Bow-Thruster a BIG YES
We (wife & I) took delivery of a 450 (hull # 233) in the Spring with a bow-thruster. We had ordered the boat at a Fall boat show. After much discussion (wife pushing for the optional bow-thruster) we ordered the boat with the bow-thruster. We had previously had a Hunter P-42. There were several times when getting into or out of a slip area, it would have been nice to be able to "point" the bow. As you all know, directional control does not come until you get some speed forward or backward, water passing around the rudder. The 450 option is with a 4 hp unit. It does the job. I have only used it on few occasions, but I do turn it on when docking or undocking the boat just in case. We bought the boat at Tidewater in Havre de Grace. We were at their facility for several weeks. Our slip area was at the end of a long channel, with the channel being about 50' wide. All we need to do is drive the boat to the end, stop it and then leaving the wheel (rudder) in the straight position, put the transmission into reverse at idle speed. At this point by just using the thruster we can turn the boat and put it into the slip with out touching a pile. People just watch and ask if we have twin screws. Most big boats around require several forward and back gyrations and they are not confined to the end of the channel. I would assume that there is some mathematical loss of speed with the tunnel, however we do not notice it. We are still breaking in the engine, but with a clean (freshly painted) hull the boat did 8.0 kts (by DGPS) at 2,500 rpm. We are now doing 7.5 to 7.8 kts. Theoretical hull speed is 8.3 kts for the 450, we can do this even with a normal hull at around 3,000 rpm. For the recorded we have the 75 hp engine that is rated for 3,700 "max. continuous rpm" and a 3 blade Max-Prop on the boat. Would I order it again? YES. We will be retiring next year and living on the boat, going all over the east coast. Normally it will be just the two of us, so this is just like have a 3rd and 4th person on board when docking.
