Solar power on a 46.6 convertable

Your Bertram does not want ANY more weight or drag forward.
Plan any additional batteries mid or just after mid-ship as low as possible.
My batteries (post #16) are in the bilge, center, just ahead of the main engines.
Those tall batteries are sealed and if the bilges flood, The connects are still up high and dry.
But, my Bertram 58 hull did loose some ride quality.
Hard to believe a few extra batteries can make a change.

Rite now experimenting with injector timing to gain some more top torque and HP.
When I win the lotto, new props with a bit less pitch will be probably be a better correction.

Oh, real drivers don't need any stinking thrusters.

It's a false crutch.
Including yours, SFs are operated all over the world with out thrusters.
Save your money for those ole Cats and fuel.

Bertram used to split the house DCv loads between the starting banks. Hopefully this has already been fixed on your ship.
If you must, use one of the starting banks for the thruster. Not a bank with any electronics on it.
4/0 cables all the way (The price of these cables should scare you aweigh).
Also, Proportional thruster control. Slow starting then max current draw avoiding a big bang on the batteries.

1) You got to have props with cup, to tap them aweigh.
2) Cup may be required on some boats. Think of a lock-up torque converter or a two speed clutch; A lil slip when trying to get going (less wet traction), then less slip (more traction from the cup) when running at speed.
My 12V71s don't have much cup.
Your 3196s probably need cup to get up and go correctly.

We sorta did that backwards from your question. The boat came with a thruster on it's own dedicated battery bank.. and I wanted an inverter somehow... and the thruster bank seemed to me to be an under-utilized resource. We replaced the original thruster charger with a Victron inverter/charger, Voila!

The battery bank at the time was crap, due for replacement anyway, so we replaced with a pair of Lifeline 8D AGMs in series to 24VDC. Works pretty well... and Lifeline specs are appropriate for this kind of dual-purpose role, more emphasis on capacity than cranking amps. Odyssey AGMs would also work, the other way, more emphasis on cranking amps over capacity. Neither inexpensive.

I would have considered an LFP battery solution for that bank, but... at the time there weren't any viable products (that I could find, at least) that would be appropriate for the thruster's CCA requirement and at the same time useful for inverter Ah capacity. That seems to be beginning to change, these days, but I haven't kept current on that... 'cause my issue is solved for a while and I've got better things to shop on in the meantime. That said, there's a newer "Solid State" LFP on the market now -- eye watering prices -- that might be viable in a role like this. Maybe others less expensive...

Ref the thruster: specs say ours weighs 107-lbs, not what I'd call heavy. Came with the boat. The battery bank is located aft, not ideal, but not a problem. We only occasionally use the thruster, mostly for moving crew on the foredeck closer to one bow pile or the other to get a line on.

-Chris

Now I'm confused;
LenR: you already have a thruster and need batteries for it or want to install a whole thruster system?

Ah, Here I was downplaying a new bow thruster install and you already have one.
I miss read something/somewhere.
Scratch half of what I typed above about thrusters above.

To many negative waves.
You sometimes remind me of my second wife.
Never anything good to say;