need some advice on bow and stern...

[lakehouse]

need some advice on bow and stern thrusters, i have sea ray 38 aft cabin 2000, thinking of the side shift thrusters( made in Canada) any reply will be greatly appreciated 

[wingless]

The engines on the 380 are spaced far apart, so the requirement for thrusters are very limited. I wouldn't add thrusters on that boat.

Having a person snagging and releasing a piling on command eliminates any need for thrusters under all conditions.

If I were to add thrusters then I would add hydraulic thrusters driven by a generator PTO. These would provide unlimited 100% duty cycle full-power output, with the generator running.

The very low-duty cycle electric thrusters are fine, but I don't see the need or utility when the engines and knowing the boat do so much better. The electric thruster requires a method to charge the 24V bank along w/ the existing 12V banks.

[Double_Trouble_]

I looked at side thruster and liked them but ended up going with yacht thruster out of coral gables Florida. They look better, are completely under the waterline, and my mechanic put 3 in this summer and highly recommended them. Website is yachtthruster.com. Same company that sells yacht controller

[TomCatV]

I had a 38 sundancer and put a sideshift thruster on it. On other boats I've owned I had a traditional thruster on them so have direct experience with both. I have no experience with the yacht thruster product. I went with sideshift as the holes are above waterline and therefore installation was less intrusive. Installation costs were not that much cheaper than the traditional thruster despite the manufacturer claims. From a responsiveness point of view it worked fine although I did find it to be less effective in strong wind or current than the traditional. Hope this is helpful