Does bow thruster increase a boats value?

[sailingfarmer]

Originally Posted by JOHNMARDALL

Of course I'm completely biased, but I have to assume that some of the posters have never sailed a boat with a thruster, because my experience, with literally thousands of thrusters sold, installed and serviced is that nobody, ever, has a boat with a thruster and buys another boat without one.
Resale value is a moving target, and equipment in good condition may make your boat sell quicker but not necessarily for s higher price, but don't install anything on your boat to increase its resale value. Rig your boat for your own pleasure and peace of mind, including having the ability to maneuver and dock in cross winds and cross currents without hitting another boat or injuring somebody on your boat - boat length is irrelevant.
Thus endeth the sermon
John Mardall
Vetus Maxwell Group

boat length is irrelevant.


if so...I'm putting a bow thruster on my dingy...lol

[yachtcowboy]

Interesting posts, I doubt that anyone posting ever tried to back a full keel boat in a narrow fairway. I have... The result is that if you do not know the term "back and fill" you own a fin keel light disp. boat that goes forward and back with equal ease. I spent my yacht sales career moving boats of all configurations and the full keel, heavier boats with small engines and "protected" propellers are almost impossible to back up effectively. A bow thruster would make this process much more manageable. As a broker I would suggest to my buyer that we look at the full keel boat with the thruster and if it was as clean as the other full keel boats purchase the boat with the thruster. Learn to drive the boat without it and just use it when/ if necessary. It saves embarrassing situations and sometimes expensive crashes. Full keel boats were not designed for tight fairways with beam current and breezes. IMHO

[DeepCut]

If any piece of equipment is useful the operation of the boat , buy it planning to get value in your own personal use. When you sell the boat with the upgrades you put on it, you are likely to get only 25-40% of your "upgrade costs back. The additional value of the upgrade may make your yacht sell quicker than others. (i.e., a bow thruster on a 50 foot monohull vs same without, likely to sell quicker, with difference in sale price being only 25% of cost of bow thruster).

However, if the "upgrade" has no value, it may make it harder to sell.

[Sailmonkey]

This guy posting owns a 32' full keel boat and has had to back down tight fairways when wind would not allow the bow to be brought around after leaving the slip. No biggie, it's 32'.........part of owning an old heavy boat is learning how to maneuver it.


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[Cadence]

Originally Posted by yachtcowboy

Interesting posts, I doubt that anyone posting ever tried to back a full keel boat in a narrow fairway. I have... The result is that if you do not know the term "back and fill" you own a fin keel light disp. boat that goes forward and back with equal ease. I spent my yacht sales career moving boats of all configurations and the full keel, heavier boats with small engines and "protected" propellers are almost impossible to back up effectively. A bow thruster would make this process much more manageable. As a broker I would suggest to my buyer that we look at the full keel boat with the thruster and if it was as clean as the other full keel boats purchase the boat with the thruster. Learn to drive the boat without it and just use it when/ if necessary. It saves embarrassing situations and sometimes expensive crashes. Full keel boats were not designed for tight fairways with beam current and breezes. IMHO

My father would have skinned me for "drive a boat".

[barnakiel]

While some buyers may like it, others may see it as a nuisance. Hence I see zero increase in re-sale potential, overall.

BTW A new engine DOES increase an old boat value.

b.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

While some buyers may like it, others may see it as a nuisance. Hence I see zero increase in re-sale potential, overall.

BTW A new engine DOES increase an old boat value.

b.

But almost never by the price of the new engine plus install


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[oldsalt_1942]

Anyone who would need to have a bow thruster on a 31-foot boat shouldn't be on the water in the first place...

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by JOHNMARDALL

Of course I'm completely biased, but I have to assume that some of the posters have never sailed a boat with a thruster, because my experience, with literally thousands of thrusters sold, installed and serviced is that nobody, ever, has a boat with a thruster and buys another boat without one.
Resale value is a moving target, and equipment in good condition may make your boat sell quicker but not necessarily for s higher price, but don't install anything on your boat to increase its resale value. Rig your boat for your own pleasure and peace of mind, including having the ability to maneuver and dock in cross winds and cross currents without hitting another boat or injuring somebody on your boat - boat length is irrelevant.
Thus endeth the sermon
John Mardall
Vetus Maxwell Group

Exactly how far back from the bow would you have to install a bow thruster on a 31' boat. Even a relatively deep bow on a heavy boat needs to be pretty far back to have enough depth to work. Even a very small thruster like a 25kg with a 4.25" tube needs to be mounted somewhere with, what, about 12" of draft at that point. It's very possible to get that depth you could be so far back the thruster does very little to turn the boat.

I am just not seeing it. I appreciate the difficulty of backing down a full keel boat, but even still.

[sy_gilana]

No, not at all

Put a $5k sound system into a 1980 Datsun, does that change the value? no....its still a 1980 Datsun
Anything new on an old boat is over-capitalization, with immediate loss of value.

The boat will bring down the value of the new device, rather than the other way around.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

But almost never by the price of the new engine plus install


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Sure.

b.

[sailingfarmer]

maybe you need to charter a tugboat to get you into the slip....

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by sailingfarmer

maybe you need to charter a tugboat to get you into the slip....

42 posts and only about four people who read or at least understood the original question.

[sailingfarmer]

bow thruster adding value to a 31 footer? is that the question? I think a new Force 10 stove may add more

[Scotty Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Stumble

I simply would not buy any 31' boat with a bow thruster. So to me it would ruin the resale value. I do not know if my opinion is shared by the market.

For me anything under about 50' I would see a bow thruster as a negative, between 50' and 60' a neutral, and over 60' a positive.

I would agree in general with Stumble, with possible increases in stated lengths with a powerful main engine and regular crew, and decreases in case of regular cross winds/currents in chosen marinas.

Had an electric Bowthruster installed on my 68ftr 3/4tr keel soon after I bought her, having traded up from a 36ftr. It was great, but as well as the $5k thruster and installation, also needed a new alternators and bigger batteries to drive the thruster, and very large cables running through the bilges.

The thruster could manouevre us broadside in 22 knots of wind, which was a very nice feeling, but not in more wind. When solo in a tight area in higher winds I needed one hand rotating the wheel, one hand forward and reverse on the throttle and one on the thruster button (which I should have adapted to be switchable on or off, not held). Don't have three hands, and could never find an Admiral who could get it exactly right. Even so, it did get us in and out of many places which I don't feel I could have attempted at that time, with my then level of experience.

After building experience for a few years, and with a plenty of HP (220), I just gave up on the thruster and found violent forward and reverse and wheel adjustment to be more effective at any time, and even in our not unusual 30 to 40 knots of near broadside spring wind. After five or ten years I stopped the expense of maintaining it, the extra batteries, the alternator, the cables, and it crapped itself.

The conclusion - I have changed my mind --- even at 68 ft I would have been better saving the $5k to $10k sunk cash in a thruster, plus the extra maintenance, and instead dedicated that value in spending the time enjoyably learning how to handle the boat properly without one.

Simplicity, and time spent practising is the essence.