Independent · No manufacturer money
Figure out which thruster you need before anyone quotes you.
Manufacturers won't publish prices. Dealers size on length alone, which their own engineering documents say is invalid. We're building the reference that answers the questions the forums are still arguing about.
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Sizing
How much thrust does your boat need?
Worked out from hull type and the wind you want to hold against, because both Sleipner and VETUS say sizing on length alone is invalid.
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Cost
What a bow thruster actually costs
Real installed prices by boat length, what yards charge per hour, and why the tunnel tube is under $600 while the job runs five figures.
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Retrofit
Without cutting a hole in your hull
Which products genuinely avoid a hole below your waterline and which only say they do, taken from the installation manuals rather than the brochures.
How we get to these answers
Three rules, and you can hold us to all of them on any page here.
- Every price is dated and labelled. A manufacturer's published list price and a boat owner's recollection of a quote are not the same kind of number, so we never blend them into one figure.
- Sizing comes from the hull, not the tape measure. Windage, draft and hull form decide how much thrust holds a bow. Length alone does not, and the engineering documents say so.
- We flag it when a number is weak. Where the evidence is one forum post from 2019, the table says so rather than dressing it up.