March 7, 2025
Description
So the standard panel sidepower bowthrusters come with are not very weather resistant. The one in the photo lasted for around 8 years but is now completly shot. A new panel from Sleipner ‘only’ costs $350 depending on the area your in.
The sidepower bowthruster is very simple and I would not be surprise if pretty much all bowthrusters are similair. There is a single power cable (12V in our case), a ground and two cables that control direction. Connecting 12V to the control cables runs the bowthruster. See attached schematic.
Ideally you use high quality marineproof switch, for instance from the Carling brand. We only had some cheap simple switch laying around and got the bowthruster back up in the middle of nowhere. We will update in the future with a better kind of switch
See photo below for switch currently used. You can relaticely easily takes these apart if you have the latching kind and make them momentary.
You'd probably want something like this;
My models are always tested in the real world. We are currently cruising to the Caribbean and you can therefor assume that we load up the part properly. It is however your own responsibility to use these parts when heading out to sea. Use common sense and print spares if you are not able to print onboard. Especially on longer passages.
Please remix however you like. If you are not able to design your own parts I do offer a modification service to those in need. A contribution for my effort is however expected. Send me a message on Noforgeinland and I am sure we will figure something out.
https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/sya
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — Share Alike
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SV SYA
