On Dec 18, 6:52�pm, Sunk wrote:
Guess not.......

I've been on a couple of boats with the Volvo IPS system, but not yet
with the Zeus drives.

The IPS is incredibly responsive, even at a good turn of speed. Think
twice before yanking that joystick hard over at 25-30 knots. :-)

I got a chance to dock the new 2008 58' Meridian this afternoon.
My host for the demonstration said, " Don't do too good a job. Just
get somewhere near the dock with the normal technique, and then finish
off using the DOC switch and the bow and stern thrusters. I did as
suggested, and it was very easy to walk the boat "sideways" up to the
float.

Another interesting comment of the day was, "The last two 58's we sold
were both to rookie boaters".......apparently the joystick docking
system is instilling confidence in a lot of new boaters. Let's hope
it's not over confidence.

I continue to advocate learning close quarter handling the
conventional way, without relying on thrusters. Once you now what
you're doing, the thruster can help fine tune the process a
bit..........but they certainly shouldn't be relied upon.