In the commercial world, I mostly deal with people who can dock fine
in light conditions. They need the bow thruster for those tough days
that many yachtsmen probably wouldn't be out in anyway. They want the
full potential power that the manufacture says they can get. The
thruster on the Viking probably wasn't putting out but a fraction of
what it could have if properly immersed.

With proper tunnel fairing there would have been no need to have it so
high and it would have been much more effective with the identical
unit.

--

Roger Long



"Capt John" wrote in message
oups.com...
Roger

I spent a week on a boat with this kind of setup once, and it worked
very well, easily moving the bow . The boat manufacturer, Viking
(58),
was very specific about the mounting location, out of the water at
crusing speed. I haven't seen a factory mounted bow thruster on a
power
boat yet that didn't sit out of the water at cruse, where it should
be.
Obviously, all thrusters do have their limitations with respect to
their ability to counter the effects of wind and tide. And I do
agree
that they are probably over kill on smaller boats (less than 55 feet
or
so), but they often help a captian get in and out of places that
they
might not normally be able to.

John