External Bow Thruster

[rob37w]

New to owning a Carver. My previous boat was a 40' Regal cruiser. After docking in windy conditions I have decided a bow truster might be a good investment. Doing some research and came across the sideshift.

https://sideshift.com/products/monohull ... thrusters/

Has anyone used one of these? Seems like a good fit at a very good price.

There are other external thrusters on the market but this seems to be the clear winner.

[tomschauer]

Having a thruster would be helpful at times. You have to consider is the 10k (thruster plus materials plus install) it will cost worth it, or will a bit more practice and an occasional second attempt at docking be a better fit.
Its a personal choice.

[Midnightsun]

I had one of them, very nice units. They have improved over the years and are now pretty much bullet proof. Very quiet and surprisingly powerful for their small size. I had the SS340 on a 32' express cruiser. Only drawback I could mention on this type of unit in all my years of use was fouling of the unit if travelling at hull speed in waters where there are lots of floating weeds. This would happen certain times of the year when entering the marina where I kept the boat. I do not think floating weeds is a very common scenario though.

I would recommend you change the bearing seals every 5 years just to be on the safe side. The unit I had did eventually leak water into the motor via the seal and destroyed it however this was after about 8 years of use. Maybe their literature has some kind of maintenance requirement that covers this now.