Side-Power Thruster

[Bobby P.]

Happy Holiday Weekend!

I have an R31 with Side-power bow and stern thrusters. Two questions:

1. Has anyone tried swapping out the factory thruster prop for the Q-prop upgrade kit?

https://www.sleipnergroup.com/thruster- ... rade-kit-2

2. Has anyone considered removing the cowels from the stern-thruster in hope of improving performance?

The bow thruster does pretty well. The stern thruster does little to move the stern. Any other advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Best,
Bobby

 

[S. Todd]

I don't have access to my owners manual but don't the R29 and R31 have the model 40 thrusters? Unless I am missing something, I don't see a Q-prop upgrade for that model.

 

[Irish Mist]

I was told way back when that the rear thruster needs the cowels and deflectors or it will cavitate

 

[GaylesFaerie]

Try as you may, you won't get much improvement on the stern thruster. The stern is the heavier part of the boat and as you've noted there are obstructions to the thrust flow to content with, in both directions. I find one can only rely on the stern thrusters in relatively mild tide and wind conditions, whereas using the steering with short bumps into forward to move the stern work well. Note that when you do that, you'll often need to compensate with the bow thruster as the boat spins about an axis between the bow and stern. For instance, if you are trying to bring the stern over close to a finger pier, put the wheel hard over to starboard and bump into forward then back to neutral, this will bring the stern over but will tend to make the bow move away from the pier, so a touch of the bow thruster to port will put everything in alignment next to the dock. HTH, Gary