Britannia
Wannabe
My boat has a 27HP Wesmar hydraulic bow thruster. It's a two speed unit (Hi/Lo in each direction) from around 2001 I believe. The hydraulics are shared with Wesmar active fin stabilizers and run off the main engine.
The last time I used it I found I was getting low power from the thruster at times. On one occasion it caused the bow to be driven into a piling by the wind, causing my first gel coat damage. No big deal - way less concerning that many other things that could happen.
I reproduced the problem at the dock today. For a while it would sometimes operate at much lower power (still at two speeds - just lower power) and at other times it would operate at much higher power. I could hear it and see the difference in turbulence being kicked up around the boat. After a while I could not get the low power problem to recur. I will try again another day.
So - does anyone have any experience and suggestions where to look for possible causes? I should probably get the whole system serviced and inspected in detail. However, I'm curious where I might start to look.
Thanks
Richard
The last time I used it I found I was getting low power from the thruster at times. On one occasion it caused the bow to be driven into a piling by the wind, causing my first gel coat damage. No big deal - way less concerning that many other things that could happen.
I reproduced the problem at the dock today. For a while it would sometimes operate at much lower power (still at two speeds - just lower power) and at other times it would operate at much higher power. I could hear it and see the difference in turbulence being kicked up around the boat. After a while I could not get the low power problem to recur. I will try again another day.
So - does anyone have any experience and suggestions where to look for possible causes? I should probably get the whole system serviced and inspected in detail. However, I'm curious where I might start to look.
Thanks
Richard