Oddities on the Dock

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THD

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I was walking down the dock to the boat this morning and came across two odd boats, odd for different reasons. The first two shots are of a bow thruster, Sideshift. I have never heard of them. It certainly is an odd looking contraption. Oddly enough, it was on was only about a 28, maybe 30, foot boat.

The second was a recreational boat converted to a small crabber. I guess if your bow gets in the way of your crab trap winch, you just whack off a bit of the bow and glass it up!
 

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There are several external mounted bow thrusters around, they have been discussed on TF. I talked recently with the Australian agent for a Canadian manufacturer,they had not fitted one to a trawler because of drag,but recommend them for planing boats where the bow lifts the thruster out of the water.
 
The bow picker, rigged as a crabber was probably shortened to comply with fishery rules. I think Puget Sound commercial crabbing has a maximum vessel length. Seining in Alaska has had a 58 foot maximum for decades. It's not unusual to see a vessel pressed into service in a restricted fishery just get it's nose whacked off to meet the length restriction.
 
We were looking at those boats on Sunday- small world! They are a couple of docks over from us.....
 
That is a sideshift thruster on a Commander 26.

Interesting Ubolt connection through the bow eye.
 
Yes Spy and no holes may have been made in the hull for this as the wiring may be coming through a chain locker drain. My bow roller channel mounting is much the same.

chris-on-the-boat,
Indeed. And I think they build them this way. They want the biggest boat possible so they pick a boat a foot or so longer to build and build the bow as seen in your post. And they pick a deep fat boat also to whak off so the resulting boat can pack more fish.
 
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When I saw the title to this thread I thought it was going to have a photo of me in a swim suit!
 

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