Can classic boats have bow-thrusters?

It is a similar scenario when one decides whether to use an echo-sounder or a lead line, whether one uses GPS or dead reckoning and even whether one should use an engine.

When I was much younger there were no marinas and most boats - practically all of them, were on a swinging mooring. Now we are all in marinas with hardly enough room to swing a cat. To get out of my stern-to berth I need to turn to port... with a left-handed prop that is offset towards the port quarter and two boat-lengths away from the boats on the next pontoon. Bow thruster? I am seriously considering one.
 
It makes perfect sense and yet horrifies me at the same time!
Someone needs to make a detachable bow thruster that you can hook onto the stem head at the same time as you fender up on the way in.
 
Hmm, I'm afraid I don't think it's right. Imagine hearing that the old car from Genevieve had been retro-fitted with big bumpers and autobox - for the convenience of the owner...
 
Minn said:
If you need a bowthruster you are not fit to have a proper boat.
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if you have an engine on your sailing boat are you fit to own a sailing boat. if you keep it in a marina should you be keeping it on a swinging mooring. is the paint and varnish made with no modern chemicals, do you have a gps and radio fitted. I could go on but cant be arsed
 
dancrane said:
Hmm, I'm afraid I don't think it's right. Imagine hearing that the old car from Genevieve had been retro-fitted with big bumpers and autobox - for the convenience of the owner...
Click to expand...

well that would be ridiculous and stretching the point far too much
 
All a question of compromises, to be sure.

Nobody buys a labour-intensive sailboat in order to escape from the work required by sailing it; there are innumerable less bothersome designs the buyer could have gone for.

But having embraced the way an old yacht looks, smells, sounds and feels, and having accepted that sailing and maintaining her won't be effortless, it seems a bit half-hearted to say, "but I'll just fit a very modern gadget so I needn't face this slightly demanding aspect of handling her".

I agree, the bow thruster is out of sight, and doesn't offend the eye; but doesn't the appeal of very traditional yachts owe much to the complexity (and the skills required in dealing with the complexity) of doing things which modern design has made irrelevant?

I expect it's possible to make in-boom furling for gaffers. Discreet, efficient, easy and completely non-committing for the user. He needn't know how, it's automatic...

...and dull.

Push-button automation wipes away the character of so many traditional scenes. Many tasks were onerous, but their completion gave some pride in achievement. If you automate systems aboard a traditional yacht which once required her skipper's abilities, you undoubtedly reduce its purity...and destroy the user's self-reliance, when automation fails.
 
rosewood said:
if you have an engine on your sailing boat are you fit to own a sailing boat. if you keep it in a marina should you be keeping it on a swinging mooring. is the paint and varnish made with no modern chemicals, do you have a gps and radio fitted. I could go on but cant be arsed
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Different things entirely.

Pretty well any boat built after 1918 is going to have been built with an engine, and keeping a petrol engine is an act of folly, so yes to the diesel engine. You don't have to use it.

The reason for using a swinging mooring for a wooden boat is to expose both sides to the sun and to promote ventilation.

You can't buy lead based paint or copal varnish.

GPS and radio are common sense but you don't have to use them.

I could go on but..

my point is that nobody needs a bowthruster; you should be able to handle your boat.
 
rosewood said:
Quote Originally Posted by dancrane View Post
Hmm, I'm afraid I don't think it's right. Imagine hearing that the old car from Genevieve had been retro-fitted with big bumpers and autobox - for the convenience of the owner...
Click to expand...
well that would be ridiculous and stretching the point far too much
Click to expand...

Would retro fitting power steering be OK?

I suspect that the concourse competitions would say no.

Therefore I agree with 'dancrance' in regard to retaining the 'classic' classification.

If not where does one draw the line?
 
Not for me to comment on other people's boat-handing skills (let him who is without sin etc ) but I would be worried about damage to the hull caused by fitting the bow-thruster. I'm thinking short strakes between the stem and the tube, and how the tube is fixed to the planking. Uneven expansion/contraction could cause failure of whatever sealing compound has been used around the tube.
 
+1
Twisterowner said:
Not for me to comment on other people's boat-handing skills (let him who is without sin etc ) but I would be worried about damage to the hull caused by fitting the bow-thruster. I'm thinking short strakes between the stem and the tube, and how the tube is fixed to the planking. Uneven expansion/contraction could cause failure of whatever sealing compound has been used around the tube.
Click to expand...
 
Buck Turgidson said:
It makes perfect sense and yet horrifies me at the same time!
Someone needs to make a detachable bow thruster that you can hook onto the stem head at the same time as you fender up on the way in.
Click to expand...

No need to deface the boat.

A bloke in a Zodiac with an outboard motor makes a perfect bow thruster.
 
Sails are a means of propulsion to manoeuvre a boat.
An auxiliary engine is a means of propulsion to manoeuvre a boat.
A bow-thruster is........
 
drumbeat said:
Sails are a means of propulsion...An auxiliary engine is a means of propulsion...A bow-thruster is........
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Good point! What is a bow thruster? It seems popularly to be considered an alternative to learning skills/technique.

Interesting that despite thrusters being a pretty modern device, the classic long keel is possibly the hull form which benefits most from lateral shove when berthing...

...so maybe bow-thrusters are the essential bit of kit for long-keelers, which pilot cutters and the rest always wanted, but were denied by the state of science at the time?
 
The points about being able to handle a boat without a bow-thruster may have some validity, but that does not in itself define a classic boat - the point would equally apply to all boats not just classics. 'Classic' does not mean just 'Old' or 'Basic' - indeed things can be true classics because they are ground-breaking technology. Bentley Blowers or RR Silver Ghosts were certainly not 'basic' in comparison with their contemporaries - does that mean that they do not qualify as Classics!!??
 
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