Bow Thruster or not?

It has been the best addition we ever put on our boat.! We use it when we dock to hold the bow in while the stern is secured as I can't climb quickly up to the bow any more due to RA. Don't really use it too much apart from that but if we needed it in a hurry (we have lots of crazy tourist boaters here)
It's great to know it's there if you need it and it has made our boating much less stressful. You will have to weigh the pros and cons for yourself but for us it's all positive.


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Consider it a tool in the tool box. you use it when you need it. IF I had extra money to use for a thruster, I would not rule out an external thruster as an option. I've seen both in use. Both work. External works at roughly 65-75% of the cost of a tunnel. Not near as sexy, but money is money.

We installed one and it is the best insurance I ever bought. Its powered up when we leave slips and when we enter slips IF we have to use it 3% of the time its a lot BUT those times we've had to use it? BOY HOWDY!!! It saved thousands in fiberglass work to other boats and ours. Some of the marinas we transient slip at are very crowed and you can hardly spin the boat on an axis without the bow's and swim platforms touching when getting to the "DEEP" slips they stick you in that are too small too start with.

So that being said, as Ferris Bueller said "if you have the means I highly recommend it"

Agree with wrvond above. If you have the money to do so, And plan on keeping the boat a while, go for it! Weather changes quickly. The bow on every Searay I ever owned always moves quickly with the wind when you don't want it too. One accident would have paid for it!

All above said...... There is nothing like having a bunch of folks standing around (1/2 to help & 1/2 to laugh) when you come in in some nasty snot and stick the landing.

like many others, I have a thruster on my current boat, and - just like the anchor windlass - I wont buy another boat without either...... like many have said, I dont use the thruster all the time, but the times I do use it its an absolute boatsaver! (my slip is a bastard to get into most of the time, rising tide its got an eddy one way, falling tide has eddy the other and the wind is usually from the perfectly wrong direction..... slack tide I nail it every time with just the throttles/shifting....)


again, like others have said, I wouldnt pull the boat JUST to have a thruster put in, but if I had a boat that was due for a refit I'd out one in then...