Bow or Stern Thruster?

Bow thruster for sure.

I vote for a stern thruster

Our Mainship 34 came with a bow thruster. With years of single screw experience I thought the bow thruster was a great toy. I added a stern thruster and my oh my what a great tool ---- the stern can actually go port and starboard in reverse with aid of the thruster.
Stern thruster makes life easy --- you put the pointy end up to the dock and thruster the square end in.
Two thrusters made handling a no brainer even when the wind is blowing you down on to the dock.
It is a easy installation -- I added an extra battery next to the thruster so there were no cables to run.

I cant imagine installing only a stern thruster. It seem to me, and from my experience, that you can control the aft end of th boat with the twin engines and the bow with the thruster. Its always worked for me like that well.
A stern thruster is definitely easier to install as it sits outside of the hull .Preferably, install both.

alvasurg said:

I cant imagine installing only a stern thruster. It seem to me, and from my experience, that you can control the aft end of th boat with the twin engines and the bow with the thruster. Its always worked for me like that well.
A stern thruster is definitely easier to install as it sits outside of the hull .Preferably, install both.

Click to expand...

You can’t control the stern with the engines if you are not at the helm. By the time I can get down from the flybridge the stern may have blown away from the dock so I would rush back to the helm and move the stern back to the dock. Then try to get from the bridge to the stern faster. That is how you get hurt. Now I can carefully climb down from the bridge and if the stern has blown off the dock I can use the thruster to bring it back to the dock.

You already have a stern thruster on a single screw boat: the rudder.

Bow thruster is the obvious choice if you have to choose.

Cheers!

Dave

Should you choose to go with a stern thruster consider going up 1 to 2 sizes. I made the mistake of going with the minimum recommended size without fully considering the difference between the stern and bow below the waterline. There’s a lot going on back there. The keel is at its deepest point, the rudder adds resistance and half the time the thruster is working against the prop walk. On top of this, at least on my boat, the aft section is flat leaving little ability to mount the thruster low. In my case this led to cavitation which required fabricating hoods to stop air from entering the tube when operated. The result has been marginal efficiency in all but the lightest conditions. I am pleased with the concept but care must be exercised when sizing the thruster.

Hope this helps.

Don