The IPS Experience

By Thomas Ludens

When Volvo-Penta launched their Inboard Performance System (IPS) in 2005, there were big expectations—as well as a certain amount of reservation from boaters. Boating is nothing if not a pastime, and for as long as most of us could remember, captaining had remained consistent. There was the throttle and the helm, a number of procedures to follow and a certain amount of intangible skill that came with experience. Then, all of a sudden, IPS changed everything. The props were literally turned around. The throttle and helm were replaced by, of all things, a joystick.

This was a sea change, a whole new approach to propulsion, to captaining, to boating. It may have come as something of a shock, but it was also a longtime coming. Slowly but surely, boat builders bought into the system and started integrating it into the design of their vessels. This was something of a gamble: no one quite knew if boaters would come aboard and give the IPS a chance. Boaters didn’t know if the unproven IPS would stand up to the time-tested systems they knew.

So now, three years later, how has IPS fared? To answer that question, it’s best to ask users themselves.
Mr. Mundy was one of the IPS pioneers. He bought one of the first boats equipped with the system, a Cruisers 400. In fact, he bought his so soon after IPS’s release that the joystick wasn’t yet available.

“We picked it up in December ’05,” he says, “and it was one of the first with IPS. So, I had it a year before they had the joystick. Volvo gave all the original owners a coupon for the joystick. We test drove one with a joystick at the Miami Boat Show, and it was absolutely phenomenal. I think that’s the future of boating. I can literally move the boat sideways down a channel. . . . Even not having the joystick, the boat was a great pleasure to drive. You put the joystick on and it’s unbelievable.”

As the owner of four new Cruisers yachts over the years, Mr. Mundy is an experienced helmsman. Regarding his new set up, he says, “It’s so much easier to control and handle and the fuel economy is so much better than any other system.”

And it’s not only he, the captain, who likes the system. “My wife, who doesn’t like to drive a boat, can drive this boat,” he says. “The older boats, it takes time to get used to that. This boat, the IPS system makes it much easier for her to drive it. . . . I think the things the IPS system does is give you the confidence that you can back up the boat easily, whether you’re in a current or a wind.”

“I think this is the future of boating,” Mr. Mundy continues. “Not just for the control, but also the fuel economy. We probably get 25 percent better fuel economy on this boat. For instance, I came back across the lake last year from Charlevoix [to Sturgeon Bay], and I used maybe a quarter tank of fuel.”

Though Mr. Mundy is clearly a big proponent of the IPS, he’s one of thousands of boaters who have tried the system. When you consider that more than 100 manufacturers throughout the world are incorporating IPS into new models, that older vessels have been retrofitted to incorporate it and that so many people have tried it, you would expect there to be a wide diversity of opinions about how well this innovative new system works. In fact, however, the assessments are surprisingly consistent.

Peter Sears has been boating for 50 years. His current boat is a Tiara 3500 Sovran. It’s his eighth Tiara, and his first with IPS, which he admits caused him some initial apprehension.

“I spent 50 years learning how to drive with a standard drive and everything else,” he says of his new IPS-equipped boat, “and now I’m on a new learning curve.” Fortunately, that curve has been pretty smooth. “I have had the boat now about two months and I find myself coming in with the conventional wheel and then when I get into the harbor I’m switching over right away to the IPS. . . . I feel totally comfortable with it now.”

As with Mr. Mundy, the ease of use has allowed his wife to get involved at the helm, though that has had one unexpected drawback. “My wife stepped in and drove it perfectly with the IPS, and then she told me to go out and get the lines. I said that’s not the agenda.”

He may have to spend some time away from the helm of his fire-engine-red Sovran, but he’s enjoying the time he does have at the controls. “Once you get the feel,” he says, “it’s easy.”

Mr. Boyce, owner of a Cruisers 390 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, also likes the IPS’s ease of operation, as do his passengers. A friend of his “docked it the first time he ever touched the joystick, with no experience at all on it.”

When IPS was first unveiled, expectations were big. The boating industry has been flagging for the past few years, and many saw this new system as a potential boost for everyone. It was hoped that if IPS could make captaining—and docking, in particular—easier, then more people might be tempted to try boating. In the case of Mr. Wiener, it seems to have worked.

“Frankly,” he says, “the first time I owned a boat was last July. I’m a relatively new boater, and [the barrier to boating before] was for me the docking. It’s not so much parallel docking as backing into the slips. The marina where I keep the boat has a strong current, and it’s very difficult to dock there. The IPS system makes it very easy to get into the slip.”

The ease of handling was planned to be a big selling point, and it’s proving to be one. “First of all,” says Mr. Wiener, the owner of a Cruisers 390, “the big issue was the joystick control. It’s phenomenal. The IPS system of course comes with the control, and that made me a believer. It was the second boat I bought in a year, and I bought it for that system.”

Mr. Rothstein, the owner of a Cruisers 420 Express and a self-described tech guy, said that when he first looked at the IPS, he was “a little concerned about the newness of it.” But he was pleased with the speed and efficiency numbers. What ultimately tipped him toward IPS was the handling.

“I boat on the Chesapeake,” he says, “where it’s pretty tight quarters. . . . So it was maneuverability and fitting into tight creeks and things like that, where you can move around effectively. . . . The drawback is that I draw a little more water than I would otherwise. But it’s not a huge deal. The benefit is what I anticipated—even in crowded July 4 surroundings, I could fit into small settings.”

IPS may have introduced a revolutionarily new way of propelling a boat, but there’s nothing newfangled about handling, efficiency, power, comfort and performance. Whether they have a Lazzara or a Tiara, a Cruisers or Chris-Craft, whether they’re on Lake Michigan or off the Florida coast, whether they’ve been boating for 50 years or five months, boaters are flocking to all that IPS offers. Even if that means they sometimes have to get the lines.

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