See video:

http://www.thenewsmarket.com/FrontEn...MV,WMV,270,290

or:

http://tinyurl.com/n3pby

"Chuck Gould" wrote in
ups.com:

http://tinyurl.com/n3pby


I get a blank page with a header at the top, Chuck....



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Drag a corner of the window to make it bigger if you need to, then pick a
player from the drop down list. Cool video of bow thrusters.

--Mike

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Chuck Gould" wrote in
ups.com:

http://tinyurl.com/n3pby


I get a blank page with a header at the top, Chuck....



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Chuck Gould wrote:
See video:

http://www.thenewsmarket.com/FrontEn...MV,WMV,270,290

or:

http://tinyurl.com/n3pby

That's cool as hell!

"Chuck Gould" wrote in
ups.com:

http://tinyurl.com/n3pby




Thrusters are handy. When I first got the Navigator (which has both bow
and stern thrusters) I retained the services of a tug boat captain to help
me sharpen my boat handling skills. He laughed at the thrusters and
proceeded to teach me how to move the boat sideways in either direction
without moving forward or backward. He had me practice for about 30 minutes
using opposite rudder settings with careful engine throttle and transmission
settings. Takes some practice, especially in wind or current. The
technique came in handy later that season when the thruster power switch
failed on the trip to Florida.

Eisboch

"Tom Francis" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:41:53 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Chuck Gould" wrote in
ups.com:

http://tinyurl.com/n3pby

Thrusters are handy. When I first got the Navigator (which has both bow
and stern thrusters) I retained the services of a tug boat captain to
help
me sharpen my boat handling skills. He laughed at the thrusters and
proceeded to teach me how to move the boat sideways in either direction
without moving forward or backward. He had me practice for about 30
minutes
using opposite rudder settings with careful engine throttle and
transmission
settings. Takes some practice, especially in wind or current. The
technique came in handy later that season when the thruster power switch
failed on the trip to Florida.

You know what's interesting?

There is a significant difference between how outboards work as
opposed to inboards when it comes to maneuvering.

I really embarrassed myself down in NC when I tried to dock a boat -
they just don't seem to work the same as outboards. It's the same
type of technique, only outboards seem to be much more forgiving than
inboards when close quarter maneuvering.

Well, with outboards you obviously have vectored thrust, even in reverse.
Not so with a fixed position prop where the rudder is useless in reverse,
although you can use that fact to your advantage as I learned from the tug
captain. I have trouble sometimes with single outboards and single I/Os
because I get screwed up with the thrust being tied to the helm position.
Twin inboards are the easiest to handle IMO ... maybe because I have more
experience with them.

Eisboch

mgg wrote:
Drag a corner of the window to make it bigger if you need to, then pick a
player from the drop down list. Cool video of bow thrusters.

--Mike



Here's the interesting twist on this. The boat in the video has neither
bow nor stern thrusters.
The boat is equipped with the Volvo IPS drive system. (Forward facing
prop). Volvo has added a joystick that is operative under 1500 RPM, and
the joystick can direct the prop "pods" turn to essentially face one
another and make true lateral motion possible.

Harry Krause wrote:



Here's the interesting twist on this. The boat in the video has neither
bow nor stern thrusters.
The boat is equipped with the Volvo IPS drive system. (Forward facing
prop). Volvo has added a joystick that is operative under 1500 RPM, and
the joystick can direct the prop "pods" turn to essentially face one
another and make true lateral motion possible.



That makes it *much* easier to drive your prop blades right into that reef.

Better to lose a prop, or even a pod, than an entire boat.

The IPS system is so new that there can't be meaningful numbers
available yet,
but I would be surprised to meet very many experienced boaters without
knowledge of some twin engine inboard boat (with traditional
propulsion) that has gone straight to the bottom after striking a rock
with a strut and punching out a fair sized section of the bottom.
Striking a reef or a rock with any sort of running gear is potentially
catastrophic. You don't see me rushing out to buy an IPS powered boat,
but I'd rather lose a prop, or a breakaway pod, than open a four sq ft
hole in the boat three feet below the waterline.

Harry Krause wrote:


Some of us would not buy an inboard boat without a real keel.


Your struts are only slightly less vulnerable with a keel that extends
below the level of the props. For example, a soft grounding on a mud
bottom would be unlikely to damage the struts on a boat with a keel.
However, if the tide is falling and the boat is hard aground it will
take some quick jury rigging to (hopefully) prevent the boat from
tipping onto the port or starboard strut.

A lot of strut damage occurs when the stern swings into a rock while
anchoring, docking, etc. In such a situation, the keel (well inboard or
either strut), isn't in play.

Best choice for prop protection: deep keel single screw with a skeg. IMO

"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
oups.com...

mgg wrote:
Drag a corner of the window to make it bigger if you need to, then pick a
player from the drop down list. Cool video of bow thrusters.

--Mike



Here's the interesting twist on this. The boat in the video has neither
bow nor stern thrusters.
The boat is equipped with the Volvo IPS drive system. (Forward facing
prop). Volvo has added a joystick that is operative under 1500 RPM, and
the joystick can direct the prop "pods" turn to essentially face one
another and make true lateral motion possible.


That explains something I noticed. I assumed they were thrusters, but the
wash from the bow area seemed too far back. Pretty cool!

I've read that the industry and many boat manufacturers have come to respect
the unique Volvo IPS drive, despite it's seemingly obvious drawbacks.

Eisboch