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Center console thrusters: bow, stern or both, if you need one
A center console gives the wind almost nothing to hold on to, and the outboard already steers the stern. So the thrust it needs is small, and for many owners the right purchase is nothing, which is not a sentence a dealer leads with. This guide shows where the gaps open and what fits each end of the boat when they do.
The short answer
The outboard already steers the stern while it pushes. A 28 ft center console needs about 25 lb from a tunnel's position to steer in a 15 knot breeze.
Think of idling in a ramp queue with a crosswind, or backing into a slip with no room to swing the engine.
Sideshift's OB kits fix to the cavitation plate, the flat plate above the propeller on the outboard's leg, and need no hole in the hull. They run $4,495 to $5,495 from the maker, before fitting, for boats to 50 ft.
Up to 30 ft, the thruster finder, our free tool that matches a thruster to your boat, leads with one. Bigger boats go to a tunnel or a retractable. This site lists no external bow unit for a boat that planes.
Bow, stern, or both on a center console
For many owners, neither. The outboard steers the stern ahead and astern while it is pushing. The gaps open when the motor is in neutral.
At the stern, the outboard kits bolt to the cavitation plate. They move the transom with the engine in neutral. Nothing goes through the hull. Sideshift says they can go on with the boat afloat, but we recommend fitting them with the boat out of the water, where the leg is easier to reach.
At the bow, the answer starts with a trolling motor. On a bigger boat it moves on to a tunnel or a retractable. The bow section covers the choice.
At both ends, a push at the bow and a stern kit on the outboard move the whole boat sideways with the engine in neutral. Our page on bow and stern thrusters together explains what that adds.
Buying only one? Our page bow or stern first? helps you choose, and our page on what a stern thruster costs has the dated prices for the back of the boat.
A 28 ft center console, stopped, turning about her middle. The arrows point the way each unit pushes to turn her: the bow one way, the stern the other.
The outboard steers both ways, until it stops
An outboard turns its thrust with the wheel. Turn the engine and the push turns with it, ahead or astern. That is why a center console backs into a slip more accurately than any inboard with a 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..
With twin outboards side by side, put one in forward and the other in reverse and she turns in place. The engine makers now sell a joystick that does this for you, and can slide her sideways too.
Yamaha describes its Helm Master EX joystick as “compatible with single-, twin-, triple-, quad-, and quint-engine configurations.” Its StayPoint mode holds heading and position on the engines alone. Yamaha says that mode is “available to those with twins, trips, quads, and quints.”
The trouble starts when the motor is not pushing. These are the moments owners describe:
- Waiting your turn at the ramp with the wind on your side.
- Backing into a slip between two boats, where there is no room to swing the engine.
- Holding her alongside the fuel dock in a crosswind, with the throttle in neutral, while the bow walks off.
A single outboard does nothing for you then, and the boat hook comes out. A twin joystick only helps if you have twins. The thruster finder pre-fills the outboard for this boat type and treats the stern as covered under power.
How little a low boat needs
This site sizes a thruster as a steering control, not a holding device. The figure comes from the wind on the boat's The sides of the hull above the water. at 15 knots.
A center console is a A hull built to climb up and skim on top of the water at speed instead of pushing through it. Most powerboats under about 40 ft have one. that catches little wind: an open boat with a low profile. So the figures come out small.
| Boat | Thrust from a tunnel's position |
|---|---|
| 22 ft | 15 lb |
| 26 ft | 23 lb |
| 28 ft | 25 lb |
| 32 ft | 33 lb |
| 36 ft | 43 lb |
| 40 ft | 53 lb |
A T-top adds little. A tower, a full enclosure or a hardtop with a second station adds more. The calculator has a setting for it, and the next table shows the difference on one boat.
| How much the wind gets hold of you | In a tunnel |
|---|---|
| Low: open boat, T-top (assumed) | 25 lb |
| Medium: hardtop or enclosure | 33 lb |
| High: tower or second station | 40 lb |
Up to 30 ft, you may already own the bow thruster. On a light boat this size the finder leads with a bow-mount trolling motor. It sits at the very front of the boat, on the longest The distance from the point the boat turns about to the place the push is applied. Double the distance and the same push turns the boat twice as hard. the boat has.
It goes in the water when you stop and comes out before you run. On a boat that planes, that is the point. Our page on where a trolling motor works as a bow thruster and where owners report it does nothing goes through the owner reports by hull. A tower boat with a lot of wind, or anything over 30 ft, is outside that rule.
The stern at rest: the outboard kits
One product family is built for this hull, and it goes on the engine. Sideshift's OB series bolts to the outboard's cavitation plate. It pushes the The flat surface across the very back of the boat. sideways when the motor is in neutral.
It is the fix for the ramp queue and for the slip with no room to swing the engine, the two places a single outboard leaves you fending off a piling by hand. It needs no hole in the hull.
The maker's installation manual covers these kits on a boat that planes. Page 32 says: “When operating the boat at high speed, trim the outboard motor or I/O to ensure the thruster is just above the water surface when the boat is at planing speed. Failure to trim properly at high speed can cause heavy steering and may damage the thruster.”
| Model | Kit price | Thrust published | Power | Boat length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sideshift OB230 Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $4,495 | Not published | 2.5 hp, 12 V, 300 A | Up to 30 ft |
| Sideshift OB230-D Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $4,995 | Not published | 5 hp, 12 V, 500 A | Up to 40 ft |
| Sideshift OB240 Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $4,995 | Not published | 3.5 hp, 24 V | Up to 35 ft |
| Sideshift OB240-D Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $5,495 | Not published | 7.5 hp, 24 V, 400 A | 35–50 ft |
The Sideshift review reads the manual and the owner reports for the whole range. It notes that the maker prints no thrust figure for any model. The same kits are the stern answer on a bass boat, for the same reason.
The bow: a trolling motor, then a tunnel or a retractable
If the bow is what goes wrong at your dock, the numbers above say how little it takes. Up to 30 ft the finder leads with the trolling motor, for the reasons in the box above.
This site does not list an A thruster that bolts to the outside of the hull, up near the bow or on the back of the boat. Its propeller hangs in the water below it. Nothing is cut through the hull, so there is no tunnel. bow thruster for a boat that planes. An external unit hangs off the hull at the bow, where a hard wave lands first at speed. A center console spends its running time on plane.
Two makers speak to it in their own words. Sideshift's installation manual (Rev 3.1, November 2025) recommends a maximum of 15 mph in rough water “to prevent damage to your bow thruster”.
Sleipner's external thrusters page offers its EX pods as “a practical thruster solution for displacement and semi-planing boats up to 60 feet, independently of hull form, hull-material, propulsion and depth”. The no-hole page covers the fast planing boats as the hard case for the whole external style.
The stern kits above are a different thing. They bolt to the outboard, behind the running surface. That is why the cost table below says “not listed” in the External column for the bow.
A retractable
The other bow route on a big center console is a A thruster that lives inside the hull and drops down through a hatch when you press the button, then pulls back up. It leaves no permanent hole in the water flow.. It is a unit in a box inside the hull. It drops out to dock and lifts back in to run, and a hatch closes the opening flush.
Sleipner lists its SR80 for motor boats and sailboats of 33 to 49 ft. Max Power's VIP 150 page reads “high performance sailing yachts and super-fast motor yachts 40-60'”.
A retractable needs more depth forward than a tube. It also needs a bigger hole and a haul-out. Whether your hull has that depth is the yard's call, boat by boat. The cost table below prices the retractables that qualify beside the tunnel column.
A tunnel
On the biggest center consoles, near forty feet, 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. is what the engine makers plan for. A deep-V hull there has the depth forward for a tube.
Yamaha's Helm Master EX page says “Lewmar, Sleipner, and Vetus-brand bow thruster controls can be integrated with the joystick, for seamless pivot and low-speed maneuvering control”. The engine maker itself expects a tunnel on some of these boats.
On a 28-footer every tunnel unit on sale is more than she needs, so nobody is going to undersize you. The smallest that qualifies, the VETUS Bow 25, publishes 55 lb. That is about 120 percent above her 15 knot figure.
A disagreement to know about. At 40 ft and low windage our sizing wants 53 lb in a tunnel.
Lewmar's own selection guide (loaded 15 September 2026) names the 140TT 2.2 at 92 lb for the same boat. That is read at its 11 to 16 knot band and its lowest windage class.
On low-windage planing hulls from forty feet up, the makers' charts sit above ours. Both figures are printed. The calculator prints both for your own length, with every step of ours.
What it costs
The stern kits above are the only thruster prices published for this hull. For a tunnel, the nearest owner figure is a 35 ft center console.
In January 2021 the owner of a 35 ft Intrepid posted a yard quote of $14,200 for a bow tunnel on The Hull Truth. He asked whether it was crazy.
He had it done by a second yard five days later for $9,200, about 35 percent less. The first yard's labor line was $10,000. Divide that by the yard's own published top hourly rate and it comes to more hours than the job takes. It was not crazy to ask. The quote checker does that arithmetic on any quote you are holding.
This site's estimate is below. It is priced as a boatyard job on a 28 ft center console, from published prices and current yard rates. Only units strong enough to steer her bow at 15 knots are counted. On this hull that is nearly all of them.
| External | Tunnel | Retractable |
|---|---|---|
| Not listed for a boat that planes | Tunnel thrusters for a 28 ft center console Most jobs cost $8,500–$9,400. The least expensive, fitted by a boatyard:
And 26 more models, up to $11,700 for the Quick BTQ 140. The thruster itself, before fitting: $900–$4,800. She comes out on her trailer for these. Find the right one for your boat | All bigger than needed Retractable thrusters for a 28 ft center console Every one we list is more thruster than this boat needs. Fitted by a boatyard, least expensive first:
And 2 more models, up to $38,200 for the Lewmar 250VRTT Vertical Retractable. The thruster itself, before fitting: $7,400–$29,400. She comes out on her trailer for these. Find the right one for your boat |
A different length, or a different boat? The thruster finder prices your own, and the comparison by boat type puts this row next to every other kind of boat.
What this means when you dock
If she docks well under power and you rarely need to move her in neutral, you may need nothing. The outboard already steers the stern whenever it is pushing.
If the stern blows off in the ramp queue on a single outboard, look at a kit on the cavitation plate. It moves the transom with the motor in neutral, with no hole in the hull.
If the bow is the end that wanders and she is 30 ft or under, try a bow-mount trolling motor first. It sits on the longest lever the boat has and comes out of the water before you run.
If you run a big boat with a tower, size from the high row of the wind table. The bow route is a tunnel or a retractable, and the quote checker tests any price a yard gives you.
What we could not find
Any owner's fitted price on a center console under 35 ft. The one tunnel job is the 35 ft Intrepid above.
A published thrust figure for any of the outboard-mount kits. The maker gives power and boat length, and no thrust.
A speed rating for a retractable from Sleipner, Max Power or VETUS. Their pages name the boats and say nothing about speed.
Sizing figures are this site's own estimates, checked against the sizing the makers publish. Lewmar's pick is read from its own guide. Yamaha page, Sideshift manual, Sleipner pages and Max Power page read 16 September 2026. Owner figures from The Hull Truth, January 2021.