97 carver 355 bow thruster

You can put a thruster on almost anything. Kind of a waste on a 35 though. You'd be better off with some docking lessons. Unless it's 80'+ or a single screw I hate hearing a thruster.

When I teach I do not let my students use the thruster. It's there for emergencies (high wind, currents). If I hear a thruster cranking on a 35 footer I think "here comes an amateur". That's no "cool factor". It kind of goes with the wife standing on the bow with a boathook in hand. You have 2 motors. That's all you need to put that boat anwhere you want if you learn how to do it and practice. Take that $10K and spend it on cruising or on filling the boat with babes. Now that's cool.

I tend to agree here, but Carver's have a lot of windage and kind of get blown around like a kite. But, for the money involved you are better off practicing on how to manuever and learn how to work a spring line. Without a bow thruster, a spring line is your best friend and comes in extremely handy in high winds or currents.

HA, for a 35 footer... Definitely a "0" on the cool factor. I'm surprised it wasn't a Sea Ray guy.

This bore repeating because if you regularly use your thruster it's a safe bet that, when you really need it, it won't be there. Seen that way, way too often. Face it, there is no substitute for developing skill.

You'll be happy you did it. Do us all one favor though. PLEASE, stop with the "parking". It's like fingernails on a chalk board. You "park" a car, you "dock" a boat. While we're at it, when you put those white things out on your sides they're "fenders". We don't "bump" boats. Good luck and welcome to the boating community. Oh yeah, one more little thing. Once a rope comes on board it becomes a line. Lots to learn, eh. You'll get it .

What about the septic tank? hehehe.........

A few years back I was cruising with an owner I'd been teaching for awhile. Day by day he'd pick up bits of the language although he'd usually try to figure it out through context so as not to feel foolish (which he wasn't). On this particular day we were turning around up near Providence when I said "check out the Russian sub". After a few moments of having a quizzical look on his face he said " OK, I give up. I can usually figure out what you're referring to, but what is a Russian sub?" So I said "the thing over there with the red star on its conning tower". Boy did he feel foolish.

It's fun to laugh out loud after a long and difficult day.

Remember, the 'pointy' end is the bow....

And you don't have to put your motors in 'park' before you shut down.

Please, have a good buddy show you how to dock. It is fun and will fill you with pride and accomplishment. There is nothing more pathetic than a bow thruster on a small, twin engine craft.

Hi,

Get the bow thruster, try to manoeuvre the boat without it and use it only when you really need to, enjoy your boating experience and don't be put off by negative comments. It is after all what the Captain ( Driver) feels comfortable with that is the underlying foundation to any manoeuvre.

Good for you. Now let's take those fingernails off the chalkboard and work on vocabulary. You park a car/ you dock a boat.
As for not bumping into anything yet, the operative word is 'YET'. It will happen so just remember that 'slow is cheap'. When things start going wrong; you feel your blood pressure rise and that little voice inside your head screams 'HIT THE GAS, HIT THE GAS', go straight to NEUTRAL. STOP and Think what action will have what reaction. Then act calmly. If you can't come up with the answer fast enough it's OK. Just take the soft hit. If you can fend off fine, but be careful not to get body parts between the boat and anything. Easy to replace fiberglass; not so with body parts. If you can put a FENDER between the hit points to fend off. Now practice, practice, practice and then go have fun.