Tight slip.Crosswind.Audience.No problem.
We install bow and stern thrusters at the marina of your choice, anywhere in the U.S. Factory-trained crew, a thruster on its own battery, and most jobs wrapped in 2–3 days.
One crew for every kind of sideways.
Tunnel thrusters for most cruisers, stern units for full sideways control, retractables for fast hulls, and repairs for the thruster that has been clicking since last spring.
Bow thrusters
Tunnel thrusters sized to your hull, glassed in clean, wired on their own battery.
Stern thrusters
Add a stern unit and walk the boat sideways into the slip. Tunnel or external.
Retractables
Drops down when you need it, tucks away at speed. Ideal for planing hulls and sailboats.
Repair & upgrades
Weak thrust, dead controls, tired batteries, proportional and lithium upgrades.
Wind on the beam. Full dock. One button.
Every boat handles fine in open water. It is the last fifty feet that make people sweat. A properly sized thruster turns that into the easy part of the day.
- Hold the bow off the dock
- Walk her in sideways
- Turn in a tight fairway
- Dock short-handed
Small propeller. Big leverage. Total control.
A thruster is an electric motor driving a propeller inside a tube that runs side to side through the hull. Spin it one way and it shoves water out to port; the boat moves to starboard. Mounted as far forward as possible, it gets huge leverage around the boat's pivot point.
Your thruster gets its own power. Your house bank stays out of it.
A bow thruster pulls hundreds of amps for a few seconds at a time. Run that through a long cable from the engine room and you lose power to voltage drop right when you need it.
So every install we do is independent: a dedicated AGM battery (or lithium, if it suits the boat) mounted as close to the thruster as the boat allows, with its own onboard charger. The only thing it borrows from the boat is one small 5-amp AC circuit to keep that battery topped up.
Short cable runs, full voltage at the motor, and no surprise dead start battery after a long docking.
From "how much?" to first easy docking.
Tell us about the boat
Make, model, length and where she is kept. Three questions in the quote form, two minutes tops.
We size it properly
Thrust, tunnel diameter, voltage and battery are matched to your hull and windage, not to whatever is in stock. Sailboats and motorboats size differently, and we account for it.
We come to you
Our crew travels to your marina or yard. Most standard tunnel installs take 2–3 days once the boat is hauled.
Sea trial and walkthrough
We test it in the water with you at the helm and show you the controls, the battery and what maintenance looks like.
Do the homework in under a minute.
Thruster sizing calculator
Length, boat type and the wind you want to handle. Get a thrust number, tunnel size and matching products.
Installed cost estimator
Planning ranges for tunnel, retractable and stern installs, with the add-ons that move the price.
Head-to-head comparisons
Sleipner vs Vetus, electric vs hydraulic, tunnel vs retractable. Tables first, verdict up top.
Every slip is a tight slip on a windy day.Mobile thruster installs · All 50 states
Clean installs look boring.
Photos from our own jobs. That is the point: Tidy tunnels, flush hatches, short cable runs and a battery you can actually reach.
“Their crew is a crew I can not do without. Great work, honest and packed with transparency.”Bob Pierson
“They have done a couple bow thrusters for us in the past and I will continue to use him for our installs. He is in and out in only a couple days and his work is always professional and clean. We couldn't be happier.”Repeat customer
Which thruster? We read the fine print.
Spec-checked reviews of 24 thrusters, batteries, chargers and parts from every major maker.
ABT TRAC DC bow and stern thrusters
ABT TRAC's 24V and 48V DC thrusters in 8, 10 and 12-inch tunnels: thrust, current draw, battery minimums, and who they suit.
ABT TRAC hydraulic bow and stern thrusters
ABT TRAC hydraulic thrusters from 8 to 28-inch tunnels and up to 200 hp: piston motors, twin props, integrated hydraulics and install notes.
AGM batteries for bow thrusters
Odyssey Extreme 31M, Odyssey PC2250 and Lifeline GPL-31T/8DL compared as dedicated thruster batteries: specs, charging needs and where each fits.
Joystick docking systems vs adding a thruster
Volvo Penta Assisted Docking, Mercury Joystick Piloting and Yamaha Helm Master EX compared with simply adding a bow thruster: requirements and trade-offs.
Lewmar Gen 2 TT tunnel thrusters
Lewmar's Gen 2 TT electric tunnel thrusters from 110 mm to 300 mm: thrust figures, voltages, install rules and where they fit.
Lithium batteries for bow thrusters
What Sleipner and others say about lithium on thrusters, plus how Mastervolt MLI Ultra, RELiON InSight and Victron NG current ratings stack up.
The questions we get at every dock.
How long does a bow thruster installation take?
A standard tunnel install on a typical cruiser is 2 to 3 days of work once the boat is hauled. Retractables, cored hulls and stern thrusters can add time. We give you the schedule with the quote so you can plan the haul-out.
Do you come to my marina?
Yes. We are a mobile crew and work at the marina or yard of your choice anywhere in the United States. The boat needs to be hauled for a tunnel or retractable install; we can help coordinate that with your yard.
Will a thruster drain my house batteries?
Not the way we wire it. We set the thruster up on its own battery, mounted close to the thruster, with its own onboard charger fed by a single small AC circuit. Your house bank and engine start battery stay out of it.
How do I know what size thruster I need?
Size comes from your boat's length, windage, displacement and how much wind you want to handle. Our sizing calculator gets you in the right range in under a minute. We confirm it against the hull before quoting.
What does a bow thruster cost installed?
Most tunnel installs on 25 to 45 foot boats land somewhere between about $5,000 and $15,000 all in, with bigger boats, retractables and proportional systems costing more. Try the cost estimator for a planning number, then get a real quote.
Can you add a thruster to a sailboat?
Yes, and sailboats often benefit the most. Sizing works a little differently because a sailboat pivots further forward, near the back of the keel, which shortens the lever arm the thruster works with. Retractable and external units are also popular on sailboats to avoid tunnel drag.
Think you can dock it without one?
Crosswind, one slip, a dock full of spectators. Hold the thruster buttons or your ← → keys. Then flip the thruster off and see how it goes.
Dock it.
Crosswind, one slip, no do-overs. Hold the bow thruster buttons or your ← → keys to keep her lined up.
Ready to stop dreading the fuel dock?
Send us the boat, the length and where she lives. We will size the right thruster and tell you what it costs, straight.