Wanted to see if there is anyone out there that uses the Yacht Controller on a new POD based boat. I am taking delivery of a 2016 Prestige Flybridge boat and I was contemplating getting the system. Next year there is an upgrade that will work the rotation portion of the pods. Thoughts and experiences please.
I run a 2015 50' Prestige, and it has the joystick on the aft deck, as well as on the FB and inside the pilothouse. That is plenty sufficient to dock in any situation. I use the Yacht Controller on a 2007 MAN boat and quite honestly never fully trust it. Also had situations where it didn't bump it in gear the first time. If MAN, VOLVO, Twin Disc, ZF or any of those with their billions in R+D thought a remote control docking system was 100% safe, don't you think they would have come out with one long ago? It has a delay and then when you put that on top of the Volvo IPS delay I would not spend the money. If anything put an additional Volvo joystick on the opposite side of the aft deck and then can see both sides of the boat from either docking stationg.
Thanks for you note. I do have 3 stations already. I have the Cummings Zeus drives which dont have the IPS delay. One in the cockpit one on the fly and one inside helm Just wish they would have put the bow thruster in control of the joystick. With my boat hitting almost 60 feet and the fly with the hard top I hear the bow drifts a bit. Hence the possible Yacht Controller.
The Prestige I run has bow thruster control at all 3 stations. The bow does drift a little or lag behind the boat when moving the joystick and boat sideways, it's easy to correct by twisting the knob on the joystick a little at the same time as moving the joystick sideways without having to use the bow thruster. They're really easy boats to master with the joystick.
I ve never liked these gizmos, maybe it takes a while to get use to them as I only used one briefly on a 59 Marquis. It worked fine, the problem was that once you move away from a fixed station, it s kind of difficult or disorienting to feel which way the boat is angled. When you're docking from an act deck station, like backing into a slip, you intuitively know and feel the angle of then oat.
I've never used a yacht controller but thought about getting one for my viking. Never knew about the delay but that makes sense. My boat has so much "bite" I'm not sure I'd want the extra calculus and further delay added by a controller.
About three years ago, Yacht Controller changed their units to make them dual band. We haven't experienced delay, so that might be the reason as ours are after that change. Now, I'm still more comfortable with wired units where possible and like having them everywhere, the more the better.