Glendinning Electronic Engine Controls-Backup

John Glendinning is a member of YF. You can shoot him a PM. His screen name is JohnGlen or send an email to: service (at) glendinningprods (dot)com

John,

As indicated by @rtrafford, Rick Panish (our senior service technician) is the primary font of knowledge on this product and would be the best guy to talk to. For now, since he left a bit early today, you'll have to settle for me.

Your question / comments have a number of facets to it, but let me offer the following:
1) Firstly, the propulsion controls system is the most important system on board the boat and the most critical to safe / reliable vessel operation - as you have found out. Because of that, when we designed this product in the mid-90's, we incorporated the capability for a backup control in our system. Our backup is unique in that it allows you to regain mechanical control at a helm station without having to go to the engine compartment to make changes in the cable hookups. There's no other control system on the market which has this feature.
I would like to point out that we didn't include this backup feature because of any particular concern over the reliability of our control system. The reality of life with boats - and any large, complex piece of machinery - is that things do break. For example, I would challenge you to visit any boat show this fall and find the one item which is installed on a boat which doesn't have the possibility of failure. It doesn't exist. Because of this and the criticality of propulsion control, we designed all of our control systems with the capability for remote mounted / remotely activated backup control.

2) When we designed the product, it was our thinking that boatbuilders would locate the backup controls at the primary helm station where one would maneuver or dock the boat. Many of our customers have done exactly this over the years. In the case of this particular model of Ocean, it would appear that it was difficult to route the mechanical cables from the engine compartment to the flybridge, and therefore they mounted the backup controls in the helm station. However, I would like to make clear that I'm really not knowledgeable as to the reason why the mechanical backup controls were located at that cockpit station. Perhaps it was because the boatbuilder also wanted to offer the user the capability for a cockpit station control?
It should be noted that where the transmission is controlled by electric solenoids rather than mechanical levers, it's much easier to mount the backup control at the flybridge helm station since you only have to run electrical wires up to the helm.

3) The condition of the transmission being stuck in gear is one reason why various regulations / guidelines do require or recommend that an engine shutdown be located at each control station. Having a boat drift after a failure, without power, is likely a lot better that having the boat continue under power when you don't want it to. I could be mistaken, but I believe that the Ocean Yachts 56 does include the engine shutdown feature at the flybridge?

4) In your situation, if the load on the transmission shift control lever was so stiff that the actuator couldn't move it, then it's unlikely that a remote mechanical backup would have allowed you to regain control anyway. Periodic operation of the mechanical backup would have given you an early indication of this excessive load. This would be one suggestion for you to consider, re: your comment about how this specific failure could be prevented in the future

5) I would also suggest that having a trained / experienced technician periodically - annually? - inspect the control system on the boat to make sure that it is in good condition is a good investment in making sure that the propulsion controls are in good condition. Things can happen over time which can affect control system operation and reliability. The detent spring in your transmission is one example. There are other things. Having someone take an hour or two periodically to look at the overall control system is a really good idea and something we would recommend.

As @rtrafford has mentioned, we have a some really great techs here in the office. Feel free to call them if we can help. You can call me as well, but I'm not quite as smart as Rick and Bruce are with this product.

Rgds, John Glendinning

[BLUSHING] Hey Capt Ralph.... Thanks for the kind words, although this was probably Rick helping you and not me. Rick does cables.

And thanks for you assumptions about our ages - "kids" - but my kids have kids and Rick is even older.

Thanks for your comments also. Regarding your specific situation, my first guess would not have been a tach drive issue, although the information you provided would have made my answer just a guess. Howeer, I would have guessed you had a bridge cable overtravel adjustment problem - see this document https://www.glendinningprods.com/wp...onizer_-_Troubleshooting.v1.pdf?4cf23d&4cf23d at the bottom of page 5. "AFTER TURNING SYNCHRONIZER OFF, SLAVE ENGINE CONTROL HANDLE IS NOT ABLE TO CONTROL SLAVE ENGINE SPEED."

A more complete description of how to adjust the bridge cable is contained here - https://www.glendinningprods.com/wp...le_Overtravel_Adjustment.v1.pdf?4cf23d&4cf23d

The most important point in this is that if there is anything which happens on your boat which affects the propulsion controls, this should be addressed quickly and thoroughly. Controls are not one of those things that you "just work around it".

Fair winds / following seas............................

I wish we had more manufacturers capable of participating without promoting. It's a fine line that few can walk. Kudo's to John for putting forth useful information on a timely basis without taking the opportunity to plug his products.