces inoffensive and saves on insurance claims.
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Re: Agree with CCScott and Ken
The common use of a b/t is to drive the bow upwind when parking or leaving a berth (no need to drive it downwind - the breeze will do that for you).
Without a b/t if you have to come into a windward berth you can do several things:
Drive in so that the bow makes first contact. Crew goes ashore from bow with bow line and stern line, whacks on bow line and hurries back with stern line, then either sweats the stern in or someone on the boat winches the stern up to the berth; or
Go ashore from the bow with a a bow line and an aft spring (from bow made fast ashore at the stern),put on bow line quite slack, put on spring, motor against the spring with the helm over towards the berth and the boat will put itself alongside, or
park against the leeward berth (or boat) then take lines across to the windward berth and sweat or winch yourself into the windward berth.
Other folks may have other plots.
Leaving a leeward berth you may need to force the bow upwind. Try:
Pushing the bow out from aboard using a solid boat hook (that's what the knobby bit above the hook is for) or
Leave on the aft spring on a slip, fender the quarter and motor with the helm towards to the berth to drive the bow out (can be combined with boathook trick) or
Take a line on a slip across to the opposite windward berth and pull the bow (or the whole boat) up to windward.
Again, others may have other ideas.
The other common use for a b/t is to help the boat turn sharply in a tight spot, but if this can't be acheived (and it usually can) by backing and filling (turning in the direction of the propwalk helps tighten the circle), then less conveniently the turn can be assisted by taking a line ashore (or keeping one there if you are leaving) or using the dinghy to help push either the bow or the stern.
I can appreciate the need for a b/t on a bigger heavier boat where muscle power might be overtaxed for any of the more traditional techniques, but on anything less than about 45' a b/t is a luxury rather than a necessity. And like all luxuries it costs in terms of intial expense, hungrier electrics, more complexity to go wrong, weight, a 'dirtier' underwater profile, etc.
The common use of a b/t is to drive the bow upwind when parking or leaving a berth (no need to drive it downwind - the breeze will do that for you).
Without a b/t if you have to come into a windward berth you can do several things:
Drive in so that the bow makes first contact. Crew goes ashore from bow with bow line and stern line, whacks on bow line and hurries back with stern line, then either sweats the stern in or someone on the boat winches the stern up to the berth; or
Go ashore from the bow with a a bow line and an aft spring (from bow made fast ashore at the stern),put on bow line quite slack, put on spring, motor against the spring with the helm over towards the berth and the boat will put itself alongside, or
park against the leeward berth (or boat) then take lines across to the windward berth and sweat or winch yourself into the windward berth.
Other folks may have other plots.
Leaving a leeward berth you may need to force the bow upwind. Try:
Pushing the bow out from aboard using a solid boat hook (that's what the knobby bit above the hook is for) or
Leave on the aft spring on a slip, fender the quarter and motor with the helm towards to the berth to drive the bow out (can be combined with boathook trick) or
Take a line on a slip across to the opposite windward berth and pull the bow (or the whole boat) up to windward.
Again, others may have other ideas.
The other common use for a b/t is to help the boat turn sharply in a tight spot, but if this can't be acheived (and it usually can) by backing and filling (turning in the direction of the propwalk helps tighten the circle), then less conveniently the turn can be assisted by taking a line ashore (or keeping one there if you are leaving) or using the dinghy to help push either the bow or the stern.
I can appreciate the need for a b/t on a bigger heavier boat where muscle power might be overtaxed for any of the more traditional techniques, but on anything less than about 45' a b/t is a luxury rather than a necessity. And like all luxuries it costs in terms of intial expense, hungrier electrics, more complexity to go wrong, weight, a 'dirtier' underwater profile, etc.
milltech
Active member
Very useful 4 the single hander n.m.
.
John
.
John
Mirelle
N/A
Exactly
Ken's methods and Caronia's big fender work well for me, even singlehanded, and my 38-footer is really "marina-unfriendly" - tiny engine, offset prop, bowsprit and the boom hangs over the taffrail! I can, and do, run the bowsprit in, for marinas, but in that case the foredeck becomes an obstacle course....
Have come to prefer big sausage to big ball fender....but one BIG one is worth 10 small ones! VLCC's go alongside each other to transfer cargo using just three Yokohamas (really big rubber fenders!)
Ken's methods and Caronia's big fender work well for me, even singlehanded, and my 38-footer is really "marina-unfriendly" - tiny engine, offset prop, bowsprit and the boom hangs over the taffrail! I can, and do, run the bowsprit in, for marinas, but in that case the foredeck becomes an obstacle course....
Have come to prefer big sausage to big ball fender....but one BIG one is worth 10 small ones! VLCC's go alongside each other to transfer cargo using just three Yokohamas (really big rubber fenders!)
milltech
Active member
Re: Exactly
Well, for what it's worth you are perhaps braver than me. Bringing in my 65 ton single screw MFV when the wind was blowing off the pontoon was a trying moment. If I could leap out of the wheel house and drop the spring over a cleat as I moved forward all was hunky-dory. But if I missed, hard astern would stop me in time, only now I'd be hard up against my precious GRP neighbour.
Even having friendly hands supporting from the pontoon was no guarantee, your average yachtsman has no concept of the power generated by 65 tons at one knot and when they set about trying to pull you in you are similarly in deep doo-dah.
Now it's true no damage is done, the fenders see to it, but a lot of yours trulys boat handling prestige around the marina goes down the pan, and it's no mean trick heaving yourself back across the 12 feet of open water either.
If I had had a bowthruster I think it would have been a very nice thing. Like having Radar and GPS, my affection for wooden boats only goes so far and navigating with a lead line is not my cup of tea either!
John
Well, for what it's worth you are perhaps braver than me. Bringing in my 65 ton single screw MFV when the wind was blowing off the pontoon was a trying moment. If I could leap out of the wheel house and drop the spring over a cleat as I moved forward all was hunky-dory. But if I missed, hard astern would stop me in time, only now I'd be hard up against my precious GRP neighbour.
Even having friendly hands supporting from the pontoon was no guarantee, your average yachtsman has no concept of the power generated by 65 tons at one knot and when they set about trying to pull you in you are similarly in deep doo-dah.
Now it's true no damage is done, the fenders see to it, but a lot of yours trulys boat handling prestige around the marina goes down the pan, and it's no mean trick heaving yourself back across the 12 feet of open water either.
If I had had a bowthruster I think it would have been a very nice thing. Like having Radar and GPS, my affection for wooden boats only goes so far and navigating with a lead line is not my cup of tea either!
John
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Big sausage eh?
Born like that, pills or surgery?
Born like that, pills or surgery?
howardclark
Active member
I have a 40' iroko strip boat which I bought in April - big long keel - lots of windage. Laminated in a tunnel and Vetus 80kgf thruster - so far very good! - cost £1500 after paying for all the bits. Biggest headache was sorting out the battery options - too many to choose from.
ccscott49
Active member
Very different construction than mine, Howard. If I might be so bold as to say a very much lighter building technique, without the massive bow construction of an old style boat. IMHO. Thats not to say, yours isn't still very strong, but "bonding" in a tunnel is not an option for me. Mind you we don't know what 38' boat the chap was talking about, could be a hilyard or something, then you'd be in trouble.
