PhilPB
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2021
- Messages
- 772
- Location
- Palm Beach County
- Vessel Name
- Sun Dog
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 34
Today I was painfully reminded the need for controlling your boat while backing into slip, in the wind with an inoperable bow thruster.
Today we took the boat out. The thruster worked fine for me to maneuver the bow so the wife could easily remove the bow lines when leaving the slip, then it stopped working. The motor would run but either the prop is missing, or something else. No cracks or thinks when it did work. Time to come back to the slip and I quickly realized how dependent I was on the thruster. Took quite a while getting the boat backed into the slip (single screw) and now have a damaged bimini bow for the cockpit bimini.
The thruster is just over a year old, professionally installed. Bottom is cleaned regularly and the diver is going to dive and investigate the thruster in a couple days.
Today was a hardly gentle reminder that I need to have complete control of the boat without the use of a thruster. Needless to say , it was a quiet drive home afterwards.
Today we took the boat out. The thruster worked fine for me to maneuver the bow so the wife could easily remove the bow lines when leaving the slip, then it stopped working. The motor would run but either the prop is missing, or something else. No cracks or thinks when it did work. Time to come back to the slip and I quickly realized how dependent I was on the thruster. Took quite a while getting the boat backed into the slip (single screw) and now have a damaged bimini bow for the cockpit bimini.
The thruster is just over a year old, professionally installed. Bottom is cleaned regularly and the diver is going to dive and investigate the thruster in a couple days.
Today was a hardly gentle reminder that I need to have complete control of the boat without the use of a thruster. Needless to say , it was a quiet drive home afterwards.