At the recently concluded Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Silverton Marine welcomed the newest boat brand to the party — Ovation.  And along with the brand came the first model — the 52 Ovation, a sleek, luxurious sedan bridge

Ovation 52 Debuts at Fort Lauderdale Boat Show

cruiser with a state-of-the-art triple Volvo IPS engine installation.  It is a beautiful boat, exceedingly well equipped and with fit and finish on a par with such brands as Marquis by Carver.  It features a massive master stateroom amidships, with a full queen VIP forward and twins in a port stateroom.  A raised galley and dinette forward have great all-around views and the salon features a big screen TV on a lift, along with plenty of seating for showings of Master and Commander during the evenings aboard.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the 52 Ovation is its drive package — triple IPS600 pod drives that will undoubtedly pop this big boat right out of the hole and onto plane.  They’re set way back under the cockpit sole with lots of extra room forward for the big genny and storage (or watermakers and whatever else you might want to add).

Getting the most of these big IPS drives only requires that you learn to drive the boat with the IPS joystick — a simple task.  Move it right and the boat goes to the right.  Twist it left and the bow swings to port.  Push it forward and you’re moving forward.  It will change your world, especially around the dock.  It will also help cool off your credit card at the fuel dock.  Volvo Penta claims — and early adopters seem to concur — that these drives are nearly 30 percent more fuel efficient that straight shaft and prop installations of the same horsepower.

Ovation 52 Engine Room with Volvo Penta IPS Engines

Silverton says the 52 Ovation will list for approximately $1.3 million, which is a competitive price for a luxury sedan of this size and with this kind of power.  It has features that will make cruising even easier, like a Nautical Structures 800# davit hidden in the transom, along with the big swim platform.  It has wide sidedeck walkways all the way to the bow for safer line and anchor handling underway. 

Helm Aboard the new Ovation 52

And frankly, the bridge is where you will want to host all your parties from now on.  Lots of great seating, a chill chest, barbecue and views all around.

Take a look at the specs provided by Silverton for this boat, then plan to check it out at the Miami show in February.  Or, you can visit the new brand’s website at:  www.ovationyachts.com

Copyright © 2007 Thomas M. Tripp

A Hollywood star, reflecting on the reality behind his “overnight stardom” mused that in his case, “overnight” had only taken 17 years to get to. Many of today’s remarkable “new” technologies are actually not new at all, but have either matured through a slow and steady development process, or perhaps have benefitted from a materials or software development that brought them along the final steps to the marketplace.

Diesel-electric propulsion for recreational boats may just fit this description. The concept is many, many decades old. In fact, depending on the exact definition you use, rather advanced applications were in place as long ago as World War I, when diesel-powered submarines re-charged battery banks for underwater electric propulsion.

Today, diesel-electric is dominating many big-ship applications, as in the cruise industry. It does so because of efficiency and reliability — two of the primary concerns in any commercial application. On a large cruise ship, the electrical demands are huge and varying. Large diesel generators come online as needed to generate electricity to meet both the hotel load as well as the propulsive requirements. When they come online they run constantly at their most optimum speed, which means they are efficient. These big cruise ships are powered by large electrically driven azimuthing pods, which add tremendous maneuverability to the equation, in addition to efficient propulsion.

For the recreational boater, diesel-electric systems traditionally were too big, too heavy, and too expensive for most to consider. Until now. Glacier Bay’s OSSA Powerlite product line now includes complete diesel-electric systems for recreational boats of most sizes. The best application of these new systems for now will be in new designs and new builds of certain existing designs; this in order to best take advantage of some of the unique features of these systems. It is conceivable that some boaters may also benefit from a re-power with an OSSA Powerlite system, depending on budget and performance objectives. I talked to the company recently at the Newport International Boat Show in Newport, RI.

In one of the first publicized applications, the charter company The Moorings had one of its Leopard 4300 sailing catamarans outfitted with an OSSA Powerlite diesel-electric system. The result, shown at the Miami Boat Show, was a tremendously efficient and quiet system that passed all its qualification tests with The Moorings and joined the charter fleet there.

In a completely different kind of application, a new 73′ Park Isle trawler, “Snowbird,” is being outfitted with a system featuring five 200Kw generators, two 800Hp motors and four 35Hp motors (for thrusters and stabilizers). Park Isle confirms this week that the power system is being delivered by OSSA Powerlite right now and they expect to complete construction of this boat shortly.

And since nature apparently favors symmetry and complete circles, there is even an OSSA Powerlite system installed in a recreational submarine (yes, there are such things; an article on them in an upcoming issue of Ocean Lines).

At the outset, I mentioned that often an old idea, like diesel-electric propulsion, benefits from new process or materials. This is the case with the OSSA Powerlite systems. For example, only two years ago, the lightest 200Kw generator you could get weighed over 4,000 pounds. The new OSSA Powerlite 200Kw generator comes in at around 1,400 pounds wet. In addition, the new electric motors designed and built by OSSA Powerlite approach 99% efficiency in converting the electricity generated by the diesel into horsepower on the shaft. And without a transmission to go through, that horsepower goes right to the propeller. The torque curve, typical for a DC electric motor, is also completely flat throughout the RPM range, which translates into powerful, linear acceleration. (more…)