Bow Thruster on a Willard 30

[andBeyond]

I'm looking at a few Willard 30s and considering buying one. One of the boats has a bow thruster. I am not sure how to value this item. Is it something owners of 30s find VERY useful. How much would you experts consider a bow thruster to be worth on a used Willard if the boats were otherwise equal?

 

[Comodave]

Have not driven a 30, but if you can get it close to the other in price, go for it. Installing a new thruster will cost about 8 to 10K if you have it done. About half that if you do it yourself. Well worth having.

 

[AKDoug]

When I first operated mine, I had a new friend with a Nordy 40 at the helm first time out. He said "you're going to love this boat, it handles just like mine". It is challenging to operate in confined spaces in the wind.

I call it "spinning the pumpkin", it only turns one direction from stationary, counterclockwise with a LH prop. With no wind it's a pretty easy vessel to maneuver, even in tight spaces. Wind makes it very challenging!

I have never operated a vessel with a thruster, but I could imagine it being a nice thing to have. I am not considering adding one, I just choose where I dock carefully and cut my margins wide. Since I am a transient all summer and regularly change ports (retired and on the go) I don't have to enter and leave a slip very often. I am usually alongside linear dockage.

 

[DavidM]

I suspect that a Willard with its full displacement hull has a big rudder and should turn fairly easily at slow speed, somewhat like a sailboat.

Many semi-displacement boats with their small rudder (to save drag at higher speeds) don't handle well at all at low speed and a bow thruster is very helpful.

So I expect a thruster will be useful but not essential on the Willard. Very few sailboats have them.

David

 

[AKDoug]

Boat handles great until you hit very low speeds, it will turn 180 degrees in a couple of lengths with forward speed. If you have any speed it will turn, if you don't have any forward speed the challenge begins, more so with wind factored in...

I suspect sailboats have a bias away from powered systems as part of the reason you don't see them on board often. I see thrusters as something beneficial to single handing and high windage vessels, sailboaters most often have a crew to handle the equipment. jmo

The Willard has a fair size rudder, but not compared to a sailboat...

 

[Nomad Willy]

Another thing about the W30 is that you can attach the ram shaft to one of two holes in the rudder horn. The inbd. hole gives you much more deflection. 45 degrees in either direction in my case.

Here is my rudder.

I have a lot of rudder authority at the stern. But none at the bow. If someone offered me a thruster free I'd go for it in a big way but I'd not pay anywhere near the typical cost of that feature. But with some practice a thruster is seldom in the "need" category.

W30 owners don't need stabilizers either but on fairly rare occasions that would be nice too.

 

[LarryM]

Hands-down, the single best improvement I ever made to my former boat Boomarang. If I had it to do over again, I would, only sooner. I was single-handed 90% of the time and it wasn't easy to quickly go from the pilothouse, down to the main cabin, up to the cockpit and then step onto the side decks to handle lines or fend off a tricky approach. While the W30 does handle well, it does not pivot around its full-length keel like a sailboat around a fin keel. The bow thruster virtually eliminated the need to back and fill in tight quarters. For me, the thruster and the autopilot made the boat a true joy to own and operate.

As for the price, if it were a brand new installation, I would easily pay close to the retail value of the thruster. If an older, quality installation, maybe half that.