DSK wrote in message ...
I didn't realize that moving water encouraged marine growth.

Joe wrote:
Well I did not think so either, but it does. Mostly filter feeders
like barnicles.


OK, that makes sense... the current brings them more food than they'd get in still water.



Or a bow thruster.

Stern thruster you mean? Bows Ok every time, just backing down make
the stern kick out from the dock.

Maybe if you ease into reverse sooner & more gently so as not to get so much kick?

That would be OK if I did not ram the dock. Guess you have to see
were I dock, wind is funneled between the building that hols the cigar
boats up in slings. So on most spring and summer days we have 10-15
kts wind blowing thru. Hits me broadside going into the slip. The slip
is 45 foot and the boat is 42. My boats a ketch with a 55ft main mast
and a 40 ft mizzen mast so I have lots of windage
to deal with. If I could just coast in and easily stop it would not be
as much an issue.

One thing I worry about is our tranny linkage. I tend to shift in and out of gear often,
using busrts of forward against the rudder to put the stern where I want it.

Yeah one of my worst FU was when I first bought RedCloud. Painted the
bottom and was putting in back in the water. Backing out of the lift
slip my linkage came off the trannie and stuck in reverse. Ended up
backing into a 60 foot wooden chris craft that had just been restored,
only took out a few planks but felt real bad about it. When the
linkage jumped off I tried to rev up and go forward but that just made
me back faster, and my crew was to wimpy to jump inbetween the boats
to stop me. There was a pregnant lady aboard and she started crying
saying her husband was going to blow his top. I told her to not worry
about it I would pay to have it fixed and gave her my number....the
boat was gone the nexr day and I never heard from them again.

I also check
the linakge every day, but I still think about it. It's difficult to keep the boat out of
situations where a linkage failure could lead to trouble.

Yeah I check my linkage all the time now and make sure the cotter pin
is still there, and I check my shaft coupler and shaft retaining bolt
before I kick off. Had my shaft back out of the coupler once and thats
just as bad. Ended up blowing down here in the marina, The cigerboat
guys get kind of nervious when
a steel boat is blowing toward their bows that hang out from the
lifts. But its usually them that are screwing up here. I got some
great pictures this fall of a guy with one engine tryong to get in a
slip here on a 45 ft scarab. He got a running backwards start to his
slip missed his slip and went in underneath a boat hanging in the slip
next to his, wiped out his little windsheld and dash. Had to get
another boat to pull him out, he was lucky he did not get killed. Went
and got my camera after his first 4 or 5 tries and knew something
interesting was going to happen.

Given a choice between stern or bow thruster, I'd take one at the bow. If you can swing
the bow where you want it, independently, you're not nearly so dependent on forward speed
to steer and can use the rudder & prop walk to bring the stern where you want it. Just
MHO....

Well in MHO bow thruster do not belong on anything under 220 foot. I
ran some supply boats that had bow thrusters and hated listening to
the MF scream and rattle for hours on end as we offloaded.

Is your trawler a single or double screw?


Joe MSV RedCloud


Fresh Breezes- Doug King