IPS Drives

Anyone here got IPS and hate it? NO.

They are lovely to drive, accelerate like bonkers, are very responsive to the wheel even at low speed, are very easy to handle on one engine if you lose one.

The joystick is a nice gimmick I could live without but it does make it easy to hand the boat over to less experienced crew.

Even oldgit, who famously thinks anything but shafts is the work of the devil, finds something nice to say - because he's experienced them.
 
MapisM said:
Most builders use them to save on overall building costs - as simple as that.
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And gets you a lot more space in the center of the boat to enable a full width center master cabin in a 40 something foot boat. The kind of cabin my other half very much wants in a potential future floating apartment.

I will be in great trouble if I underestimate the importance of this criteria. ;)
 
Elessar said:
railings around your foredeck will improve your safety way more than worrying about your propellers.
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Was thinking loss of propulsion, more from internal issues like limp mode , loss of fwd and even IT software glitches.
Or that nagging suspicion crossing to a med big island from med mainland “ will it make it “

Fuel burn you can see it’s a known a given in passage planning .
There are loads of sans deck rail sports boats in the med .It was an anxiety but after the first season it’s not .Same as lack of radar ....in the Med season .
So my examples .IPS bought in Italy smashed a gearbox on its del trip and was stranded for 4 months fortunately for the buyer it was a dealer stock boat so they funded £20;k repairs .Tbh it was always alarming and limping in its 2 seasons before offloading .
Second as per MapishM a newby they had a Villa St Tropez area and wanted to get on the water .IPS for the parking mainly.
Time short family , board with the bay of St Tropez decided to haul over to la Napoule, 2 hr trip tops .
Part way through loud crunch and a pod stoped .They limped in .Moored next to us .
Phone and phone calls , new boat warranty as only 20 hrs .Lifted nearby engineers inspection and insurance accessors , a stand off .One said it was underwater strike so not a engine warranty jobbie , the other said I was not a under water strike so was a VP warranty issue .Yard wanted ( seen it all before ) money up front for the repair .This took an out 6 weeks to get to this point .
Time short it ruined his season .He sold it .We took the family out that week btw .Yard wanted £20;K up front from the owner until the final bill payer was established.

Its the sword of Damocles hanging over from a mech pov of a ruined hol .
 
Portofino said:
Was thinking loss of propulsion, more from internal issues like limp mode , loss of fwd and even IT software glitches.
Or that nagging suspicion crossing to a med big island from med mainland “ will it make it “

Fuel burn you can see it’s a known a given in passage planning .
There are loads of sans deck rail sports boats in the med .It was an anxiety but after the first season it’s not .Same as lack of radar ....in the Med season .
So my examples .IPS bought in Italy smashed a gearbox on its del trip and was stranded for 4 months fortunately for the buyer it was a dealer stock boat so they funded £20;k repairs .Tbh it was always alarming and limping in its 2 seasons before offloading .
Second as per MapishM a newby they had a Villa St Tropez area and wanted to get on the water .IPS for the parking mainly.
Time short family , board with the bay of St Tropez decided to haul over to la Napoule, 2 hr trip tops .
Part way through loud crunch and a pod stoped .They limped in .Moored next to us .
Phone and phone calls , new boat warranty as only 20 hrs .Lifted nearby engineers inspection and insurance accessors , a stand off .One said it was underwater strike so not a engine warranty jobbie , the other said I was not a under water strike so was a VP warranty issue .Yard wanted ( seen it all before ) money up front for the repair .This took an out 6 weeks to get to this point .
Time short it ruined his season .He sold it .We took the family out that week btw .Yard wanted £20;K up front from the owner until the final bill payer was established.

Its the sword of Damocles hanging over from a mech pov of a ruined hol .
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We’ve been here so many times - according to one or two on here you’d think only IPS boats break down. Yawn! ?
 
Surely it has to be about where you plan to use the boat.

If youre in the mediterranean or fort lauderdale and your just going from the marina out to sea and back then IPS is probably ok.

But if i was planning on doing the ICW, Great Loop or a lot lakes then shaft drives are more practical and robust for collisions like logs and crab pots

(y)
 
TonyR123 said:
Amazingly what portofino describes isn’t the norm for IPS. You can find negatives on anything if you look hard enough.
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Switch said:
We’ve been here so many times - according to one or two on here you’d think only IPS boats break down.
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It's unnecessary to look hard, to find negatives on boat ownership. Whenever asked from some friends a suggestion about the best possible choice for a trouble-free boating experience, I always introduced them to the old "three F's" rule.

That said, in my experience there are just two categories of boaters who claim that the reliability of IPS and shafts are comparable:
1) those who are ignorant about this matter (no insult intended, by "ignorant" I simply mean someone who ignores the facts), or
2) those who are biased.

And if I should bet, my money would be on neither of you guys being ignorant.
 
westernman said:
And gets you a lot more space in the center of the boat to enable a full width center master cabin in a 40 something foot boat.
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Agreed, but if you think about it, that's just another shade of cost savings, from a builder's standpoint.
In fact, for any given boat size, larger interiors sell more than reliability, solid construction, and so forth.
 
MapisM said:
It's unnecessary to look hard, to find negatives on boat ownership. Whenever asked from some friends a suggestion about the best possible choice for a trouble-free boating experience, I always introduced them to the old "three F's" rule.

That said, in my experience there are just two categories of boaters who claim that the reliability of IPS and shafts are comparable:
1) those who are ignorant about this matter (no insult intended, by "ignorant" I simply mean someone who ignores the facts), or
2) those who are biased.

And if I should bet, my money would be on neither of you guys being ignorant.
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What are the three Fs?
 
TonyR123 said:
I have had more issues from my geny than IPS. But I guess I am biased.
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Having an opinion based on your first hand experience doesn't necessarily make you biased.
But that's hardly enough to tell (as you did in your post #27) that it's not the norm to experience problems with IPS.
Just walk around any boatyard, and look at the proportion of boats with one or both IPS removed vs. those with shafts pulled out.
And mind, normally the former boats are newer - often MUCH newer - than the latter ones.
 
MapisM said:
It's unnecessary to look hard, to find negatives on boat ownership. Whenever asked from some friends a suggestion about the best possible choice for a trouble-free boating experience, I always introduced them to the old "three F's" rule.

That said, in my experience there are just two categories of boaters who claim that the reliability of IPS and shafts are comparable:
1) those who are ignorant about this matter (no insult intended, by "ignorant" I simply mean someone who ignores the facts), or
2) those who are biased.

And if I should bet, my money would be on neither of you guys being ignorant.
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I don’t think anyone is saying that IPS is more reliable than shafts - we’re simply pointing out that IPS is reliable for the majority of users. There are of course horror stories that some on here have kept peddling for years but that doesn’t negate the fact that IPS had been around for 10 years + and widely used in new builds. If the system was as bad as some on here would say, it would have been ditched years ago. Lastly, I’ve been around many boat yards and I don’t remember seeing rows of IPS boats in bits. This whole argument repeats itself periodically on this forum and input good and bad is appreciated but let’s keep a balanced view and keep the few horror stories in perspective.
 
IPS. 30 + knots

Shafts with keel. 15 knots (ish)

Shafts with residual Keel 12 knots (downhill)

Shafts no Keel. 24 knots (honest well alright 20)

Outdrives in their natural habitat and why they can save you so much fuel. :) 0 Knots and an empty bank account but at least the wife gets the house painted.



The plant is Ragwort and is frequently found hiding examples of " Knackeredoutdrivious Givenupious" in areas close to water. :)
 
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MapisM said:
Having an opinion based on your first hand experience doesn't necessarily make you biased.
But that's hardly enough to tell (as you did in your post #27) that it's not the norm to experience problems with IPS.
Just walk around any boatyard, and look at the proportion of boats with one or both IPS removed vs. those with shafts pulled out.
And mind, normally the former boats are newer - often MUCH newer - than the latter ones.
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Not sure why you assume it is just my first hand opinion. Know of a few owners of IPS boats in my marina, admittedly only one older than mine, with no issues. The guys who look after my boat and many many others on the island also know of no IPS issues providing they are serviced. Maybe their are issues with the very first generation but modern ones I would choose again. Then again I would also have shafts. Neither would put me off buying a boat.
 
TonyR123 said:
Not sure why you assume it is just my first hand opinion. Know of a few owners of IPS boats in my marina, admittedly only one older than mine, with no issues. The guys who look after my boat and many many others on the island also know of no IPS issues providing they are serviced. Maybe their are issues with the very first generation but modern ones I would choose again. Then again I would also have shafts. Neither would put me off buying a boat.
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The other option is that you can have all the Volvo Penta systems including the Joystick with Shaftdrives but i think you need a bow and stern thruster

(y)
 
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