Docking On Command System

When boaters move up into large motoryachts it is only natural that they have apprehensions about docking – particularly in a strong cross wind or cross current situation when there is only 6” of clearance on either side of the boat. The solution was introduced several years ago when Volvo Penta introduced the IPS pod drive system with joystick. Later joystick systems came out for other brands of diesels and then gas engines and still later for stern drives, too. But what wasn’t talked about much was how much more the pods and the joystick technology cost, which was as much as an additional $25k in some boats. Meridian Yachts has had a solution for the last year that solved both the difficulty of docking, and the high cost problem with a system called “Docking On Command.” It is simply a bow thruster and a stern thruster built into the boat with an easy-to-visualize control mechanism at the helm.