My bowthruster doesn't work like I thought it did .....

[Bodach na mara]

You can also use it when your crew is on the foredeck trying to catch a mooring pick-up buoy. Mine always do it from the starboard bow, so I approach the buoy with the wind on the port bow and just as they are about to hook the buoy, I give a quick burst of thruster to stop the bow moving to starboard. Then I laugh hysterically as they try to hook the pick-up, which has been blasted out of reach by the wash from the thruster.

Yes, thrusters take a lot of getting used to.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

1 Going sideways.
Rudder to port. Blip the throttle. BT starboard and you move sideways to starboard.
2 going stern to.
Use rudder to position the stern and BT to position the bow.

Will try 1 - the rudder is a long way from the saildrive so I can't kick the stern around - the boat needs to be moving before the rudder has any effect - but it might be a good way to do a diagonal approach (ferry glide) to come alongside. ... will try that.

I have tried 2 multiple times coming into my berth - the boat is very well behaved - side winds have little effect as the keel just follows the rudder until the speed drops off, then the wind blows the bow round and the bow thruster just spins the boat around its keel - so trying to push the bow away from my neighbour just rams him with the stern instead - unless a shore line is already attached to the stern - and if a shore line is attached, I can motor against it to adjust the bow.

This isn't my boat but it's the same model - saildrive is miles from the rudder.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Baggywrinkle.....are you worried that this might happen....

Not with my boat ... might be able to move the seagulls a few feet

 

[lustyd]

the rudder is a long way from the saildrive so I can't kick the stern around

I'd be very surprised if this is the case on a Bavaria with single rudder, they don't look unusually far apart to me. Are you hard over and giving it plenty of revs and going in the boats preferred direction?

 

[capnsensible]

Will try 1 - the rudder is a long way from the saildrive so I can't kick the stern around - the boat needs to be moving before the rudder has any effect - but it might be a good way to do a diagonal approach (ferry glide) to come alongside. ... will try that.

I have tried 2 multiple times coming into my berth - the boat is very well behaved - side winds have little effect as the keel just follows the rudder until the speed drops off, then the wind blows the bow round and the bow thruster just spins the boat around its keel - so trying to push the bow away from my neighbour just rams him with the stern instead - unless a shore line is already attached to the stern - and if a shore line is attached, I can motor against it to adjust the bow.

This isn't my boat but it's the same model - saildrive is miles from the rudder.

View attachment 183970

Yeah when the saildrive is a long way from the rudder you never get to use the prop wash effect. Takes a bit of getting used to.

 

[LittleSister]

I thought they moved the bow - sort of push the nose in type of thing. It doesn't. It rotates the boat around the keel ... so the bow goes one way and the stern goes the other . . .

Well, you could try removing the keel and see if that's any better!

Had you never noticed how the rudder on the stern magically turns the bow in the direction you wanted to go?

 

[rogerthebodger]

A boat will turn about its center of late rial resistance

My boat in effect turns in a similar manor to yours with a fin keel.

My old long keel boat was a pig to turn as I did not have a bow thruster

 

[dunedin]

Will try 1 - the rudder is a long way from the saildrive so I can't kick the stern around - the boat needs to be moving before the rudder has any effect - but it might be a good way to do a diagonal approach (ferry glide) to come alongside. ... will try that.

I have tried 2 multiple times coming into my berth - the boat is very well behaved - side winds have little effect as the keel just follows the rudder until the speed drops off, then the wind blows the bow round and the bow thruster just spins the boat around its keel - so trying to push the bow away from my neighbour just rams him with the stern instead - unless a shore line is already attached to the stern - and if a shore line is attached, I can motor against it to adjust the bow.

This isn't my boat but it's the same model - saildrive is miles from the rudder.

Even though the rudder is a fair way behind the prop, should be able to get some stern steering effect before the boat is moving forward noticeably by using the short / sharp blast approach - ie rudder on hard, than short bust of a lot of throttle and off again. Just a second or so.
But no doubt without the bow thruster your boat would be more tricky to handle. The expense no object solution is a retractable stern thruster, as some boats have.

 

[Elessar]

Will try 1 - the rudder is a long way from the saildrive so I can't kick the stern around - the boat needs to be moving before the rudder has any effect - but it might be a good way to do a diagonal approach (ferry glide) to come alongside. ... will try that.

I have tried 2 multiple times coming into my berth - the boat is very well behaved - side winds have little effect as the keel just follows the rudder until the speed drops off, then the wind blows the bow round and the bow thruster just spins the boat around its keel - so trying to push the bow away from my neighbour just rams him with the stern instead - unless a shore line is already attached to the stern - and if a shore line is attached, I can motor against it to adjust the bow.

This isn't my boat but it's the same model - saildrive is miles from the rudder.

View attachment 183970

You’re right you will just get a diagonal with 1, but that can be handy.

Here is a 3rd for you then.

Electric springs. Nothing you can’t do with a line but it saves the hassle.

If blown on to port, fender the port quarter well and BT starboard until the midships are well off the pontoon/wall. Then just motor forward.

 

[Leslie frank]

We have an old boat 47 ft ketch with a long fin and skeg and very pronounced stern kick. We use our BT mostly for reversing in or out of tight marinas. Just get her going backwards and steer by moving the bow... like steering a supermarket trolley. Without it lots of modern marinas would be out of bounds, particularly when doing med mooring.
I think that in a few years time you might be very fond of the one on your new boat

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I'd be very surprised if this is the case on a Bavaria with single rudder, they don't look unusually far apart to me. Are you hard over and giving it plenty of revs and going in the boats preferred direction?

Hard over and big burst is about enough to unfold the prop and then, apart from a load of churned up water, not a lot .... then I need to cut the throttle or it starts heading back out of the berth again. This is a very different beast to the Bav36 I had before - after 11 years I could get that one to go any way I wanted. Practice, practice, practice.