We have recently purchased a 58' Hatteras LRC and would like to install a hydraulic stern thruster. The aft fuel tank is molded into the boat and the transom forms the bank end of the tank. We cannot cut a hole in the transom to install the thruster. Has anyone installed a stern thruster in this type of boat? Kent Soffel
Hi, I think you could mold a bracket to the transom, just fiberglass job. Can look like a box with a watertight lid for service. Best is if this box can come up above where the tank is to get the pipes through invisible. My illustration shows a stern thruster with deflectors which allows it to be close to the waterline. This depends on available space and if you have a swim platform, but as a general idea this should work for you I think. I don´t know your reason to have a stern thruster, but if it is just as a general help, my experience from slowgoing boats (like your LRC) with counter rotating props and a bow thruster is that in most cases you don´t need more. By going one engine forward, the other in reverse and using the bow thruster, you can move sideways with pretty good control. But with strong winds or very narrow spaces it is of course more easy with a stern thruster as well.
