Bow thrusters...

[jimbo31]

Here is my installation the caption didn't come thru. More files comming






















come through

[jimbo31]

[here are some more pics
]90271[/ATTACH]

[jimbo31]

My pictures of my installation are some where in this forum.

Jim

[FamilyVan]

I haven't read every post on here, but I know a little bit about thrusters. In your post you asked about high winds and higher vessel speeds. Bow thrusters work very well at low speeds and low winds and can make docking in tight spaces much easier.
With speed, whether due to forward speeds or leeway caused by winds you get increasingly diminishing results from thrusters. There is a concept called "boundary layer", this is an area of water, that for lack of easier explanation is an area of water that sticks to your hull, the higher the speed the bigger the boundary area and the less effective your thruster. anything over 3 or 4 knots you get basically nothing from your thruster. So if you buy it to complement normal ship handling techniques they are fantastic. If it is to save your neck on windy days, they really don't do anything, not opinion here, but hydrodynamic principles. I was running a tour boat a few years back, double decker, about 90 feet. We were coming into a tight exposed dock, (about a 105 foot dock space). I convinced the owner to install a dc thruster. It worked okay, it definitely softened hard landings in big blows, but it never really got me out of a jam. To summarise, they definitely help maneuvering in tight places, but when docking in really tough conditions they don't help much, if at all. Until 2011 I had always used hydraulic thrusters, I can definitely say the results from a high torque dc thruster are more favourable, especially in high winds, they just push so much water so fast.

[EngNate]

Four things for the most thrust from your thruster:

#1, the thing I hardly ever see done right: Where the tunnel meets the hull the corner should have a radius not less than 1/10th the tunnel diameter. 20% or more of your thrust can be lost here, with a corresponding increase in noise. This is due to turbulence created by the incoming water flowing over the sharp edge.

2. Top of tunnel to waterline 3 times tunnel diameter

3. Tunnel as far forward as possible

4. If electric, wiring sized for <5% voltage drop

... and the above is all in the installation instructions...