Riviera 46 Sports Motor Yacht....thoughts?

Hi Irie,

Figured I'd add my 2c worth as I've just made the move from a shaft drive to IPS Riviera.

Build quality on their newer boats is excellent and I asked a lot of people with hands on experience about the IPS before buying. The feedback from the mechanics working on them everyday was that the 2017 and newer generations are solid and support from Volvo Penta is good. I live in Australia and there are IPS powered Rivieras everywhere so plenty of techs with experience. Having said that, there is a lot of technology involved and if it's a boat you plan to keep for 10+ years then you will no doubt have to deal with issues as they age.

Comparing to previous older shaft drive boats, the IPS is a LOT quieter at cruise, faster and more efficient.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Paul
 
Shaps said:
How much does a prop on a 58 cost? thousands $$$$
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The bottom line is that if you got the point that you have to replace that prop, most likely this is the least of your problem, as there are much bigger issues to solve due to the impact.

The beauty of conventional propulsion, is that some tuning or rebalancing get you back in business. Which is far less than 4 digit number.
 
Maybe A Dancer said:
I'll always remember what my surveyor said about pod drives.

Something I had not considered.

When used for docking, or maintaining a position in a wind or current the drives are CONSTANTLY NON-STOP MOVING

FWD/REVERSE and or TURNING

These gyrations continue, non-stop, and while they are successful in handling, maneuvering and economy, the constant non-stop nature of the design does accelerate the wear points.

I believe his observation isn't often discussed, but has some validity.

BEST !

RWS
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This is very true and often overlooked. The amount of time these units go in and out of the gear by the time a boat is docked is crazy. I periodically hear lots of "clung-clung". One can think about proper maintenance being the key, but this ware and tear just outweighs the maintenance factor by far.

The amount of money my friends spent on maintenance and repairs makes me laugh when anyone brings up efficiency and fuel economy as an argument.

I understand that it might sound unfair to all those who own PODs or Zues equipped yachts and the intention isn't to bash them. It's just unfortunately the reality is calling for an average recreational boater to think very hard before committing to these technologies, due to multiple factors, especially serviceability.

When cruising in limited distance with decent service coverage and accepting the cost or maintenance and repairs is one thing. But, as soon as you start thinking about long distance cruising, serviceability becomes a huge factor. As an example, a friend was on a trip from FL to NE and had trouble with one of the PODs. He had to scan the entire coast for help and go into "limping" mode until he reached the port where the service was available.

It's a fact that more and more brands shifting to PODs and obviously selling you a success stories. As with anything, it's a choice of individual's situation and what they're willing to compromise on.
 
I think one of the things many need to consider now and definitely in the future is slip and insurance costs. I don't know about you guys, but both have become an absolute nightmare to acquire and budget for. It's truly becoming out of reach for the average person anymore.
 
Alex F said:
The bottom line is that if you got the point that you have to replace that prop, most likely this is the least of your problem, as there are much bigger issues to solve due to the impact.

The beauty of conventional propulsion, is that some tuning or rebalancing get you back in business. Which is far less than 4 digit number.
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So, under this scenario, you have damaged prop, strut, shaft and a simple rebalance for under a thousand dollars gets you on your way.
Really?

I agree there are less mechanics trained on pods than conventional propulsion systems. That's true.
 
I really like the POD concept and architecture. They have capabilities that are desireable what the shaft and stern drives don't. If I was to purchase a new boat the IPS would definitely be in the que.
For a pre-owned boat the issue becomes finding a surveyor that can evaluate the condition of the drive system from structural, mechanical, and electronic aspects. Then state factually in the survey the condition. This is my big issue in purchasing a pre-owned boat with pod drives.
 
I'll add that if you are a DIY maintenance person then the POD systems are probably not a candidate unless you desire to go to school and purchase a plethora of expensive tools.
Here in our area I've had to bone up on a lot of the routine maintenance as we simply don't have services that give a darn about me or my boat. My mechanic that does the hard core diesel work on my boats is the best though and is in high demand; but alas he has retired, he has agreed to continue with me and my boat neighbor on a "consulting" basis...
I can't imagine who in our area would correctly service and repair the POD systems.
 
The annual maintenance is really just fluid change and new anodes.
 
ttmott said:
That's not bad at all. I probably should have added "repair" to the DIY scope.
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All good!
I would have thought in Florida, generally, it would be rather easy to find qualified pod mechanics.
West of you there is Southeastern Marine power, who did work for me when I bought the boat.
 
Shaps said:
All good!
I would have thought in Florida, generally, it would be rather easy to find qualified pod mechanics.
West of you there is Southeastern Marine power, who did work for me when I bought the boat.
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Yea, unfortunately not in the central east coast areas and up to Jacksonville. Service is pretty much down in Stuart and points south. It gets expensive to have service travel.
I have a friend that has surface drives - the local qualified service used a hammer and chisel to remove the large drive retaining ring and boogered it up badly then cross threaded it back on using the same hammer and chisel to reinstall it - The correct tool was a very large special spanner wrench and it all ended up costing my buddy around $3K to De F it. Another company replaced a dock neighbor's sanitary hoses on his Aft Cabin and failed to reconnect to the tank. His boat still smells after a year. Another qualified local company removed a perfectly good generator saying it was unrepairable, installed a new then serviced the removed and sold it on Ebay...
 
Irie308 said:
We have considered and looked at the 52DB with the MANN motors. What I find questionable is that they often seem to be priced well below the ones equipped with the QSM11's. Have been told that generally its due to the 1000 hour service.
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I haven't looked at the 52s since I figured out the "master" stateroom would still logically be in the bow... so I've not seen which MAN diesels they used for the option.

If there's a "thousand hour service" though, I'd guess the older mechanical R6s? If so, yeah, maybe not as nifty as the newer electronic common rail models...

OTOH, the newer ones don't actually do a 1000 hour thing; the schedule is more like multiples of 400 and 800 hours... and some of those are just "check...." something or other.

In your shopping, if you see options for MAN I6s installed in anything, maybe the rest of the boat might suit too. :)

-Chris
 
I have R6 800s in a 2014 boat and there is no such thing as a "1000 hour service" for them.
 
Shaps said:
I get the point.

You said it, pick your poison.

My point is, there are 10s of thousands of dollars sitting under the boat regardless of the system. Shafts, rudders, props etc...

Its not an inexpensive hobby.
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It is and you know more about pods than most of us. What I am trying to understand is that a shift of sorts seems to have taken place where the original Zeus partnership of Mercruiser/Cummins seems to be mostly Cummins today. I can understand that since Cummins needs to have something to counter Volvo. Mercruiser seems more interested in building outboards today than it was when it signed the partnership with Cummins 16 years ago.

What is less clear is where is Cummins going with Zeus? I am having a hard time finding any boat manufacturers that are actively producing boats with the technology.

That can't be good in the long term for Zeus pod owners.
 
lawndoctor said:
I have R6 800s in a 2014 boat and there is no such thing as a "1000 hour service" for them.
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Hah. I must have mis-remembered (not uncommon). Thought I remembered a thread around here where somebody was shopping on a 50DA (or some such) and was worried about the R6 service regime... which he described as significantly different from ours. And I thought I remembered he said it wasn't common rail (but then again my memory is like a steel.... sieve...)

And then from Boatdiesel docs, I thought the R6 ended in circa 2012, in favor of the I6. (So maybe boatdiesel just doesn't have the latest R6 editions of datasheet and so forth.

-Chris
 
ranger58sb said:
Hah. I must have mis-remembered (not uncommon). Thought I remembered a thread around here where somebody was shopping on a 50DA (or some such) and was worried about the R6 service regime... which he described as significantly different from ours. And I thought I remembered he said it wasn't common rail (but then again my memory is like a steel.... sieve...)

And then from Boatdiesel docs, I thought the R6 ended in circa 2012, in favor of the I6. (So maybe boatdiesel just doesn't have the latest R6 editions of datasheet and so forth.

-Chris
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Yeah, I have a hard time keeping that stuff straight too. Here's the Performance Diesel spec sheet on the R6 800s I have. https://www.performancediesel.com/w...l/pdf/yacht/R6-730-800_light_duty_e_17-11.pdf They are common rail. Maybe there was a previous version that was mechanical, but I haven't seen that. And here is a MAN EU brochure for the I6 800 that mentions the I6 received some kind of design award in 2016. https://www.engines.man.eu/man/medi...engines/marine/Marine_Pleasure_160713_web.pdf. So my guess is the I6 came out around then, but I'm not positive about that.
 
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