On 28 Nov 2006 03:53:54 -0800, "Keith"
wrote:

Single with a bow thruster is more maneuverable than a twin.

I've never maneuvered a boat with a bow thruster so I can't speak from
personal experience on that one. I've watched a number of other
people however, and either some thrusters are a lot more capable than
others, or some people are a lot more capable than others. :-)

I may be wrong about this but it seems to me that a single engine boat
will always be disadvantaged at certain maneuvers because of prop
walk, ie, the boat will favor one side over the other when backing and
turning. I am aware that experienced captains allow for this in
advance and plan accordingly, but no such issue exists for twin engine
boats which was the basis for my original statement. With experience,
twin engine boats can be walked sideways in either direction which
leads some people to think we do have thrusters. We can also maneuver
in place, ie, turn in either direction with no forward or reverse
motion. That is difficult to do using only bow thrusters.

There was a well publicized incident in Bermuda two years ago on the
Nordhavn transatlantic rally. On the day of departure there was a
strong northerly blowing boats against the dock in Hamilton Harbor at
the RBYC. Several boats had a great deal of difficulty maneuvering
off of the dock because their thrusters were not strong enough to
overcome the force of the wind. While it could be argued that they
should have used spring lines and prop thrust to push them off, this
would have been a no brainer with twin engines, and no spring lines
would have been required.