Welcome to the forum.
Never good to contact another boat.
Another option is coordinating w/ a second person on-board where they can wrap / unwrap a line around a dock piling, made fast to a deck cleat. That "simple" action will permit "amazing" control / placement of a single-engine boat.
Another thing to consider is going bigger. While it may seem counter intuitive, a bigger boat, w/ two engines, spaced apart also has "amazing" control, even w/o a bow thruster.
Yes, adding a bow thruster is a handy tool. However, depending upon the thruster for an expected action can have horrible outcome if conditions, such as wind or current greatly exceed the fixed thruster output, pushing the boat uncontrolled into the wrong place. The other bad thing is a thruster has a REALLY short duty cycle and it will STOP after it runs out, also making a situation worse.
Short answer, learn to handle the boat under all conditions w/o a thruster.
IMO, if I were to go the thruster route, then I would want a hydraulically powered device, supplied by a PTO off the generator to provide 100% duty cycle. I don't need one on my 2000 380DA. I plan ahead and have an on board helper using a directed piling line, if/when required.
