2009 Silverton

52' is ambitious if this is your first boat. I recommend that you get in touch with your insurance company as they'll most likely require you to use a captain for the first year. This will be invaluable, but costly. So you'll want to weigh that in your budget. I love running with IPS. It makes docking a cinch, increases fuel economy and speed, and increases the usable space in a boat. However it does come with increased maintenance costs. Make sure your surveyor is familiar with IPS so he can check the condition of these thoroughly. You don't need to get hit with a costly repair right out of the gate.
As for Silverton, they're an average to good boat IMO, but I was more impressed with the older ones. I've not run the 52 however, and haven't run triple IPS.
If you go to the SEARCH feature above and type in IPS you'll find a lot of discussions on the subject. Some pro and some against. You should be able to find enough info there to form an educated opinion. Good luck and welcome to YF>

Definitely check with insurance companies before getting too far into your shopping. It sounds like you have experience, but I'm not sure 32' will do it for them.

Don't know the Ovation but be sure to examine the engine room carefully. I suspect cramming three Volvos in there might make access to some of the equipment difficult.
Silverton was part of the Luhrs family empire which included Luhrs, Mainship, Silverton and Hunter. Most of the lines were considered reasonably priced, medium quality boats.

Another item to consider is cost of parts. I have a few friends with Volvos (likely not the same specific engines you are looking at). They are always shocked at the cost of parts when they need them. I'm not suggesting this should prevent you from considering this boat, just make sure you go in with eyes wide open.

Annual maintenance is more expensive than shafts. You can also have water intrusion (seal failure) which can cause an expensive repair. Grounding is expensive if you knock a pod off, but so is yanking the shaft out of a boat. So that's a wash. At least IPS self-seals. A shaft boat sinks. Some of that extra maintenance cost gets mitigated by your fuel savings. The rest most who have it seem to consider being worth it for the extra speed and the easy docking. As for a crowded engine room, although I haven't seen how they place the motors I'd guess they'll have 2 side by side and 1 forward as that just requires a longer shaft from the motor to the pod.
Bottom line is that IPS is more expensive and a lot of people seem to think they're worth is.
In regards to Volvo, I've run a lot of boats with them and have no complaints. I DK how much repairs cost since I don't pay the bill, but I've never had trouble getting parts or service fast wherever I've needed it.
One question I have about the triple set up: If you want to cruise at hull speed for economy can you run on one motor?

The engines in Ovations are IPS600 (D4-435 hp), early enough (somewhere in the IPS A-F range) so that you have to haul the boat to change gear oil. Probably EVC C, maybe EVC C3. (Not sure what all that stuff means, but one of our local Volvo dealers helped me evaluate some of the Ovations when I was shopping on those.)

FWIW, their full drive service for triples was about $2700. Every so often (says, in the manual; I just forget the period). Their yearly service for the engines, about $1800. Latter somewhat higher than a twin installation, due to expectations of cramped engine room. DIY appears to be very viable for the latter. Annual DIY for gear oil change also viable, not meaning that to replace the periodic dealer drive service.

They didn't raise any red flags about the older IPS drives; said any problems mostly seemed associated with boats where there hasn't been any service, especially drive service, by a certified Volvo dealer. (Every 2-3 years recommended, assuming that covers the periodic drive service too.)

I think but don't know for sure, larger IPS versions weren't really available then, hence the 3x installation versus 2x of a larger IPS version in that boat.

When I toured the boats, almost a year ago, I liked most of the layout... especially because of the midship's master. OTOH, I had to turn myself sideways to get through the "doorway" of the master, and I'm not a huge, overly wide sorta guy. Access to the engines wasn't horrible, although it meant a single person sorta only had access to either the front or the back at any given time. IIRC, the cockpit "lid" could be completely removed and nicely exposes all three engines, were any really major service to be required. (That doesn't mean routine user access; would need some serious lift/haul capability.)

Near as I can tell, there were only 20 Ovations made. Most in the U.S., one perhaps in Turkey, maybe one each in Australia, Hungary, and Venezuela.

Compare also to the Silverton 48C/50C, which also has a -- smaller -- midship's master... and usually 2x Volvo D12/715s.

-Chris