Captain Barry Cuneo's tips on pod drives

Port Phillip Sea Pilot, Captain Barry Cuneo has 33 years experience at sea. He began his career in the Merchant Navy and has captained some of the world’s largest tankers, including the French oil tanker, New Wisdom, owned by Total, which was some 340 metres long with a draught of 22 metres.  Captain Cuneo recently took delivery of his new 53 Enclosed Flybridge and in this edition of eNews he shares his thoughts on the new Volvo Twin IPS 900s.

After having the pleasure of operating this latest generation IPS 900 system for two weeks straight, I feel it is important to provide some feedback.

In summary, the Volvo IPS 900s make all propulsion systems of the past totally redundant.

The joystick operation is smooth, user friendly and effective.  The operation while making way is incredibly fuel efficient, quiet, vibration free and gives enormous effective power without any hint of lag.

The superchargers give spectacular punch out of the hole, even with a full load of gear and stores and 10 persons onboard.

The DPS (Dynamic Positioning System) is as good as the professional vessles I have been on (rig tenders) and is a very useful tool while preparing to anchor, or for berthing preparation prior to moving to the berth.

The Sportfish Mode is worth every cent and having the joysticks aft is most useful, especially while manoeuvring in and out of travel lift slings.

Once use to the significant wash which is produced while in joystick or DPS modes, I have found this system to be faultless. 

Thank you Riviera for talking this old stick and rudder man into the 21st Century.

Captain Barry Cuneo

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