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Hmmm, not sure I agree completely. If you rely on throttles alone for movement, things would be more or less equal between inboard and sterndrives. Save for the pivot point being in different locations (which is not always a trivial difference). You don't get the luxury of being able to point the thrust with inboards when in reverse. With sterndrives you can use reverse to 'pull' in that direction. Granted, it starts getting pretty hairy when dealing with wheel position AND throttles. When docking, I prefer to avoid using the wheel at all most of the time. It tends to be more of a distraction than a help, for me anyways.

I agree they're misused. That's true of just about any assistive technologies. The last thing you want is to have the thruster fail because of overuse, especially not when it's truly needed. Better to get the boat set up just about right without it and then apply the thruster to make the last necessary adjustments.

I wouldn't go out of my way to add one to my current boat. But I'd certainly consider ordering one installed from the factory for any future boat I'd buy.

Author:	sj901196 [ Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:51 am ]
Post subject:	358 Bow thtuster
Anyone have a 358 with a bow thruster? if so is it in front of the water tank or behind?If it's in front how do you get to it? Cheers sj

Author:	Sierra [ Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:53 am ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
Easy access... It is aft of the fresh water tank. Remove the forward most molded inserts (top of the picture) under the berth and it's right there.

Author:	sj901196 [ Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:01 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
Thanks Sierra, so if you pull the drawer out it is under there between the end of the water tank and the wooden panel, any idea which make and size is intalled as i am planning to retro fit. Thank for your help sj

Author:	Sierra [ Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:01 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
sj901196 wrote: so if you pull the drawer out it is under there between the end of the water tank and the wooden panel Yes. Quote: any idea which make and size is intalled as i am planning to retro fit. It is Volvo Penta's QL Compact Thruster Series. The manual I have is for the CT600/900 and I'm not sure which of the two it is (I'm sure FW could tell you). Here's the link to the the CT600. You will also require the controller (joystick), battery, charger and battery switch. Of course, this was the factory installed option. There are certainly a lot of options after-market. My slip-mate had Florida Bow Thrusters retrofit a unit in his 280 Sundancer and it looks and works as good as a factory job.

Author:	sj901196 [ Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:17 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
Thank you Sierra, all the info i needed, Cheers Sj

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Author:	Sierra [ Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:30 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
sj901196 wrote: Thank you Sierra, all the info i needed My pleasure. It is an absolute joy to have. Let us know what you do (and, of course, provide pictures!)

Author:	Winns For Life [ Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:41 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
can you put a thruster on a 268 Vista?

Author:	Brett248Vista [ Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:54 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
Winns Four Life, Not sure that there is enough area on the sides of the bow for the thruster. If Four Winns offered it for that model, then sure one could be retrofitted.

Author:	Winns For Life [ Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:25 am ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
It would sure make docking easier. I hate the see the Admiral swim to the dock all of the time to catch a rope.

Author:	wkearney99 [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:13 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
So the 358 has a different water tank than the 348? Must be, because there's not enough room between the back of that cabinet face and the tank for much of anything. I'm jealous of the better storage layout under the 358's forward berth (but not enough to upgrade!) You can remove the face of the cabinet by first taking out the drawer. Then reach through to opening and remove around 6 philips head screws holding the cabinet face into the fiberglass. They're on the inside, along the port/starboard edges of the cabinet face. Then remove the four screws drilled up from back of the cabinet drawer area. There's a pair of angle brackets that hold the cabinet box up. Once you remove the screws the cabinet face, with drawer box frame, will slide toward you and off. When doing this job it helps if you wear some thin gloves and some full sleeve sort of shirt to keep the fiberglass fibers from making you itch. Having a thruster is nice but I've never needed it with the 348. The twin engines make it very maneuverable. It's only when docking in a combination of gusting winds AND an outgoing current that made me wish for a thruster. But a bit of extra planning and go-arounds got us docked eventually. The rest of the time it's just a matter of planning the docking right.

Author:	sj901196 [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:40 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
If you have inboards with shafts than i agree, you can walk the stern easly, with I/O i tend to get bow drift and it is really the ability to be able to focus on the rear and than just nudge the bow in espacially single handed. The problem with I/O is having to spin the wheel left and right to direct the thrust and then as the pivot agnle is so far aft the nose in any wind or tide goes with which ever is the stronger. The main miss use of the thunder tunnel is people use it incorrectly, you should set the boat up and use the engines than make adjustments with the thruster, anyway thats my 25 years of experiance with boats from 8 foot to 60. Cheers sj

Author:	wkearney99 [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 5:55 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
Hmmm, not sure I agree completely. If you rely on throttles alone for movement, things would be more or less equal between inboard and sterndrives. Save for the pivot point being in different locations (which is not always a trivial difference). You don't get the luxury of being able to point the thrust with inboards when in reverse. With sterndrives you can use reverse to 'pull' in that direction. Granted, it starts getting pretty hairy when dealing with wheel position AND throttles. When docking, I prefer to avoid using the wheel at all most of the time. It tends to be more of a distraction than a help, for me anyways. I agree they're misused. That's true of just about any assistive technologies. The last thing you want is to have the thruster fail because of overuse, especially not when it's truly needed. Better to get the boat set up just about right without it and then apply the thruster to make the last necessary adjustments. I wouldn't go out of my way to add one to my current boat. But I'd certainly consider ordering one installed from the factory for any future boat I'd buy.

Author:	sj901196 [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:37 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
I guess it depends on your boating enviroment, if your used to 4-8 kt tides with tides of 15ft and cross winds that i beleive it's worth it, if your inland than probably not. SJ

Author:	Ben [ Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:05 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
wkearney99 wrote: Hmmm, not sure I agree completely. If you rely on throttles alone for movement, things would be more or less equal between inboard and sterndrives. Save for the pivot point being in different locations (which is not always a trivial difference). You don't get the luxury of being able to point the thrust with inboards when in reverse. With sterndrives you can use reverse to 'pull' in that direction. Granted, it starts getting pretty hairy when dealing with wheel position AND throttles. When docking, I prefer to avoid using the wheel at all most of the time. It tends to be more of a distraction than a help, for me anyways. I agree they're misused. That's true of just about any assistive technologies. The last thing you want is to have the thruster fail because of overuse, especially not when it's truly needed. Better to get the boat set up just about right without it and then apply the thruster to make the last necessary adjustments. I wouldn't go out of my way to add one to my current boat. But I'd certainly consider ordering one installed from the factory for any future boat I'd buy. I owned the boat with sterndrives and can tell you that things are NOT more or less equal between strendrives and inboards for low speed maneuvering. The sterndrives are a good bit closer together and that makes a sizable difference in the handling characteristics of the boat. Attempting to dual stick the boat simply didn't yield the control that I wanted and having learned to manuever bigger boats in an inboard left me ill-equipped to handle it like a single engine sterndrive which was probably the better route to go. In my case I just solved the whole problem by buying an inboard with two big torquey diesels and a bow-thruster... problem solved. Ben

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Author:	sj901196 [ Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:57 am ]
Post subject:	Re: 358 Bow thtuster
Thanks for your comments Ben, i completely agree, i also own another boat in the UK, she is a semi displament with twin 400HP diesel inboard on shafts. With her i can spin in her own lenght using forward reverse and i know that if i use the port throttle i walk to the right and vic versa or walk sideways with both. The pivot point of the boat is not far off in the middle. I stand by my comments that i find Sterndrives a little tricky espacailly in wind or tide, i do find that the nose wanders off and to catch it you have to spin the wheel and apply opposite thrust. Sean