What is proper procedure to navigate with single screw? I have bow thruster, but only about 10 sec and breaker trips ! I just want to know of any tricks other than slow is my friend!!
The best advice I can offer is to find a fairly large lagoon with no wind and flat water and practice, practice, practice. Experience your prop walk. Steer in circles backwards. Practice the boats behavior with short burst on the throttle with the wheel full, alternately, to each side, giving 10 sec. between bursts; then practice some more.
Diesel is cheap right now.
Check your batteries. Once the voltage drops, amp draw will increase causing the breaker to trip.
Check your batteries. Once the voltage drops, amp draw will increase causing the breaker to trip.
What he said. Wire size to the thruster may be a related issue, especially if it's 12 volt and the cable run is from the house batteries further aft.
Now apply another burst of throttle in reverse to stop any forward way that you created - you can even give the boat a little sternway. At this point your boat should be swinging to the left. The forward blast caused prop wash off the rudder to turn the boat left. The reverse blast killed any way but the rudder had no effect on the turn.
Excellent post! Short, accurate & not confusing.The burst in reverse is not just killing forward way, it is actually helping the turn to port because of starboard stern propwalk. This is what makes tight turns to port easier than starboard turns (in your single-screw boat with a left-hand prop).
The burst in reverse is not just killing forward way, it is actually helping the turn to port because of starboard stern propwalk. This is what makes tight turns to port easier than starboard turns (in your single-screw boat with a left-hand prop).
To the OP: practice both, to see the difference.
Thanks for all the good info, I talked to the lewmar tech and he said my 150 breaker was toooo small to replace with 250. So I did thruster has not failed, I am staying to the 15 to 20 sec burst which seems good!! Hanks again to all
With all due respect, 15-20 seconds on the thruster is relying on it too much....strictly my opinion. You should get to the point where the thruster is only needed for very short bursts. If you need it for more than that, you need to more practice.
Or it could be undersized. 15-20 would spin my boat 360°.
As others have mentioned, most single screw boats will not back in a straight line - at least not until you can get enough way for the rudder to bite.
Britannia, I'm not trying to pick on you! But the way you put that could be misleading.
Actually you can back a single-screw boat in a straight line as slow as you like, just not by only using reverse gear, and it's another maneuver well worth practicing.
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Backing to me is putting an engine in reverse and only using rudder.
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