In recent years, bow thrusters have become ubiquitous; most new cruising powerboats have them either already installed or as options. There is no question that they make docking easier (and I say that as the former owner of a Grand Banks 36 that did not have one), but they also can introduce problems of their own, particularly in an era of pod drives and joystick controls. They introduce new electrical or hydraulic systems on the boat; they require some degree of care and maintenance, and they can (in my experience, at least) occasionally not provide enough power to move the…