I had an interesting conversation with a local marine professional.
Kevin runs a business that specializes in the post-production
installation of bow thrusters and stabilizers. He commented that his
particular portion of the industry is now being challenged by some
on-line competition, and the news for consumers is not as good as it
first appears..........

"My prices have always been pretty competitive," said Kevin, "so I was
really surprised when one of my prospective clients said that he wanted
me to do the installation but that he was buying the bow thruster
itself off the internet. I was even more surprised when the client said
that he was saving about 50% on the price of the unit- I know what the
best wholesale deals are and there wasn't anything close to 50% to be
saved. Since I couldn't really be sure what sort of thruster he was
going to buy, I passed on the chance to do the installation. If the
thruster failed after he started to use it, I know that he would be
calling me to complain and he wouldn't be sitting down to write an
e-mail to some unkown seller living who knows where."

"I mentioned this situation to somebody else in the business, and they
related a similar experience. In that case, the client had already
purchased the "half price" bowthruster and it had been delivered. Once
again, the boat owner was looking for somebody to do the installation.
A close inspection of the delivered unit revealed that it was a cheap
knock-off
of a brand name thruster. To the untrained eye, it looked pretty much
the same as a standard unit- but in detail it wasn't all that close. My
competitor was able to discover that that the counterfeit thruster was
built in China and had been sold on the internet by a company actually
headquartered in Mexico. Of course my competitor turned down the
"installation only" job as well."


Interesting development. I guess we boat owners need to ponder whether
we're trying to buy a bow thruster in a box, or have a bow thruster
installed in a boat. As Kevin pointed out, "The bow thruster tube is
the biggest hole you will ever cut into a boat below the waterline. I
wonder how many of the people who think they're saving money by buying
a cheap thruster
ever look far enough ahead to worry about who is going to install it or
even repair it- and that's if the warranty actually turns out to be
worth anything at all."

Particularly for structurally related items, such as thrusters, it
probably makes more sense to look at a "total installed package" rather
than try to pick up the mechanical parts alone through the cheapest
possible source. Few of the most highly qualified yards and installers
will want anything to do with accepting the liability for the quality
of the installation and being
at the top of the "call list" should anything fo wrong with the
machinery unless they have earned at least a modest profit on the sale
of the thruster.

"And don't get me started on stabilizers," said Kevin. "I just looked
at a boat that had been brought up the coast from San Diego, and the
owner should thank his lucky stars he made it this far. It turned out
that this guy bought some cheap stabilizers off the internet, and he
took his boat to a yard in Mexico to have them installed. To make a
long story short, the Mexican yard crushed the coring in his hull. The
boater called me to try to figure out why he heard this huge thump
every time the stabilizers deployed- and what he was hearing was the
inner and outer hulls banging together every time the stabilizers
shifted position. People might not understand that nothing puts more
stress on a hull per square inch than a stabilizer. I had to tell the
guy he was one big wave away from ripping a couple of four square foot
holes in the bottom of his boat."

While it's important to realize that we get what we pay for, it's so
often equally true that if we're not paying as much there's something
we're not getting as part of the deal. When that something turns out to
be a legitimate product with an actual warranty and a locally available

expert installation, you have to wonder how much of a "savings" would
be enough to justify the risk.

As John Ruskin said,

"It is not good to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money and that is all. When you
pay too little you risk losing everything, as the thing you buy may be
incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. There is nothing in
the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little
cheaper, and those who consider price alone are this man's lawful
prey."

((Note, that's from memory- so if it isn't exactly verbatim that's
why).