To thrust or not to thrust? (the bow)

With a twin engine yacht in that size range a bow thruster is completely unnecessary. It is helpful if you lose an engine and have to dock with asymmetric thrust.

The most important thing is to learn to dock a twin engine boat properly. Once you've done that a bow thruster can be a nice help for certain situations but you should be able to handle any docking situation without it.

You are taking a big step up in size. You might consider a 35-40 as your first twin engine boat where the consequences are lower if you bang the dock while you are still learning. Otherwise, just get a lot of practice with the bigger boat out in open water with nothing to run into until you get the hang of it. It's not that hard.

If you use the bow thruster as a crutch you'll never learn to dock the boat properly.

Bow thrusters can be nice...

But often larger boats (40-50' is just a boat) don't drift or get pushed around as much as smaller ones, twins do give you much more control than you've probably experienced... and bow thrusters can fail, too.

I say don't worry the issue just yet. Find a boat with twins (if you prefer) that will suit what you want to do, use it for a year or so while you learn it. (That speaks to what you need to be able to do if/when a thruster fails.)

After that, you can always install a thruster if your local conditions warrant... or if you decide you just want one.

-Chris

Pascal raises a good point about insurance. I went up more than 10' ~5 years ago and there was only 1 insurance company after an exhaustive search that would cover me. Since then insurance market has only gotten worse. Even having a captains license wouldn't have helped.

Good luck with your boat search! Feel free to post what you are looking for, lots of things to be aware of in those older boats but they can also be great values.

In the grand scheme of things installing a bow thruster is not a huge deal if you decide you really want one. Same with updating electronics. Focus on the primary propulsion, condition, layout, and hull - very difficult to change those things.

Diesel safety, reliability, economy; can not be beat by a gas engine.

The first half of my life I was building marine gas engines.
Had a lot of fun. Made some side money.
I wish that I had gotten into diesels earlier.
I am so looking forward to diesel outboards.

In My Opinion, if your shopping for a boat; large or small you should be shopping for a diesel powered boat.

I wouldn't consider gasoline engines in a boat the size you are looking at. If you don't insure the boat you won't be able to stay at quite a few Marinas. Lots of them want a copy of the policy when you sign in.

I asked about liability only and was told no difference - I guess they figure if you are a risk to your boat you are a risk to others as well.

In terms of running a ~45' boat with no insurance of any kind, even liability... Other than marina issue that was already raised just remember the bigger the boat the bigger the target for lawsuits. Unscrupulous people assume any one with a big boat has a lot of money and is thus a target.

I guess I’m the odd man out here because I think a bow thruster is fantastic. I added one to my 54’ and after not having it for awhile and now having one I would not be without one again. For me, it’s a not a matter of need, it’s an issue of convenience and ease. I rarely use my BT coming in/out of my slip but for tight situations at a fuel dock, fish processor dock or whatever, they make it easy and stress free. Especially if you don’t have folks aboard that are well trained on lines and such. I have a number of well experienced captain friends that have added them and say the same thing I do.

Just to add: "speedboat" to me means a performance engine spinning a small prop. That provides little maneuvering thrust without higher RPM. Moving to a larger boat with inboards and bigger wheels will make significant difference in maneuvering thrust at low RPM. My former 53C swung big wheels and would jump at every gear shift.

One use that a lot of people overlook is adjusting lines after you are in the slip. My wife cannot pull our 60' over against a strong wind or current but utilizing the thruster she can.

Very pleased to have a thruster aboard. I don't need to use it for docking most times, but it's helpful in a breeze, especially for adding lines or adjusting fenders. The thruster was my very first addition to her...during survey while on the hard.

I remember managing an extended Roamer Houseboat. We used the anchor windlass capstan (rope drum) to pull the bow in and an small windlass capstan in the cockpit to pull the stern in.
Real drivers don't need no stinking thruster.

I agree with most of the experts on here. A bow thruster is a "nice to have", but on a 50 footer, it's not necessary. Handling my single engine 24 foot grady white is much more difficult than my 40 footer. I remember when we charted a sailing cat (46 footer) down in the BVIs - handling that was the easiest thing ever. Twin engines, about 20' apart - you could turn it in circles all day within its own footprint.

Now, I am a bit concerned with our new (to us) Burger 80 that has no thruster... But we are still working on the refit, so if we can afford it, I may put one in at the end of the work.

A thruster is not necessary but is damn nice to have. I can work the boat with spring lines and have, especially when the wind overcomes the thruster (not uncommon at all). With today’s transient work force most of them don’t stay long enough to acquire skills and knowledge. I would say it is common for the average dock hand to have never seen a boat use springs and might not know what a spring lines is, much less where to place it and how much line to give or take. Also my wife has gotten slower and it helps our marriage for me not to have to rely on her as much. I don’t want my boat without it. My bow tends to blow off very easily. Much less stress with a bow thruster.

Agree...

-Chris