Sessa

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Ratkins

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Hi guys

We’re off to France this week to look at a couple of seesa’s C44-48, anyone owned one anyone know of issues we should look for, any advice welcome, obviously we will get a survey if either boats are what we’re after.
 
One of my neighbors is a 44 .
The stern cleats started to pull / flex and the gel coats crack .They are poorly positioned relatively to the forces in a swell / wind .
He’s had window leaks at the front screens leading to burnt our wiper motors they got seawater ingress .
He had it repainted ( blue ) original gel coat caulked or is it chalked ? - went white ish and dull .
Problems with the Passerelle it’s comes out too low making the ramp angle very precarious for our marina , it can’t get higher so here’s a tendency to forget it’s out and when it’s windy it bangs into the quay and seem to go out of alignment, rgen won,t close up / return back to the cassette so a catch 22 problem solve able by engineers.

A lot of IPS woes , new harness , new helm controls . Oil leaks of the pods .
Tender garage content ( tender ) seemed to be a hinderance to accessing the E room ,
They use it as floating apartment , nothing wrong with that I,am not being judgmental just saying .For me it would be nice particularly in the stinking summer days to actually have a choice and dicide to go out and move the thing .

Staring at it a lot I notice they use a lot of white filler to gob up up to 1cm or more gaps between various moulding s .
That darkens and inevitably starts to leak from flexing.

Bilge pumps are good at shifting transmission oil :)Pretty rainbow effects on the “ blue flagged “ marina surface :)
 
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Wow thanks for that, may I ask the year. Only wondering if it’s an old one and these are age problems or if it’s a design issue
 
I think they look great, but quality possibly down on par, compared to the usual sealine, fairline and certainly Princess. The favour balance would be they aren’t as expensive, I suppose.
Not to say I wouldn’t love to have one.

All the best.
 
I sold a couple of 35 Oysters and C35, and C38. The new C series (2009 onward to 2012) has an aura of quality around them which is on par with similar aged Princess or Fairline.
So onwards from 2008 and 9, the visable quality feels much higher.

The 2010 C38 with 600 engine hours had none of the above problems. Yes the owner said he had some water leak from windows which was fixed under warranty.
If I show the repair bill and water ingress of a new Targa 50 GT you would not believe that thing was made to stay afloat in the water.

Some technical details are not easy accessible, but hey that is a problem with all and most boats.

I also spoke to a couple captains who where handling the couple C68's we had locally and another which was managed in Tropea and all spoke good words about them.

The gelcoat issue Portofino is saying might be for lack of protection. Cause the 2007 C35 I sold has no fading in ten years plus, thanks to seasonal polish maintenance.
I know of a C68 which had some crazing on this nice bronze (paint), again repaired under warranty.

The IPS is also a maintenance issue. The C43, the model before the C44 was available with both stern drive and IPS. Anyways its like choosing between the devil and his friend.
If you like the styling, something of similar style and age would be the Absolutes.
 
Many thanks PYB we’ve been out on a c48 for last two days and really like it it is ips 600 ‘s which I know has people chomping at the bit but they have full Volvo service history including seals changed last year probably going to get the survey done on this one tbo..
Build is good and we’re pleased with layout/power etc
 
Don’t listen to the anti IPS brigade, most of them thought that anti-lock breaks, powered steering, seat belts, fly by wire and air bags were the the work of the devil when they were first introduced...
 
Switch said:
Don’t listen to the anti IPS brigade, most of them thought that anti-lock breaks, powered steering, seat belts, fly by wire and air bags were the the work of the devil when they were first introduced...
Click to expand...

Well said, I would rather take the opinion of someone who has owned such a boat than an armchair critic who talks negative about a system they have never owned or used.
 
Ratkins said:
Many thanks PYB we’ve been out on a c48 for last two days and really like it it is ips 600 ‘s which I know has people chomping at the bit but they have full Volvo service history including seals changed last year probably going to get the survey done on this one tbo..
Build is good and we’re pleased with layout/power etc
Click to expand...

Good. Check if they changed with the second generation clutches (I think they are called .2) issued in 2013/14.
The original clutch of the first generation IPS does not with hold the stress of the joystick and break after 4-10 ten years. (Volvo says ten years, most that I know have broken at around five).
Result is a bill of about 3500 euro per drive.
A suggestion with IPS and if you want to have less gearbox and clutch problems is not to use the joystick for every manovre. That is why gearbox are getting toasted on these.
Going out and in from your berth, no need to use joystick, go in traditional throttle mode. If its windy and it looks complicated yes then use it.

The Sessa C48 / 46 was considered one of the most seaworthy boats with IPS when launched, although not really a bullet, I think top speed is around thirty knots.
 
Switch said:
Don’t listen to the anti IPS brigade, most of them thought that anti-lock breaks, powered steering, seat belts, fly by wire and air bags were the the work of the devil when they were first introduced...
Click to expand...


Hear Hear, how could the boating world advance without brave adventurous owners who are prepared to put their hard earned money on the line , cast aside years of proven experience and take a chance on the latest new fashionable cutting edge technology to emerge from a design office.
Well done you.:)
 
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The first airbags that hit the scene ( quite literally :)) were mid 80 ,s S class Mercs .
They either went off with a mob signal or not at all in an accident ,or if they went off with a child sat infront decapitated the kid .Fortunatley the rear screen was sufficiently strong enough to deflect the head on the rear parcel shelf .

Back to IPS .
I think it’s worth like air bag tech drawing a distinction between the earlier versions and today’s 2019 products .
Yes a new boat project with the latest version is tempting.
I understand they are on mk 4/5 now .
As PYB infered they have done upgrades in the field , but not every upgrade can or has been retrofitted.
So we need to talk about IPS imho with references to its version , mind full of early 2006/2009 or what ever are not the same reliability wise as say a mk 5 2018/19 .

Time is on our side .
 
Boat2016 said:
I would rather take the opinion of someone who has owned such a boat than an armchair critic who talks negative about a system they have never owned or used.
Click to expand...
Sounds logic in principle, but I'm not sure it's a good idea, if you think twice about that.
Me, I'd rather take the opinion of folks like volvopaul, even if they never owned any IPS powered boat.
And most if not all the comment I posted in the past about IPS were strictly based on what I learned from this type of sources.
On top of that, I cruised several times with an IPS boat of a friend of mine, who purchased her brand new 7 years ago, and since last season is beginning to darn the day he did. But I'm just yet another armchair critic of course - feel free to make of this what you will! :D :rolleyes:
 
Portofino said:
if they went off with a child sat infront decapitated the kid .Fortunatley the rear screen was sufficiently strong enough to deflect the head on the rear parcel shelf
Click to expand...
Urgh, that's a quite horrifying image. Did that really happen?
I can remember to have read of kids badly injured or possibly even killed, but not of such brutality! :(
 
the Sessa is a lovely looking boat but before you get too sold on the IPS (especially given PowerYachtBlog's comments) do the maths.
Estimate how many miles you would typically do each year
calculate diesel used for shafts and IPS style boats of equivalent size - ask on here for typical fuel burn for similar boats.
then calculate the extra service and parts costs for having IPS.
unless there is a significant total running cost benefit, I would avoid IPS because of the extra complexity and technical risks
 
MapisM said:
Sounds logic in principle, but I'm not sure it's a good idea, if you think twice about that.
Me, I'd rather take the opinion of folks like volvopaul, even if they never owned any IPS powered boat.
And most if not all the comment I posted in the past about IPS were strictly based on what I learned from this type of sources.
On top of that, I cruised several times with an IPS boat of a friend of mine, who purchased her brand new 7 years ago, and since last season is beginning to darn the day he did. But I'm just yet another armchair critic of course - feel free to make of this what you will! :D :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Like all thing you only ever hear about the people who have issues, there’s plenty of happy owners out there enjoying their IPS boats and just because you don’t like the idea there’s plenty who do, that’s your choice and I respect that. If it was so unwelcome amongst owners it would have been discontinued by now, the amount out there in daily use in private and commercial boats tells me that they can’t be that unreliable.
I would also never ask a Volvo dealer about reliability issues as they are in it to earn a living and will steer you accordingly as they rely on engine and drive maintenance to make a living.
 
Thanks for the onsite PYB. Check maintenance paperwork and yes clutch plates replace in December 2018. Along with seals etc
So depending on survey report now who knows
 
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