Trojan Boat Forum

While bow thruster would be my first choice stern thrusters work extremely Well . and in this case I would go with the stern . If anything just because of looks .


With that said having both is really cool makes Parallel docking a breeze and its only money .

prowlersfish wrote:If I was running off shore fishing all the time I would pick a Bertram 35 over the F36 . But for bay cruising and time on the hook , I feel the F36 is a better boat . Less rock and roll more room . More live able IMO , and better on fuel to boot

+1

For us, the F36 is a better fit than many boats others might prefer, for the same reasons Paul mentioned. We looked hard at trawlers in the same price range and could never get over the busier ride at anchor and limited room onboard. The lower fuel usage would have been nice, but then no ability to speed up when we want to. Bertram and Hatteras were also on the radar, but we would have given up the things above and paid double for a comparable boat. Wasn't a hard choice, though we were not specifically looking for a Trojan, only a boat that would meet our needs.

Here's an F-30 closer to you. www.jsmarinejim.com

In the November/December issue of boating there is article on thrusters on page 42. But in like many articles they have IMO its not very informative .

On my 1972 F26, I believe there's a wood core at the base of the transom, below the water line. See picture below. Kind of blurry but you can see there's an additional thickness to the transom below the chine. The hole is the exhaust for reference.

Interesting , There very well could be wood there . I would still not consider it a cored transom . However if this the case a liltle extra care should be taken . After drilling the holes to mount the thruster seal the wood with a good epoxy . Then when mounting the thruster seal it with a sealant like 5200 ( that should be done regardless .)

I found a video on Youtube of a single screw inboard with a stern thruster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPZGAxm67sU

The maneuverability is impressive.

You will not regret installing a thruster . My friends with them don't how they got by without them before . One thing I like about having a twin engine boat is being able to put it anywhere even in very tight quarters . With a stern thruster you will have the same advantage , and in some cases a better advantage . Docking side to even tight areas with a stern thruster will be a piece of cake. My ideal boat would be a single engine with a thruster .



Tell Santa you need this LOL

you can put a single screw where you want it if you really study up and practice.

Suggest you read and study Chapmans Seamanship, you will learn of a thing called side thrust as well as other important things.

larryeddington wrote:you can put a single screw where you want it if you really study up and practice.

Suggest you read and study Chapmans Seamanship, you will learn of a thing called side thrust as well as other important things.

Larry yes you can and I used to do it all the time on a 40 footer and sometimes a 55' . But it can be a lot work at times . You don't have any steerage in reverse with a inboard,( unless you get up some speed and that's not a good option docking) . If you look at work boats and large charter boats that are single screw docking you will see they tend to back up fast and have very large rudders ( some have duel rudders ) and they do this every day . Also you will find more room where they dock vs some of the marinas pleasure boats us ( more boats packed in more $$) .

A thruster would make life easier and more relaxing .

And Docking a single I/O or outboard is not the same

I'm starting to get my ducks in a row regarding the stern thruster. The current plan is to install it in the Spring of 2018. I read that 3M 5200 will run on a vertical surface but that 3M 5200 Fast Cure will not. The fast cure gets tacky in 1 hour, so it should be enough time to do what I need to do. Does anyone have any experience using the 5200 and 5200 Fast Cure on vertical surfaces?