Bow Thruster
 

At LOTO we have a Formula 370SS to use as our "SUV" on the water. We do not have any interest at this point of moving to a center console, as the Formula covers all of our bases. Anyway, the ONE thing that I do not like about it is that it sucks backing into slips. We have Volvo Penta DuoProp drives and when the are both in reverse, the boat tends to "crab" instead of straight. The forward is also quite a bit faster at idle than reverse, so sometimes I end up having to dick with the throttles also. Of course wind and waves also throws a curveball into the best laid plans. This is nowhere close to a direct drive with rudders that can be maneuvered like a skidloader. I am sure that I have a couple of thousand hours with twins (outboards/stern drives, true inboards), with much of it being at LOTO where docks can be tight and the boat in other slips are expensive!!!!

Annnyyywwaay, I got the idea last week about adding a bow thruster to our Formula. For those of you that have them or have added them, what has your experience been? Great, just OK, or someplace in between. To have Florida Bowthrusters add it would cost about $12,000. Seems worth it to me, but any input would be appreciated!

If you’re happy with the boat and the 12K, I say do it.
Like yourself, I’ve experienced outboards, shafts and stern drives. Duo props usually have a bit of bite in reverse (certainly more bite in forward) but the drives are close together, so on a 37 footer, they don’t provide much leverage with one in fwd and one in rev. Shafts with larger diameter props, spaced further apart are way more responsive. The rudders are useless at idle speeds.

A good bow thruster is easy to use, just get the stern lined up and push the nose sideways. There’s not much to it and you get very proficient, very quickly. Stern thrusters are relatively cheap and can easily be added later but with your experience, you wouldn’t need one.

Make sure your installer does a professional job cutting big holes in your boat 🙂 and doesn’t skimp on the size of the thruster.

RR

Yes, make sure that the "big hole" is made at the correct location such that the thruster really can push the bow of the boat. I know someone that fitted a bow thruster as a DIY project, and it ended up not being efficient, because the bow thruster was too close to the waterline, so it was just splashing water to the side instead of moving the bow of the boat. He had to start over and change the location of the bow thruster.

And make sure you get the correct size of thruster.

For 12K $ I would hope they can do a quality job, and if fitted correctly and a proper size thruster, then I am sure you will be happy with it.

Florida bow thruster is a pretty professional operation and from what I’ve seen does good work.
Duo prop drives will never pivot the boat like inboards, they always seem to need some wheel input and throttle. I tend to run them like a big single engine and just use both together except for the slightest adjustments.
The bow thruster with the control mounted in a convenient spot will help quite a bit with your crab walking into the slip.

The $12k includes an $11k bid from Florida Bowthrusters (they will come to LOTO) along with $1k for a marina to haul out/in and misc. I would not just have just anybody do the work to save a little.

Just throwing it out there, as I have NO real world experience with running a boat with this set-up, but IF, I was adding a thruster to a boat, the jet type thrusters seem like a pretty good option (in theory anyway), as no need for big holes, no issues with prolonged use, like some traditional thrusters that overheat, and you can add multi-ports bow. stern etc., all on same system?

Anyone have any experience?

FBT did a friend's 47 SeaRay years ago. It looked and worked flawless. I drove the boat many times so he could party. Easy to dock, but it did have inboards. Sold the boat about 5 years ago, boat was moved to Florida I believe. Pretty sure they paid not too much different in what you are being quoted. They also added a complete Waves and Wheels audio/video system and a hydraulic platform for a jet ski, so it was out of the water for a month or so getting all the upgrades.

This past summer I saw a Sunsation 32 CCX up on stands near the storage building on the road up to High Tide and it was getting a bow thruster installed. Not sure who did the work but it looked pretty good when done.

Having spent time on boats at LOTO with having either Axius or a bow thruster I say go for it. Every extra bit of control around the docks is worth it.

I had FBT install a thruster on my new Sunsation 32ccx 2 years ago. They travelled to LOTO and did the work at PBC. I was advised by the Sunsation factory that it was unnecessary and a waste of money on my part. Where we boat, the gas docks are all on a river with 4-5 knot current and major congestion on weekends and certain times of the day. I have hundreds of hours experience in twin engine boats, inboards, outboards and stern drives. I can say with unquestionable authority the FBT was the best money I have spent on a boat in a long time.

I had a bow thruster on my Formula 400SS with 525s and it had the duo props. i very rarely used the bow thruster. when ever i backed up i only used one motor at a time ( never both in reverse ) and it worked well. BUT when i did need help because of the wind or current that bow thruster was worth its weight in gold. made it super easy

interesting ... "no fiberglass work" I like that .


$5k for the whole kit .


https://www.jetthruster.com/


https://jetthrusteramerica.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pPzvpngkHM

This^^^ looks pretty interesting.

Looks to be pretty straight forward DYI.

About $10k for bow and stern thrusters.

Had FBT do an install on our 39 Cig CC last year. Its a game changer and a must IMO at LOTO, especially given how much more busy it is. We had some rather tricky situations in the wind at the 6mm as well at the big boats that plow into the Tap-n-Grill. They did good work as part of a group install at PBC. From memory Justice at told me they come up from Merrit Island a couple times a year for installs.

Agree. Bow thruster came in hand this past summer at LOTO on a buddy's 400SS at both Lake House 13 and Fish & Co. fighting boat wakes. I assume then the 32 Sunny I saw getting the thruster installed at PBC was part of that group deal.

$4600 for bow only , I don`t see a reason for stern unless you can`t dock at all lol

I wonder how well the jet ones would work on a heavy cruiser, cool idea.

I am not as worried about me, but would like to make it as easy as possible for my son and daughter to get it into a slip.

I put in a 54' boat, 7' above water line and the highest 7bft wind capture .. instead of one pump handling right and left their calculator recommends one pump per side .
"Dual pump installation required to meet wind performance you've chosen"
Puts out 158.03KGF of force.

seems pretty large.

agreed, stearn thruster on a 370ss is over-kill.

wondering how many of these are in service at LOTO ? interesting find

I am really considering doing the jet thruster unit. The key will be if I can get the 2 1/2" pipe (somewhat flexible) up to the bow. I agree that the stern thrusters are probably overkill, but for not much more $$$ it might be nice, especially when selling it at some point down the road (and it would be easier/safer/better for my adult kids). I am going to have my mechanic take a look at the plumbing routing this week. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Not ideal, but you can probably flex the pipes upward, instead of rearward; all depending on where you go though the hull, even if you are forced to go through the hull at a portion that is not as perpendicular to the water surface as ideally desired. It's still going to move the boat. I'm sure they have recommend angle specs.

If I didn`t have all this other spending going on I`d do the jet in a second vs. drilling a hole thru the boat and all that fiberglass work.

Interesting system. Did anyone notice they switched sides in the video? Hole through the hull was at the bottom of the liner hole. Can’t get the backing but on.

Borrowing the " make your garage bigger than you need so down the line when you move into a bigger boat" theory from the mancave garage threads, I second the stern thruster.

Seen a video of a key fob remote the guy used the thrusters to hold it in the dock while he hopped out and tied her off.
I'll try to dig it up.
another company makes bolt on thrusters that are streamlined (sort of in that the prop is in a tube thats roughly shaped like hull)
like those sunglasses and nose combos from the thrift store.
i'll try to dig it up.

https://www.yachtthruster.com/
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...212e58878e.jpg
way better looking than the exposed prop version.
i like the jet thruster idea too

I have talked to them and it looks like about $7,000 for the bow, and $7,000 for the stern, plus $4-5K to install. If I went this route I would not do the stern. I am still on the fence as far as the look of it sitting externally, as it would always just look like an aftermarket bolt on. For the same money, I would have Florida Bowthrusters come up and put in a traditional thruster. Hoping to learn more about the jet thrusters over the next week.

There is no way I would ever bolt that ugly thing on my boat, especially over a Florida Bow Thrusters install. I had them install a bow thruster on my cabin cruiser and they did a phenomenal job.

Id be worried one good wave would rip that thing off and secondly that is so ugly.

Man I thought my 330 with B3s spun great. I didn’t have an arch so it probably didn’t catch as much wind.

I had B3’s on another boat and they did fine. 4 foot longer and a Bimini that is always up would certainly make a difference. At LOTO, many times we are fighting wave action along with being amidst allot of fine hardwar3.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...c49526ab7b.jpg
Come on man this is more streamlined than the sideshift plus it's a heavy aluminum casting.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...9746bb72c0.jpg
Granted the first one looks like that thing that hangs down between the buffalo's legs but the salad shooter in pic 2 looks like a couple of trolling motors clamped together.


Tango, 7 grand holy crap an external should be the less expensive alternative.

My 330 was on LOTO. Only problem with B3s is the fast idle speeds

I talked to both the Yacht Thruster and the Florida Bow Thruster folks at the Miami Boat Show yesterday. The Yacht Thruster guy told me that it was more designed for "slower" boats. It would work great as a thruster, but could be a bit of a "Brake" and could get some splash in rougher water (we are at LOTO). Besides, really ugly. Scratch that one.

Florida Bow Thruster guys were great to talk to and I like the product. They had nothing good to say about the jet thruster. They told me that jet thrusters were installed on "allot" of MTI's, but then they were removed as they did not work well. Does anybody have any real world knowledge of jet thrusters not working? They told me $14k for a complete install at LOTO.

Jet thrusters were not at the show. That said, we ordered in some nozzles and one of the electric valves so that we can at least mock it up in the Formula. Because of the stringer location, I dont think that we will be able to get an exact parallel (with the water line) thrust line, but pretty close. We will not be doing any stringer modification (I would think that the Florida Thruster would go through them also?) I think that we have the hose location pretty well figured out, but I am certain that it will be tough bending it through where we need to go. We will mock it up in a few weeks and make a decision.

A company said the other guys product is crap go with us? You don`t say!! :D
Call jet thruster and see if they`ll give you references ..

I did find it odd when they said that a “bunch” of MTI’s tore out the jet system. True or bull****?????

From the videos, the jet thrusters look like they move a lot a water. Also if service is needed, I would much rather remove a pump inside the hull for a jet thruster than deal with a built-in bow thruster.