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Jet Thruster review: what it drills, who it suits
The Jet Thruster is a water-jet thruster from Holland Marine Parts B.V. of Dordrecht, the Netherlands, on the market since 2010. It is the one thruster whose motor does not have to be anywhere near the hole. This review sets out what the maker publishes, what the install asks of your hull, what it costs in euros, and which boats it suits.
How this review was made. From the documents and from owners: nobody here has fitted or run one. It reads the maker's 107-page installation manual (D-010-10S), webshop, product pages and sizing page as they stood on 13 September 2026. Owner reports come from the forums, 2011 to 2021. Where two of the maker's own documents disagree, you get both figures. Prices are in euros, as published.
The short answer
A pump low in the boat draws water through an inlet in the bottom and sends it out of two small nozzles under the water, at the bow, the stern or both. A bow system needs three holes below the waterline and a haul-out.
Boats with no room forward for a tunnel. Every happy owner on record had that problem, and the maker's own list leads with sailboats, RIBs (rigid inflatables), center consoles and shallow-draft boats.
The nozzles can sit right at the bow, where a turn needs the least push. The maker also publishes its manual, every price and its sizing formula.
A jet needs a much bigger motor than a propeller for the same push. By the manual's own figures it makes 10.0 down to 5.8 kgf per kilowatt, against 19.4 for one owner's tunnel unit. The batteries and cable grow to match.
A complete bow or stern kit ran from €4,431 for a JT-30 to €9,036 for the cheaper JT-90 variant (€9,415 with the vertical pump) on 13 September 2026, including Dutch VAT. Batteries, fitting and the haul-out are extra, and no dollar price is published.
What they publish
There are four sizes, from 30 to 90 Kilogram-force, the metric thrust rating most European makers publish. One kgf is about 2.2 pounds of push, so a 50 kgf unit is roughly 110 pounds., plus a smaller Micro kit. The US distributor is Jet Thruster America. Its own site puts it in Mobile, Alabama, and the maker's webshop puts it in Sarasota, Florida.
The four sizes are in our product list and carry spec cards. Every figure in the table is from the manual's specification page. The boat lengths are from the Bow or Stern page, where the maker lists them by boat type.
| Model | Thrust | Motor | Current | Batteries | Pump weight | Boat size the maker lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jet Thruster JT30
The maker’s own listing, read 27 August 2026. See it on the maker’s site | 30 kgf (66 lb) | 3 kW, 12 V | 480 A | 1 × 75 Ah | 19 kg (42 lb) | sail to 32 ft, RIB to 25 ft |
| Jet Thruster JT50
The maker’s own listing, read 27 August 2026. See it on the maker’s site | 50 kgf (110 lb) | 6 kW, 24 V or 48 V | 480 A, or 260 A at 48 V | 2 × 75 Ah | 25 kg (55 lb) | motor to 33 ft, sail to 40 ft, RIB to 35 ft |
| Jet Thruster JT70
The maker’s own listing, read 27 August 2026. See it on the maker’s site | 70 kgf (154 lb) | 11 kW, 24 V or 48 V | 800 A, or 425 A at 48 V | 4 × 75 Ah | 49 kg (95 lb as printed) | motor to 40 ft, sail to 50 ft, RIB to 40 ft |
| Jet Thruster JT90
The maker’s own listing, read 27 August 2026. See it on the maker’s site | 90 kgf (198 lb) | 15.5 kW, 24 V or 48 V | 1000 A, or 500 A at 48 V | 4 × 75 Ah | 61 kg (130 lb as printed) | motor to 50 ft, sail to 55-60 ft, RIB to 45 ft |
The Micro kit is a fifth product. It gives 30 Kilogram-force, the metric thrust rating most European makers publish. One kgf is about 2.2 pounds of push, so a 50 kgf unit is roughly 110 pounds., "up to 30ft". It needs one 89 mm inlet and two 65 mm nozzle holes, each a millimeter off the 90 mm inlet and 64 mm hole saw the manual gives the full-size kits (both sets are the maker's figures). Its pump needs 15 cm of draft.
The Micro is sold as a complete box with a wireless remote. Both the EU and the US
version showed "Sold out" on 13 September 2026. It is in our product list as
Jet Thruster Micro kit, US version The maker’s own listing, read 27 August 2026.
What they publish about the system
| Topic | What they publish | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Every kit and option, in euros including 21% VAT | Published |
| Manual | The manual runs to 107 pages, free to read before buying. A service manual and a combi manual are published too. | Published |
| Holes | 1 inlet in the bottom, 2 nozzle holes per end, all below the waterline | Consistent |
| Pump position | Top of the pump head at least 30 cm below the waterline. Inlet hose at most 1 m. Batteries beside the pump. | Consistent |
| Nozzle position | Top of the tube 7 to 10 cm below the waterline, "not deeper or higher". As far forward as possible. | Consistent |
| Run time | Manual: pulses of at most 10 seconds, "Do not continuous run" | Product pages: "1-2 minutes continuous" (JT50, 24 V), "3-4 minutes" (48 V), "2-3 minutes" (JT90, 24 V) |
| Battery cable | Page 4: 1/0, 1/0, 3/0, 4/0 American wire gauge, the size scale for electrical cable. The number falls as the cable gets thicker: 2 AWG is thicker than 6, and 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 and 4/0 are thicker still. for the four sizes, 1 m total | Page 5: 1/0, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 |
| JT-30 battery | Page 2: one 75 Ah Optima | Page 4: one 55 Ah |
| Boat length | The Bow or Stern page lists it per model and boat type. A formula and a calculator cover the rest. | Owners got three answers: the list, the calculator and the salesman |
| Warranty | Runs 24 months from the invoice. Travel, transport, installation and removal are at the owner's cost. Galvanic damage and an opened pump head are excluded. | Consistent |
| Voltage | The JT-30 is 12 V only. The others run on 24 V or 48 V, from a dedicated bank. That bank charges through a A switch that connects two 12 volt batteries end to end to make 24 volts for the thruster. It then connects them side by side again, so the boat’s 12 volt charger can charge them. or a step-up charger. | Consistent. The JT90's 24 V motor was "SOLD OUT" on 13 September 2026. |
| Maintenance | A block of zinc or aluminum bolted to the thruster that corrodes on purpose, so the seawater eats it instead of the gearbox. It is replaced when it is about half gone, usually once a year. checked yearly. Valves worked monthly. For winter, drain with compressed air under 30 psi. "Close all the valves when you are not aboard" | Consistent |
Sources: the installation manual, the manuals page, the webshop and its JT50 and JT90 pages. The others are the Bow or Stern page, the Micro kit page and the contact page, which carries the FAQ.
How it works, and the motor it takes
The manual's own description is the clearest. It calls the Jet Thruster "a Battery powered water pump system which pumps water from A to B".
The pump cannot suck water up to itself. So it lives below the waterline, where water flows into it on its own.
The valve. The pump's outlet goes to a stainless three-way valve. The valve feeds two hoses that end in nozzles just under the water at the bow.
The joystick. Push it left and the valve sends the whole flow out of the starboard nozzle. Push it right and it swaps.
A Combi system runs one pump to two valves and four nozzles. The manual says a bow and a stern nozzle worked together will walk the boat sideways or spin it in place.
The maker's case for the layout is the 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.. A nozzle is a small tube with no motor behind it. So it can go right at the front, where the hull is too narrow for 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., "at a maximum distance from the pivoting point". Every extra foot of arm is thrust you do not have to buy.
This site makes the same argument for a 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.. Our size calculator, the tool here that works out the thrust a boat needs, works in turning Turning effort, measured in pound-feet. It is the force multiplied by how far that force sits from the point the boat turns about. A small push a long way out beats a big push near the middle. for the same reason.
The lever does not change the pump. A jet throws a small stream of water fast. A propeller moves a large mass of water slowly, and it gets more push per watt.
The manual's specification table shows it. Divide each model's thrust by its motor and you get 10.0 Kilogram-force, the metric thrust rating most European makers publish. One kgf is about 2.2 pounds of push, so a 50 kgf unit is roughly 110 pounds. per kilowatt on the JT-30, falling to 5.8 on the JT-90.
One owner's comparison. A UK owner who priced one did the same sum on his own tunnel unit, a Side-Power SE60 he put at 60 kgf on 3.1 kW. That is 19.4 kgf per kilowatt by his figures, or 1.9 to 3.3 times the jet's.
His conclusion in 2015 was this: "the Jet Thruster concept is obviously less efficient than conventional bowthrusters and needs much more powerful motors (with associated extra cabling and batteries) to produce comparable results."
His 2020 line about the JT-70 is shorter: "Nothing magic about it, it's just a big motor, drawing 800A at 24v."
What it drills
A bow system needs three holes, all under the water, and 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. to cut them. That is why our no-hole page lists it among the products that need one.
The water inlet goes in the bottom of the boat near the pump. It is a 90 mm (3.5 in) A fitting that passes through the hull below the waterline, sealed with a wide lip on each side. Cutting one means the boat comes out of the water. with a filter grate on the JT-30 and JT-50, and 4 in (102 mm) on the JT-70 and JT-90, each with a ball valve inside.
The two nozzles go through the sides of the bow. Each is cut with a 64 mm hole saw and has its own 2 inch ball valve.
A bow-and-stern Combi adds two more nozzles at the The flat surface across the very back of the boat..
Nothing is glassed in. The through-hulls are composite or stainless flanges on straight (BSP) threads, not the tapered pipe threads American fittings use. They are bedded and threaded together with Sikaflex 291i. The manual is firm that pipe tape and tapered fittings do not belong on them.
Whether it fits your boat
It comes down to depth. The manual sets these limits:
The pump head: its top at least 30 cm below the waterline, with 15 cm clear behind the motor to get the cover off.
The inlet: within 1 m of hose, with the batteries beside the pump.
Each nozzle tube: its top 7 to 10 cm under the water, "not deeper or higher", level, and square to the centerline.
Between the two, the hoses can run anywhere, above the waterline included. One Bruno & Stillman owner's pump is in his engine bay. His nozzles sit far forward, in a bow that had no room for a tube.
The manual publishes no installation time. Its FAQ says "Each installation is a custom project". The videos on the manuals page show a JT50 going into a 36 ft sailboat and a Greenline motor yacht.
The layout takes room and plumbing. The JT-70 pump weighs 49 kg and the JT-90 61 kg. The standard kit ships 10 m of wire-reinforced hose plus the valve.
An owner who likes his still wrote this about the space: "I'm not sure the claim of compactness is accurate as the control valve, associated plumbing, and motor cumulatively take up a lot of space."
Then there are the valves: three A valve on a fitting through the hull that shuts the sea out. Good practice, and some insurers, say to close every one of them when you leave the boat. on a bow system. The manual says to close all of them when you leave the boat. A British buyer's insurer told him the same, which is one reason he bought a pod instead.
Batteries and cable
The current is high, and it follows the motor. The manual gives these draws:
JT-30: 480 A at 12 V.
JT-50: 480 A at 24 V, or 260 A at 48 V.
JT-70: 800 A at 24 V, or 425 A at 48 V.
JT-90: 1000 A at 24 V, or 500 A at 48 V.
The manual's answer is a dedicated bank of Optima Yellow Tops. That is 1 for the JT-30 and 4 for the two largest, "or at least 1000A Cold cranking amps: how much current a battery can deliver in a short, hard burst, which is the rating starter batteries carry. A thruster draws like a starter, so the makers size its battery this way rather than by capacity.".
The bank goes "directly next to the pump unit". That is because the whole battery cable run is capped at 1 m and each lead at 50 cm.
On a 12 V boat, everything above the JT-30 needs a way to charge a 24 or 48 V bank. The JT90 kit includes a A switch that connects two 12 volt batteries end to end to make 24 volts for the thruster. It then connects them side by side again, so the boat’s 12 volt charger can charge them.. The JT50 kit includes a Mastervolt A charger that takes the boat’s 12 volt supply and puts out a different voltage. It lets a 24 or 48 volt thruster bank charge from a 12 volt boat.. The JT70 lists the charger as an option at €636.
The one first-hand American owner who wrote about his batteries "went with north star true lead" on the maker's advice of four Group 31 batteries. He added a warning: "You need to figure that into your estimate."
The manual disagrees with itself twice, and the system table above flags both. The cable sizes on page 4 and page 5 differ for the JT-70 and JT-90. The JT-30's recommended battery is 75 Ah on one page and 55 on another. Take the larger cable and ask about the battery.
A third thing to ask about comes from our arithmetic. The manual's current figure times its voltage comes to more than its motor rating on every model.
The JT-30's 480 A at 12 V is 5.8 kW against a 3 kW motor. Across the range, the current implies 1.5 to 1.9 times the motor rating. The manual does not say whether "Current" is a starting figure, a peak or a running draw. Size the cable and the fuse to the amps, whichever it is.
The manual's 1000 CCA line is a cranking figure, and our battery page explains why a thruster bank is rated that way rather than in amp-hours. The wiring page explains why a one-meter cable rule is really a rule about where the batteries live.
Ten seconds or four minutes
The maker's own documents give two different run times. The manual's operating page says it twice in bold: "Engage the Jet Thruster in pulses of maximum 10 seconds. Do not continuous run the Jet Thruster system: it is designed to operate in pulses."
The thermal protection trips on "an extended period" and the red light flashes. The fault table's cure is "Let the Jet Thruster cool down 20+ min".
The webshop product pages are written for the same motors. They give these figures:
JT50, 24 V: "1-2 minutes continuous run-time".
JT50, 48 V: "3-4 minutes continuous run-time and 10% more thrust power".
JT90, 24 V: "2-3 minutes".
A Hanse owner in 2011 "heard that it was only possible to use the jet max 4 minutes before it was overheated" and walked away. He added that he did not think he needed four minutes in a row.
We do not know which figure is right. The two documents agree that the motor is air-cooled inside the boat and that heat is the limit. 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. thruster is built the same way, while the pod units are water-cooled. Docking is done in short bursts, and a ten-second pulse is normal use for any thruster.
Still, ask which document governs the warranty. The exclusions include "lack of maintenance" and "misuse".
Their sizing formula against ours
The maker publishes its sizing formula with its assumptions. Few makers do; VETUS's method and Lewmar's grid are the others this site holds, on the calculator page. The formula multiplies these together:
- boat length above the waterline
- height above the waterline
- a factor of 0.5, because half the boat turns into the wind about the pivot
- a factor of 0.75, because a boat is not a rectangle
- a wind pressure
For the wind they take "the average windpressure from the Beaufort-Scale levels 5 and 6". That is 4.5 kg/m² for The wind scale sailors use, from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane). Force 4 is 11 to 16 knots, force 5 is 17 to 21, and force 6 is 22 to 27. 5 (17 to 21 knots) and 7.5 kg/m² for Beaufort 6 (22 to 27 knots).
Here is how they describe that much wind: "Enough to make it difficult to dock your yacht."
This site sizes for one wind, 15 knots, a breeze you would still dock in. Our calculator works in turning Turning effort, measured in pound-feet. It is the force multiplied by how far that force sits from the point the boat turns about. A small push a long way out beats a big push near the middle., so a nozzle at the very bow gets credit for its 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.. Here is one boat both ways.
| Method | Thrust wanted at the bow | Smallest Jet Thruster that covers it |
|---|---|---|
| Our calculator, 15 kt, nozzle at the very bow | 35 kgf (78 lb) | JT-50 |
| Their formula at Beaufort 5 | 47 kgf | JT-50 |
| Their formula at Beaufort 6 | 78 kgf | JT-90 |
| Their Bow or Stern page, by boat length | — | JT-70 ("motor yachts up to 40ft") |
On this boat their Beaufort 5 figure lands above our figure and their Beaufort 6 figure above our figure. Most of the gap is the design wind. Their formula sizes for 17 to 27 knots, and this site for 15.
Owners have had a third answer the table cannot show. In 2017 a DeFever 43 owner found "Their website advised a JT70/90; the salesman is saying a JT50".
Another member put a 41 ft powerboat with 15 ft of height into the maker's calculator. He reported back that "it said they don't make one big enough".
Take your own figure into the conversation. Run our calculator for your boat before you ask the maker which size.
Strengths and limitations
Every line below names its source: the manual and the webshop, an owner on the forums, or our arithmetic on the maker's own figures.
What holds up
- Everything is published. A 107-page installation manual with a spec table, a battery table, wiring diagrams and a fault table; every kit price and every option price in the webshop; a sizing formula with its assumptions.
- The nozzles go where a tunnel cannot: "as far forward or aft as possible", with the top of the tube only 7 to 10 cm under the water. The pump can sit anywhere below the waterline, so a fine bow, a shallow forefoot or a full lazarette does not rule it out. That is the lever argument this site's own sizing uses.
- "I have the Holland Marine Jet Thruser. It's pretty awesome." A 1975 35 ft Bruno & Stillman with no room forward for a tube: pump in the engine bay, "I didn't loose any of my v berth or much storage underneath. They were able to fit the nozzles much more forward than a tube, so I turn much more efficiently"; "was well worth it".
- "I have a jet thruster on Flying Sorceress and it works great." And second-hand from a Tollycraft owner: a friend's stern unit "Works great. It's VERY powerful compared to his 'normal' tunnel bow thruster. The quality of the parts looks outstanding."
- Nothing moving in the water. The inlet has a filter grate, the nozzles are plain tubes, and the composite through-hulls are stated as ISO 9093-2 and ABYC certified. Warranty 24 months, in writing, in the manual.
What does not
- A jet needs a much bigger motor than a propeller for the same push, and the manual's own table shows it: 30 kgf from 3 kW on the JT-30, 90 kgf from 15.5 kW on the JT-90, which is 10.0 down to 5.8 kgf per kilowatt. A UK owner set his 60 kgf Side-Power tunnel unit on 3.1 kW against that (19.4 kgf per kilowatt by his figures): "Water jets are less efficient than conventional bowthrusters."
- The current follows the motor: 480 A at 12 V on the smallest, 800 A at 24 V on the JT-70, 1000 A on the JT-90. The manual wants a dedicated bank of 4 Optimas (or 1000 CCA per battery) placed "directly next to the pump", with the whole cable run capped at 1 m and each lead at 50 cm. On a 12 V boat every model above the JT-30 also needs a series-parallel switch or a step-up charger.
- The manual says "Engage the Jet Thruster in pulses of maximum 10 seconds. Do not continuous run the Jet Thruster system". The webshop says the JT50's 24 V motor gives "1-2 minutes continuous run-time" and the 48 V motor "3-4 minutes". Both are the maker's. An overheat trip means "cool down 20+ min". A 2011 owner "heard that it was only possible to use the jet max 4 minutes before it was overheated".
- Two cable tables in one manual: page 4 gives the JT-70 3/0 AWG and the JT-90 4/0; page 5 gives them 2/0 and 3/0. Page 4 gives the JT-30 one 55 Ah Optima; page 2 gives it one 75 Ah.
- Three holes below the waterline and a haul-out, plus a 30 cm-deep spot for the pump and room for the valve and hoses. "I'm not sure the claim of compactness is accurate as the control valve, associated plumbing, and motor cumulatively take up a lot of space." A Kadey-Krogen owner who looked hard: "I'm not sure I like the idea of a semi proven system ... running massive pipes through the boat."
- Owners have had three different answers to which size. The Bow or Stern page lists motor yachts to 40 ft for the JT-70 and 50 ft for the JT-90. The maker's calculator told one owner a 41 ft powerboat was too big for any of them. A 43 ft DeFever owner wrote "Their website advised a JT70/90; the salesman is saying a JT50."
- No US price. Every price is in euros with 21% Dutch VAT inside it, which an export order does not pay. Shipping, duty and the US distributor's own price are not published anywhere. Owners in the US have found the company slow: "it took about a month for the owner of Holland to call me back."
- Owners are scarce on this side of the Atlantic. The American forums we read hold two first-hand reports, both on Downeast hulls, and one second-hand stern install; the rest of every thread is people asking. A UK buyer in 2015 "could not find despite postings in two German Forums users who had installed this System", was told by his insurer to close every through-hull valve on leaving the boat, and bought an Exturn pod instead.
Who it is for
The happy owners have one thing in common: no room forward for a tube. Both first-hand American reports are Downeast-style hulls.
Good fit if...
Your bow has no room for a tunnel. One report is a 1975 Bruno & Stillman whose owner "had very little room forward". The other is a wooden boat whose owner was told a conventional 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. would not go in.
Your boat is on the maker's own list. It leads with sailboats, RIBs, center consoles and "shallow draft" boats. Its FAQ says "If your vessel has 30cm of draft, our system will work for ANY floating object!"
You need a thruster at a shallow stern. A 43 ft DeFever owner with 9 inches of water under the The flat surface across the very back of the boat. went looking for one because nothing else would fit. The one second-hand stern report is glowing.
Look elsewhere if...
Your boat has room for a tunnel. The jet's case is weaker there. The same push takes about 1.9 to 3.3 times the motor of the tunnel unit compared above, and the battery bank and cable grow with it.
You want a firm US price up front. Getting one takes a phone call.
You would rather not close valves every time you leave. Three A valve on a fitting through the hull that shuts the sea out. Good practice, and some insurers, say to close every one of them when you leave the boat. have to be closed each time.
Your boat is bigger than the range. On the maker's own list the range stops at 50 ft of motor yacht and 55-60 ft of sail, unless two pumps are bought.
The sailboat guide and the trawler guide have the alternatives priced.
What it costs
The maker sells direct from the Netherlands, in euros. Every published price has 21% Dutch VAT inside it. The maker's own VAT page says an order shipped outside the EU is not charged that VAT.
So your price, before shipping and duty, is the published figure divided by 1.21. That is the last column of the table (our arithmetic).
The webshop says Jet Thruster America keeps stock in Florida. The distributor's own site is in Mobile, Alabama. What arrives on its invoice is not published anywhere, and neither is the shipping or the duty. The maker does give the customs code, 84.13.70.
There is no dollar figure here. This site does not convert currencies. For the same reason the thruster finder, our free tool that matches a thruster to your boat, does not recommend this family of product: it cannot price it in dollars.
| Kit | Vertical pump | Horizontal pump | The cheaper pump, with the VAT taken off |
|---|---|---|---|
| JT-30 bow or stern | €4,431 | €4,744 | €3,662 |
| JT-50 bow or stern | €5,578 | €5,909 | €4,610 |
| JT-70 bow or stern | €7,995 | €8,391 | €6,607 |
| JT-90 bow or stern | €9,415 | €9,036 | €7,468 |
| JT-50 bow and stern, one pump | €8,110 | €8,440 | €6,702 |
| JT-70 bow and stern, one pump | €11,387 | €11,387 | €9,411 |
| JT-90 bow and stern, one pump | €12,538 | €12,153 | €10,044 |
| JT-90 bow and stern, two pumps | — | €17,217 | €14,229 |
| Micro kit, EU version, then the US and Canada version (see the note) | €3,450 | €3,975 | €2,851 |
Read the two pump columns before you pick a variant. Among the bow-or-stern kits, the vertical pump is cheaper on the JT-30, JT-50 and JT-70. The horizontal pump is cheaper on the JT-90. Among the one-pump bow-and-stern kits, the vertical pump is cheaper on the JT-50. The horizontal pump is cheaper on the JT-90. The two cost the same on the JT-70.
The Micro row is different. Its two figures are two versions of one kit, not two pumps: the EU version at €3,450 and the US and Canada version at €3,975. Its last column is the EU figure with the VAT taken off. The US version is the one in our product list.
Add-ons, from the same pages
Batteries: one Optima for the JT30 €252, a set of two €504, a set of four €1,004.
Digital controller, which a Combi upgrade needs: €685.
48 V motor: €250.
Step-up charger, where it is not in the kit: €636.
A block of zinc or aluminum bolted to the thruster that corrodes on purpose, so the seawater eats it instead of the gearbox. It is replaced when it is about half gone, usually once a year. kit on the two smaller sizes: €392.
Composite valves instead of stainless: €226.
Labor is not published, and we hold no billed job to quote.
What owners and shoppers have put on record
| Source | What the figure is | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| silvest, Nov 2011 | A JT-50 Single, as the maker quoted it to a Hanse 370 owner (a maker’s quotation, 2011 money) | £3,500 |
| swankster, Feb 2016 | A JT-30 for a Nautique G23, parts, as the maker recommended it (parts only, 2016 money) | $4,000 |
| Davidasailor26, Sep 2020 | A "30-40' boat model" from "a quick Google search", against a conventional tunnel unit (a web search, without a quote) | $5,642 |
| pvb, Oct 2020 | "The £7K cost of the Jet Thruster", the 50 kgf system as he priced it in the UK (his own estimate) | £7,000 |
The 2020 search is the useful one, because it came with a comparison. Davidasailor26 put the jet at $5,642 against $2,759 for "a conventional thruster" of the same boat class, about 2.0 times.
He went on: "but it looks like the jet would be significantly cheaper to install." Nobody in that thread had one to say whether it was.
The kit is not the whole bill. Set the kit price against what a tunnel install costs all in. The batteries, the charger and the 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. are on top of every figure above.
Questions to ask before you order
The maker answers by email and phone from the Netherlands and through its US distributor. It asks for photographs of your boat. These are the answers to have in writing.
- What is the delivered price in dollars, from US stock? The webshop is in euros with VAT. The export price, the shipping, the duty and the distributor's margin are not published.
- Which size, and by which method? Get the formula worked for your boat with your own length and height. If it differs from the Bow or Stern page's list, ask why.
- Where does the pump go on my boat, 30 cm below the waterline, with the batteries beside it? This decides the job. Ask for the AutoCAD or 3D files the manual offers, and lay it out before the deposit.
- Which run time governs: 10-second pulses or "1-2 minutes continuous"? Ask too whether running past the manual's rule touches the warranty.
- Which cable and which battery for my model? The manual carries two cable tables and two JT-30 battery sizes.
- 24 V or 48 V, and how is the bank charged on my 12 V boat? The choices are a A switch that connects two 12 volt batteries end to end to make 24 volts for the thruster. It then connects them side by side again, so the boat’s 12 volt charger can charge them., a step-up charger or a 24 V alternator. The answer changes the kit and the price.
- Who installs it near me, and has that yard done one before? A 2017 shopper "couldn't find a single person who knew much about them or installed more than one".
- What does my insurer say about three A valve on a fitting through the hull that shuts the sea out. Good practice, and some insurers, say to close every one of them when you leave the boat. that must be closed when I leave? One buyer's insurer settled the question for him.
- Salt water: composite valves and the A block of zinc or aluminum bolted to the thruster that corrodes on purpose, so the seawater eats it instead of the gearbox. It is replaced when it is about half gone, usually once a year. kit? The maker recommends both and includes neither on the two smaller sizes.