Price Premium for IPS vs Sterndrive

It's the wrong comparison really. IPS is supposed to be a competitor to shaftdrives, not sterndrives. In the case of the Windy, the premium is crazy but I can sort of understand why a buyer might pay the premium. I'll get flamed for this but IMHO anything over 40ft is too big for sterndrives. I'd be wanting a really powerful bowthruster to handle this boat is a strong crosswind mooring situation. In contrast, handling the IPS powered boat should be a doddle with the joystick control
The other question is whether the IPS boat will be worth £50k more when the owner comes to sell it and I reckon, with it's technical advantages and novelty value, it will, so it would not surprise me if the IPS boat outsells the sterndrive version
You still have to ask, though, how Windy/Volvo can justify the price premium. It does sound like a bit of a rip off
 
I had a good look at the new FL Targa 44 at LIBS today - nice boat and intrigued by the IPS600 already fitted I went down to the Volvo Penta stand and had a go on their IPS simulator - if its as easy to drive as it seemed to me I can't see why anyone would want shafts or s/drives on anything under 50'. SWMBO was with me and had a go - she won't drive our boat in the marina as she finds it too hairy in any adverse weather, but she was sold on the IPS hook line and sinker.
Volvo also made the astounding (to me) claim that they are 30% more efficient at delivering the power than conventional drives leading to massive fuel econmies.
I think that in years to come it will definitely be the norm to have IPS and what we now think to be the norm will become "oddities" of old technology.
 
I think you are right to be astounded by efficiency claims, as so much depends on other factors.

What exactly is 30% more efficient? is it the same boat, same hull shape same engines? have they run back to back with their system and conventional shafts? what about unconventional shafts?

We are supplying an alternative drive to IPS or stern drives and we can quote mechanical loss figures and also give direct comparisons as we have run the same boat on standard shafts and our system. We don't have the marketing budget of Volvo or the same influence with builders as we can't offer engine and drive packages.

However despite this you will see at least one boat at SIBS with our drives and hopefullly there will be the same boat with conventional shafts to show the difference. So far three European builders will be using them this year and there are several more on the drawings board so there may be another option to think about in the future.
 
what Tiga mentions is this Seatorque Proplsion there some renowned US builders behind this, so I think it is not that bad

IPS figures I think are for a hull built around this propulision, which has to have flatter vee sections from mid to aft, with about 15 degrees aft, altough the forward section infront of the props is more important to the aft part
they started quoting 40% at the begining with IPS now 30%

I heard also that for 30knots plus the Zeus and ZF pod are also more efficent to the Vol IPS-Pod and can get to 40%...
I think Nautical can give an idea more then me about how an IPS pod hull has to be, but accept some good marketing in Absoulute favour in this /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
Straker, Volvo have been claiming these efficiency improvements for some years. For sure, IPS is considerably more economical than shaftdrive but probably not as economical as sterndrive so you need to be sure what IPS is being compared with. The second point is that boatbuilders are charging a big premium for IPS. In the case mentioned in this thread, an IPS powered Windy is £50k more than the sterndrive version. Is it worth £50k more? Maybe, maybe not but it's a hell of a lot of money and £50k probably buys at least 10 years worth of fuel for the boat
 
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