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Docking as you get older: what owners say a thruster changed
A lot of people reading about thrusters are really asking a different question: can we keep the boat? The knees are not what they were, the crew is one other person, and the last docking in a breeze was frightening. This page lets owners who have been there tell you what a thruster changed, then shows what one costs and the case against.
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The short answer
Owners in their sixties and seventies say it took the running, jumping and pushing out of docking. It kept them boating with a crew of two, which is the crew most of us have.
It steers one end of the boat at docking speed, when the rudder has all but stopped working. It will not dock the boat for you, and it will not hold her against a strong crosswind.
A wireless remote, so you can use it from the deck, fitted on the end you step off from.
On a 42 ft boat of any kind, our by-length table puts a yard-fitted tunnel at about $11,800 to $19,700. An external unit, fitted with the boat afloat, runs about $4,540 to $25,250.
Some owners worry you come to rely on it. Keep the spring line and the practice for the day it fails.
What owners in their sixties and seventies say
Every quotation below carries its forum and its date. A forum post is one owner's experience. It is never a measurement.
In January 2024 a Trawler Forum member asked whether he needed thrusters at all. A broker had told him east coast boats did without them. The answers he got were less about boats than about the people on them.
Comodave explained why he and his wife fitted theirs:
“We have thrusters on our current boat, we installed them since my wife doesn't want to go up on the bow of this boat. It isn't a matter of not being able to handle a boat but rather as we get older it isn't as easy to man handle a boat as it used to be. If thrusters help enable us to boat longer then so be it. Everyone gets older unless they die.”
Comodave, Formula 41PC, Trawler Forum, January 2024.
Portage_Bay described how he and his wife dock now:
“It's just the two of us, both in our 70s. She stands patiently on the swim step while I get that end close enough it's a simple safe step off. She ties the stern while I keep the boat pinned to the dock no matter what the current and wind are doing until she has time to move to the bow to catch that line. No running, no jumping.”
Portage_Bay, West Bay 4500, Trawler Forum, January 2024.
On the YBW Forum, DHMatson explained why he added a second unit:
“The boat has a bow thruster, and it helps immensely, so much in fact that we just added the stern thruster so we have the confidence and peace of mind knowing we can return safely with just my better half and myself on board. Also, at 62 years old I like the control the thrusters provide, and my ego is not harmed because I use the technology available.”
DHMatson, Silverton 35 on the Finger Lakes, YBW Forum, February 2022.
The shortest version came from a twin-screw owner in the same January thread who still docks without one: “My wife wants a bow thruster. After 45 years of marriage she thinks I will eventually kill us both.” (PierreR, 1977 Hatteras 42 LRC, Trawler Forum, January 2024.)
What a thruster changes on docking day
Read those accounts again for the verbs: going up on the bow, man handling, running, jumping, pushing. Docking with two people is a set of physical jobs, done in a hurry, on a deck that is moving.
They come at the moment the The blade behind the propeller that steers the boat, and it only works when water is flowing past it. At docking speed it does almost nothing, and in reverse it does nothing at all if it sits behind the propeller. stops working. Out of gear at docking speed, no water is blowing over it. That is why the bow blows off at exactly the wrong time.
A thruster takes one of those jobs. It steers that end of the boat back where you want it while someone gets a line on. The rest stays yours, fenders included.
Comodave's stern unit went in for a reason that had nothing to do with wind. He handles the stern line from the The open upper helm on top of a motor yacht or trawler. It adds a lot of height for the wind to push on.. His wife takes the bow, and the dog wants to be first down the ladder. In his words:
“I found that I was rushing and trying to get past our dog that wants to always be first. It was a dangerous situation and sooner or later I was going to fall and either hurt myself or the dog. Put in a stern thruster with a wireless remote and now I can get down from the bridge carefully and then use the thruster to bring the stern back to the dock. As you get older and less spry and less strong thrusters can be invaluable to keep you boating.”
Comodave, Trawler Forum, April 2021.
He came back to that thread with another day. He was on a side tie, with the wind blowing onto the dock at more than thirty miles an hour and a fender rolled out. He put his back against the boat and his legs against the dock. He could not move her at all. His wife pressed the stern thruster, and the boat went upwind at once.
Another member, Woodland Hills on a 63 ft Hatteras, had his wife keep the stern off the dock with the thruster while he hoisted the tender. Without it, the job meant boat hooks and a lot of effort. Neither job is docking. Both are the kind of shove that gets harder to give with age.
Two things a thruster will not do. It will not dock the boat for you, and it will not hold her against a strong crosswind.
Portage_Bay's “pinned to the dock no matter what” describes his own marina on the days he talks about. We size a thruster to keep steering the bow at docking speed in a 15 knot breeze. It is a steering control and never a holding device. In more wind than that, it buys you seconds. Decide whether to come in before you reach the dock.
Which kind, if this is the reason
If you want fewer trips across the deck and less pushing, two features matter more than the thrust figure, and neither is on the spec sheet's first line. A third question decides how the job gets done.
A wireless remote. Every owner above who docks short-handed uses the thruster from the deck, away from the helm. Ask whether the remote is standard or an option. DockStar's is standard, and one remote runs a bow and a stern unit. Sideshift's manuals page carries the pairing instructions for its key fob.
The end you step off from. A stern unit suits a boat you leave from the cockpit or the The shelf across the back of the boat at water level, for boarding and swimming. A stern thruster can hang underneath it., with the line already in your hand. That is why Comodave's went at the stern. A bow unit suits a boat whose bow blows off before you can get a line on. The bow and stern page works through that choice. On a bigger boat, one at each end is a real option.
Whether the boat has to come out of the water. A A tube bored straight through the hull below the waterline, with a propeller in the middle of it. It is the conventional thruster. Fitting one is mostly a labor job rather than a hardware one. means a Lifting the boat out of the water on a travel lift or a trailer so work can be done below the waterline. It is billed separately from the job itself. and most of a week on the hard. An external unit can go on afloat. The no-hole page lists what each product drills, from the installation manuals.
Do not pick the size from this page. The calculator sizes it from what kind of boat she is and how long. The thruster finder, our free tool that matches a thruster to your boat, lists the units that fit and what each costs fitted.
What it costs
On a 42 ft boat, our by-length table puts a yard-fitted tunnel at about $11,800 to $19,700. That covers hardware, yard labor, batteries and cable, the other parts, and the haul-out. The band is by length alone, whatever kind of boat she is. The guide for your kind of boat prices the same job for that hull, which can read higher or lower.
An external unit, which goes on with the boat afloat, runs about $4,540 to $25,250.
Every figure behind those bands is a dated price from a dealer or the maker. The cost page shows the arithmetic. If you are already holding a quote, check it on the quote-check page.
The case against, in owners’ words
The same threads carry the other view, and it deserves a fair hearing. Owners who dock big boats well say you come to rely on a thruster and forget how to handle the boat without it, and then it fails on the day you need it. The worth-it page has their words: a Pearson 530 owner, a paid skipper, two Ranger Tug owners and a former master mariner who used to call thrusters cheaters and now uses his own.
Our position sits between the two, and it is where those owners arrived. A thruster is a steering control for the last boat length. The spring line and the practice still have to be there for the day it fails.