Sailboat Handling under power just got a bit easier.

Pod drives have been around for a few years now with, from what I've read, pretty positive responses. There are some You Tube videos of a 10 year old girl docking a 35-40' boat on her first try.

The only thing I don't like about them is the deeper draft requirement and the fact that they're designed to snap off if you happen to run aground. I'm sure getting the drive back and reinstalled won't be cheap.

Actually I was talking to the Cummins guys about this and they said it's around $2k per drive to fix everything after it breaks off, providing you haven't completely lost the drive. The drive has a 2 piece shaft to the gear and is splined so it just pulls out, once the bolts break away.

I was pretty impressed with the 40' Cabo zues at the miami show. It burns 45 gph at cruise (31.5 knots) with the 600hp cummins, and the same boat with the 800hp Mans cruises at 31 knots burning 60gph. A true increase in efficiency. Also the boat ran VERY smooth at cruise, virtually no vibration and quiter then the conventional drives and bigger engines. All in all I was very impressed. The skyhook feature was also very nice for waiting at bridges and such. It also has integral autopilot, so you don't have to buy one. It has a lot of nice features and is around the same price as with the big Mans.......

You'll find several threads here discussing IPS, Zeus, etc. Here's one: http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/t...-volvo-ips-cmd-zeus.html?highlight=IPS+drives
They are marvelous. As for the drive breaking off on impact, that beats it yanking out of the boat bottom.

I have heard that the efficiency is much better than standard shaft setups. I guess if you can keep them on for the first few years, the fuel savings would certainly cover any cost of repairs.

Yea...ripping the bottom out of the boat would suck more than I care to think about.

Any clues on how maintenance runs with them? I read about a refit to a (if I recall) Viking. The extra shop work for beefing up the hull, closing up the old shaft pockets, and recutting for the drives (with the cost of drives) was in the $100,000 range. I can't recall if that included new powerplants or not. Cheaper than a new boat, that's for sure.

Same schedule as the engines. Change gear lube and drive lube every 250 hours which can be done inside of the boat. The boat doesn't need to be hauled in order to change it.

Also the drive has a trim tab/plate on it that is designed to keep the props from hitting the bottom of the hull upon breakaway to keep both protected. I would think on a sailboat that the keel would keep that from ever happening.

Retro fitting is a pain and a bit of a crapshoot. Better to desing the boat for them. As for maintenance, they use a different oil. Other than that, leave it to the tech.

Jeanneau sailboats also have the 360 option, since the parent company is Beneteau.

During the Dusseldorf fair, the company rep. told that the 45 DS will be replaced soon and the new models (including the 49is and the DS line) will all have the 360 docking system option and the company encourages the customers to take it.

Beneteau tested the system by arranging someone to put it under continuous use, in terms of long-term testing before the company installed it.