The bow thruster has been installed. To make the job easier, the equipment was installed from the bottom up, beginning with a bilge pump and the electronics. The electronics comprise of a Victron SmartShunt 1000 Amp Battery Monitor, a Victron DC-DC Orion-Tr Charger (which connects the lithium batteries that are under the V-berth to the house battery bank in the engine room), a Blue Sea Systems 7713 ML-RBS Remote Battery Switch (that can be used to remotely disconnect the bow thruster from the battery bank), and breakers/fuses. The electronics were mounted on a board to make it easier to service in the future. Note also two selves were fiberglassed in, a small shelf for the bilge pump and a larger shelf (at the bottom of the photo) that will be used to support the thruster motor. On the left of the photo is a support that will be used to support a third shelf for the batteries.
The transmission for the bow thruster was installed in the tube and a priming paint was applied.
A support for the bow thruster’s motor was fabricated from fiberglassed marine plywood. The stainless brackets were designed in Fusion 360 CAD software and were fabricated by SendCutSend.
A custom battery pan was also manufactured by SendCutSend.
Finally, a shelf for the batteries was glassed in, the bow thruster’s motor was installed and the batteries (two Battle Born 100Ah 12V LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Batteries) were installed.
