Ocean-going yachts may be designed to ply the wide-open seas, but if your yacht spends any significant amount of time close to shore, it must also be able to safely navigate the tight quarters of a dock or marina. Fitting bow thruster engines to your craft can make docking procedures much easier and safer, and will also make your yacht easier to navigate through canals and estuaries.
However, choosing the right type of bow thruster is key to its effectiveness, and if you are planning to fit bow thrusters to your ocean-going yacht, you will have to choose between electric and hydraulic thrusters.
Hydraulic thrusters have many good qualities, but for many ocean yacht owners, electric bow thrusters can be a much more efficient and convenient option. Here are three reasons to choose electric bow thrusters for your ocean yacht:
Easy to power
For hydraulic bow thrusters to function, they must be powered by a dedicated, onboard hydraulic power system. Many ocean-going yachts are fitted with these hydraulic power plants, and they are especially common on converted yachts that once functioned as trawlers or survey boats.
However, having a dedicated hydraulic system fitted to a craft that doesn't already have one installed can be hideously expensive — for larger craft, a suitable power plant could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Electric bow thrusters, on the other hand, draw their power directly from an ocean yacht's existing electrical infrastructure.
Many modern electric bow thrusters are remarkably energy-efficient and can be powered by the existing electrical infrastructure of most ocean-going yachts without the need for upgrades. If more power capacity is needed, extra batteries can be installed much more cheaply than a full-blown hydraulic power system. This makes electric bow thrusters much easier and cheaper to install than hydraulic thrusters on ships that lack pre-existing hydraulic power systems.
Inexpensive to run
Electric bow thrusters are also significantly cheaper to run than most hydraulic bow thrusters because they do not need to be powered by a separate power source. Hydraulic power systems also require a fair amount of professional maintenance and can be expensive to repair if they malfunction, so electric bow thrusters will almost certainly cost less to maintain in the long run.
Lightweight
Electric bow thrusters tend to be lighter and more compact than hydraulic bow thrusters of equivalent power. Any supplementary batteries and electrical infrastructure you install will also weigh significantly less than a hydraulic power plant suitable for powering hydraulic thrusters.
Consequently, installing electric bow thrusters will not increase your craft's overall weight as much as installing hydraulic thrusters, especially if your yacht lacks a pre-existing hydraulic power plant. This means that your ocean yacht's draft, displacement and trim will not be significantly affected by the new thrusters and will not handle significantly different than it did before the thrusters were installed.
To learn more about bow thrusters, Including VETUS thrusters, contact a supplier near you.
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