Carver Owners Forum

HI,

Currently under contract on a mid 2000's Marquis.

The boat has a wireless control which will control transmissions and thrusters.

Looks similar to a Yacht Controller add on product.

Any experience with this? How well does it work?

Was thinking about adding a Yacht Controller - does this do the same thing? Does it work as well?

Thank you for any assistance,

Haven't dealt with one in years but from what I recall it worked fine. The last one controlled the transmissions and both thrusters. Just don't do what an owner of a newly installed unit did to try it for the first time....he grabbed the remote, stepped off the boat and operated it from the dock as he put it through its paces up and down the canal! Not a good idea.

I wonder what he would have done if there was a malfunction or he ran out of range? Jump and swim?
Its kind of amazing if you watch a fuel dock, how many captains will leave the boat without a single line secured and no remote.

tomschauer wrote:Source of the post I wonder what he would have done if there was a malfunction or he ran out of range? Jump and swim?
Its kind of amazing if you watch a fuel dock, how many captains will leave the boat without a single line secured and no remote.

And...... the captains that shut down their engines before the boat is safely secured to the dock or slip.

The best one I've seen at a gas dock was a one hour wait in the river before you could get a spot to dock and fuel up. Several boats waiting in open water trying to maintain their position when in rolls a guy with his boat, activates his Skyhook then tells the kids it'll be a while before they can dock so they might as well jump overboard and go for a swim! For those of you that aren't familiar with Skyhook, it's Mercury's automatic GPS driven vessel positioning system, a digital anchor if you will. You set it and it will do what ever it needs to with the engines and rudders or drives to maintain the vessel's position in spite of wind or current. Great when you're waiting in line but not very smart to be swimming in close proximity of.

Footballfan wrote:HI,

Currently under contract on a mid 2000's Marquis.

The boat has a wireless control which will control transmissions and thrusters.

Looks similar to a Yacht Controller add on product.

Any experience with this? How well does it work?

Was thinking about adding a Yacht Controller - does this do the same thing? Does it work as well?

Thank you for any assistance,

Hey there FootballFan, why don't you post some of those beautiful pictures that you put up on club Searay

Sorry just busting balls. I am on both forums, I just connected 2 and 2 together. That is one beautiful boat, I'm sure everyone on here would love to ogle over the pictures.

Hi,
Just installed a Yacht Controller, Yacht Command, and stern thruster on our 360 SS last week. From the helm on the fly bridge of the 360 I cannot see the swim platform and only a tiny section of the transom (down the stair case). Having the wireless remote in conjunction with the stern drive is awsome.

The remote is intuitive and when backing into a slip, you turn it 180 to have the stern at the top. The same (relative to the orientation of the remote) transmission & thruster switch inputs move the boat exactly the same way as going forward (with the remote oriented bow up). Your hands (or fingers in this case) aren't reversed & your aren't standing backwards relative to your controls. There is no thinking at all.

The drawback, and it's big if your home port has strong currents or wind, is that there is no ability to throttle up to compensate for wind or current. Just transmission control on the engines. Out in Chocowinity Bay this weekend, opposite direction on the two engines could not overcome the 15 mph winds. So you end up not using the remote in those cases.

It will have value but I am not yet sure it was worth the cost. It's brand new, so I am hoping I can come up with a mode of switching between sticks & remote that increases the utilization of the remote. Just using it after already starting the boat into the slip was enough to see how easy it is.

Currently putting a Yacht Controller package together for a customer. As mentioned above, this particular system will only operate at idle which is a huge downfall. Apparently Glendinning makes a better unit that has throttle control (a percentage of, for safety) but I'm told the cost makes it a hard sell.

I'm getting questions about aftermarket Dynamic Positioning Systems (DPS). Yacht Controller works with a third party that installs these systems but I'm not convinced that current aftermarket systems are quite where they need to be yet in terms of functionality. They incorporate thrusters, and the nature of DPS is such that if conditions require, it would have your thrusters working continuously but unless you have proportionally controlled units, the duty cycle on the thrusters is short bursts or you risk shortening their life span. Yacht controller however does not control thrusters proportionally. The other problem is as mentioned above; without the ability for the system to control throttle, the DPS won't be able to hold you in position under some conditions such as wind or fast currents. After market DPS will get there eventually but I think we're still 2-3 years away from something that will work properly for a reasonable cost.

And u can't fix stupid!The things people will do. U just can't make this stuff up! Damn the day I have a yacht controller, I'll have a captain and a full crew! LOL! Love to see this Marquis!

Has anyone here compared DockMate vs YachtController? Dockmate seems to have more refined controls and is a little cheaper. Would appreciate any thoughts!