Jet Thruster - alternative to bow thruster?

[stevecray]

Anyone got any experience with these yet, or know someone who has? It is early days - only went into production in April I believe.

Click here, then select "Jet Thrusters" at top of page

On the face of it, seems to have advantages over a traditional bow thruster (relative ease of installation, bow and stern control, engine rather that battery driven), but am I just falling for the blurb?

 

[Jonny_H]

These were in YM a few months back - look like a great idea - any idea of price though? Also, the main compressor unit looks quite bulky:

Jonny

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

I seem to recall seeing a figure of approx £2000

 

[stevecray]

Yes, I think it was "from" approx £2000 which I think would be for a small version with either Bow or Stern outlets. Following my enquiry with the agent, he described the installation as......

"really a basic plumbing job with a little bit of electrical (joy stick control) which any competent marine engineer could handle or a good marine DIY! "

and.....

"Other than the cost of the unit itself, I guess that it would take one man max 3 days to fit"

Despite being a reasonably competent DIYer, I am a bit nervous about cutting holes in any bit of my boat that is normally under the water line, so would probably factor in the cost of 3 days work.

 

[Jonny_H]

"Really basic" and "3 days to fit" ... hmmmm something doesn't quite add up there!

 

[Boathook]

Cutting the holes is easy. What worried me for my traditional bow thruster was - were they in the correct spot and would the new fibreglass be ok. So far OK.

 

[lookout]

no tunnels to make

 

[pvb]

Many years ago, Vetus offered a similar system, but discontinued it because (I think) of its inherent inefficiency. You need to pump a lot of water through a 45mm outlet to get satisfactory thrust, and there are huge losses involved due to pipework friction. As a result, you need a lot of power input to the pump, which is why Willdo use an engine-mounted hydraulic drive system. One big advantage of hydraulic drive is that the thruster can be operated constantly, rather than for limited times. Incidentally, although these water-jet systems only need small holes at the bow, they still need a very big hole in the bottom of the boat to suck the water in!

For leisure boats up to say 15m, regular bow thrusters are probably cheaper and more practical.

 

[alant]

I currently drive a vectored jet thruster - Schottel system.

Great for moving sideways & for very shallow water, etc, but with the size of the diesel unit driving the various hydraulic systems, which is situated near the jetdrive unit to reduce losses, guess the weight alone would be a problem on a small boat.