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Posted

Hi Everyone,

 

I would be grateful for your input as I don't know anyone with a bow thruster.  The battery isolater key for mine is in a pain in the neck place to get to.  Do I need to turn the key off after each journey or can it just be turned on and left on?

 

Many thanks,

Kez

Posted

Only ever turned mine off when putting my hand through the weedhatch. But not many bowthrusters have there own weedhatch.

Posted (edited)

I turn mine off as it's easy to get to, but if it wasn't I wouldn't bother. 

 

If you're leaving the boat for any length of time it's a good idea to isolate the batteries.

 

Also if you have an illuminated BT on/off switch at the helm then make sure you switch that off otherwise it will continue to draw power. 

Edited by blackrose
  • Greenie 1
Posted
1 hour ago, KezzerN said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I would be grateful for your input as I don't know anyone with a bow thruster.  The battery isolater key for mine is in a pain in the neck place to get to.  Do I need to turn the key off after each journey or can it just be turned on and left on?

 

Many thanks,

Kez

 

 

Just leave it OFF all the time and become a more skilful boater!

 

 

  • Haha 3
Posted (edited)

There is another time when it is very good idea to turn off the bow thruster isolator.

That is when working anywhere  around the battery interconnection points aft, where the rest of the batteries are located.

Electricity can flow both ways down that connection cable and can turn disconcertingly turn up with a blinding flash, if all batteries, including the bow thruster batteries are not isolated.

How do I know? Well put it this way, It came to me in a flash!

Whilst it is great to execute all your manoeuvres without resorting to using the bowthruster, bowthrusters do provide a useful  tool when things don't quite work, or really dont work out at all, because of an unallowed for current or gust of wind, or just you got it wrong.

Edited by DandV
  • Greenie 2
Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

Just leave it OFF all the time and become a more skilful boater!

 

 

 

 

As a single boater why on earth would I want to make life hard for myself?  It is like paying for a car with all the mod cons and then refusing to use them because you prefer a car from the 60s.

 

 

 

5 hours ago, DandV said:

How do I know? Well put it this way, It came to me in a flash!

 

 

 

  I shall definitely remember that piece of advice!

 

 

Edited by KezzerN
  • Greenie 2
Posted
9 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

Just leave it OFF all the time and become a more skilful boater!

 

 

 

9 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Yes, but I'm sure the old working boatmen pulled along the canal by horses would have said something similar about your engine. 

And if bow thrusters had been a thing in the 1920s they would have been much appreciated by the boatmen and women of the time.

  • Greenie 4
Posted
2 hours ago, KezzerN said:

As a single boater why on earth would I want to make life hard for myself? 

 

Seriously, boats are perfectly useable without it and lots don't have one in the first place. If you only lern to steer a boat by relying on the bow thruster then you'll be stuffed when it packs up. Which it probably will, sooner or later.

 

So learning to steer without relying on it is a Good Idea.

 

 

  • Greenie 1
Posted

Not only steering, but also, arguably more importantly, getting away from the bank where bow thruster use can damage the bank, and winding (turning) the boat. I think using a bow thruster on a longer boat to wind is likely to bring the time of failure earlier, because of it often digesting mud etc.

Posted
16 minutes ago, MtB said:

So learning to steer without relying on it is a Good Idea.

How many newbie widebeams you seen coming down a straight bit of cut steering with the BT. They probably think that is how it's done, and carry on the habit forever more.

Posted

I would defend the use of a powerful bow thruster if you are single handing and are ever pinned against a bank by strong wind, but that risks damaging the bank. Polling or pushing the bow off is unlikely to work because it will just get blown back in. However, navigation will then be difficult, so it is probably better to sit tight until the wind abates.

Posted
35 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Not only steering, but also, arguably more importantly, getting away from the bank where bow thruster use can damage the bank, and winding (turning) the boat. I think using a bow thruster on a longer boat to wind is likely to bring the time of failure earlier, because of it often digesting mud etc.

 

I've seen/heard people on narrowboats continuously using their BT to do a full 180 degree turn which is certainly not what an electric BT was designed for and likely to flatten the batteries or possibly even burn out the motor. If one is using a BT then they should be used in short blips of a few seconds. In certain situations I've used my BT to help wind my boat, but if I can do it using only the tiller and the engine than that's what I do.

Posted

My thought with a lot of BT discussions is, why not give people the benefit of the doubt? People ask about all kinds of equipment which they could be using appropriately or inappropriately. I have a BT which I like to think I use as little as possible, using other means when I can, but liking that it will (probably) be there to help a bit when I’m on my own. I’d rather not have to explain all that if I needed some help with getting it working. 🙂

  • Greenie 4
Posted
24 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I would defend the use of a powerful bow thruster if you are single handing and are ever pinned against a bank by strong wind, but that risks damaging the bank. Polling or pushing the bow off is unlikely to work because it will just get blown back in. However, navigation will then be difficult, so it is probably better to sit tight until the wind abates.

 

I don't think my BT is powerful enough to get my bow off the bank in strong winds coming perpendicular to the boat towards the bank. I suspect few BTs fitted to canal boats are. My BT tunnel is set back quite from the stem post far to get it sufficiently under the water which reduces its mechanical advantage, so perhaps boats with the tunnel fitted further forward can use their BT to get off the bank in high winds. I tend to stay moored up in strong winds anyway which is my advice to any new boater.

Posted
36 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I would defend the use of a powerful bow thruster if you are single handing and are ever pinned against a bank by strong wind, but that risks damaging the bank. Polling or pushing the bow off is unlikely to work because it will just get blown back in. However, navigation will then be difficult, so it is probably better to sit tight until the wind abates.


I modified my standard 24v BT to be proportional control a couple of years ago which makes it much nicer to use. Most of the time you don’t need anything like full power - just a tweak of the joystick which makes hardly any noise or ripple. The modification was a bit of a faff but quite doable if you like that kind of thing - and nothing like the cost of a ‘proper’ proportional control BT. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, Thames Bhaji said:

My thought with a lot of BT discussions is, why not give people the benefit of the doubt? People ask about all kinds of equipment which they could be using appropriately or inappropriately. I have a BT which I like to think I use as little as possible, using other means when I can, but liking that it will (probably) be there to help a bit when I’m on my own. I’d rather not have to explain all that if I needed some help with getting it working. 🙂

 

Yes, one hot summer day I saw some bare chested young guys on a hire boat moored up on rings who were larking around and using their mooring pins to have a sword fight. I thought "stupid idiots" to myself, but I don't assume everyone with mooring pins is going to do the same thing or feel the need to criticise those asking questions about mooring pins/stakes on the forum on the basis that they're going to swing them around dangerously.

  • Greenie 1
Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, Thames Bhaji said:

My thought with a lot of BT discussions is, why not give people the benefit of the doubt?

 

All I was doing it expressing an opinion, just as you are!

 

Disclosure:

In 45 years of boating including several years of living aboard I've never had the opportunity to try a bow thruster. I've coped perfectly well without one except for two situations.:

 

1) Getting off the bank as Tony said, in a howling onshore gale. I just couldn't do it and gave up in the end and waited until evening when the wind abated.  Mind you, the wind that day would probably have overwhelmed a BT too.

 

2) Reversing any distance. Although sometimes I can reverse half a mile in one go, other times I can't go half a boat length without engaging ahead to straighten up the boat. On these days I wish I had a BT to play with, to find out if one helps one steer going backwards.

 

 

Edited by MtB
Add a bit.
Posted
1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

All I was doing it expressing an opinion, just as you are!

 

Disclosure: In 45 years of boating including several years of living aboard I've never had the opportunity to try a bow thruster. I've coped perfectly well without one except for two situations.:

 

1) Getting off the bank as Tony said, in a howling onshore gale. I just couldn't do it and gave up in the end and waited until evening when the wind abated.

2) Reversing any distance. Although sometimes I can reverse half a mile in one go, other times I can't go half a boat length without engaging ahead to straighten up the boat. On these days I wish I had a BT to play with, to find out if one helps.

 

 


I doubt we disagree really. I was just putting myself in the OPs shoes and to be fair you did suggest they become a more skilful boater - which I might have found a little pointed. 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Thames Bhaji said:


I doubt we disagree really. I was just putting myself in the OPs shoes and to be fair you did suggest they become a more skilful boater - which I might have found a little pointed. 

 

It wasn't meant as a criticism, more as constructive advice. We know the OP is a brand new newbie who has just bought their first boat, so I was intending to suggest they get to learn to steer the boat without the BT, which means their skill level will be higher than a boater who can't cope without it.

 

Rather like back in the day it was considered a bad move to learn to drive in an automatic, as automatic licence-holders aren't allowed to just get into a manual car and drive it. Someone who has learned to boat relying on the presence of a BT is going to be at a bit of a disadvantage if they ever want or need to helm a boat without one. 

  • Greenie 1
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

It wasn't meant as a criticism, more as constructive advice. We know the OP is a brand new newbie who has just bought their first boat, so I was intending to suggest they get to learn to steer the boat without the BT, which means their skill level will be higher than a boater who can't cope without it.

 

Rather like back in the day it was considered a bad move to learn to drive in an automatic, as automatic licence-holders aren't allowed to just get into a manual car and drive it. Someone who has learned to boat relying on the presence of a BT is going to be at a bit of a disadvantage if they ever want or need to helm a boat without one. 

True.

 

OTOH someone who has learned to steer without a BT and is perfectly capable of doing without one can still find that they come in useful sometimes, as mentioned above.

 

Especially a modern proportionally-controlled one which doesn't have to scream away at maximum power but can be used more quietly for longer, just like the throttle when steering a boat. And can run happily for far longer than needed to turn a boat around, so you can make it spin on the spot.

 

Do people with engines which have hand-crank starts and manual injection timing control and which need regular oiling when running look down their noses at those with electric starter motors and modern injection/oil pumps as being "unskilled"? 😉 

 

I think I know the answer to that one... 😉 

Edited by IanD
Posted
16 hours ago, pearley said:

Only ever turned mine off when putting my hand through the weedhatch. But not many bowthrusters have there own weedhatch.

 

Likewise. However as my bow thruster has spent most of its life not working (batteries are kaput at the moment) I rarely use it.

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