Quality on Azimut, Pershing and Cranchi....?

Arneson is owned by Twin Disc and is usually pretty straight forward to service.
So every place there is a twin disc centre they can repair Arnesons.
There is usually the belows (expensive) about 2000 US$ for ASD11 or 12 for above 800hp up to 1400hp. I think you need to change these every 2 seasons. In Italy where surface drive are very popular I think to remember they change these with stainless belows which dont need changing, but just a clean up.

An extra $2,000 expendature every 2 seasons would be a surprise to most owners here. I've seen maybe 6 Arnesons in this area. So, even if the mechanic is trained he's not experienced and probably wouldn't know or think about that. Personally, I've also found them to be challenging to maneuver in close quarters which describes most marinas in this area.

One of the issues with the Arneson drives on the Pershings is range. If you look at the fuel consumption curves, after a certain speed, the fuel consumption actually goes down as the speed goes up. While this may sound good, the flip side is fuel consumption goes up when you are going slower. The implication is in rough weather, when you potentially need the range the most, you don't have it. This is a really a problem due to the small fuel tanks the newer Pershings seem to have.

Also since the boat performs best when props are out of the water, there is less "bite" in rough weather, and hence less traction.

As noted, they are not easy to manouver in a tight quarters.

They do look great, and in flat water, there's nothing like running at 45kn+!!

i hear u mate, didn't realize they were that few & far between in the us ...

i wld have expected more, considering the potential market size ...

or MTU's to MAN's ...

Pershing offers MTU's now on the 80, the larger ones being 2450hp each ...

err ... the bow & stern thrusters DO help ...

That's no way to dock a small boat.

hahaha ... that's true ...

i never used them on my ferretti 630 save for the first day or so ... guess the story will repeat itself with the pershing 80 ...

The new generation of surface drives plane at much lower speeds thanks to lower degrees in trimming of 15 or 20 deg down.
An Italian company Top System SDs started this, and now new Arneson do it as well.
That means that some boats plane as little as 12 or 13 knots. I helmed a Baia and Rizzardi with these new generation SDs and they plane as easy butter. It went up at 14 knots the Baia 54 Aqua with the bigger engine options, and unlike the old versions at this speed it has more range. The price you pay here is that after 20 knots you have to go on trimming them up or else you end up loosing a lot of top end, meaning wasting more fuel at lower speeds. Trimming them well can gain you up to 10 knots in some cases.

True but... one does sound like an amateur with the "coffee grinder" going every few feet down a tight fairway!

guilty your honour ...

but it's more like a security blanket ... u never really use it ...

No shame in using the thrusters if the alternative is hitting something!!

absolutely mate ... a "ding" can be VERY expensive ...

The OP was talking about a 42 foot express. There are times for them however. I used one (bow only) on a 56 the other day to keep the bow over while backing into a slip with a 4 kt. current on the beam. The boat's design made the rubrail nothing more than an ornament, so had to keep it off the piling. It took maybe (3) 2 sec. thrusts. Thrusters on small boats are for small adjustments, moving the bow over to retrieve a bow line, dealing with heavy cross current / wind or when you lose an engine. Beyond that we try to substitute skill. When I hear a thruster grinding away that 'nails on chalkboard' sound turns my head to see the 100' plus yacht. If I see something smaller there is an instant loss of respect and an expectation that the entertainment is beginning.

thanks for that. I recently saw pershing yachts for sale at different sizes. One of them was a 62 that asked for 1.5M Euros. I didn't give it much thought because I was thinking of the 72, which I had a very bad experience with.

Hi,

You have mentioned the bad experience several times , we are a shared knowledge forum here in case you didn't notice so an elaboration of the fore said would be good

Ditto. When someone spends $3M+ and has a bad experience a few details would be very enlightening and welcome.

I would love to hear about it too mate.

Do tell.

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