Any Owners with 360 Joystick Docking??

[graham132kel]

Hi all, i've got a specific question for any Jeanneau sailboat owners who have the 360 joystick docking - ie ZF rotating saildrive..

I know this has been covered a while ago but i'm after feedback from anyone who does/has lived with it and used the system for a period of time. 
It was released around 2010 and everyone knows they had issues before Jeanneau did an update and parts change recall, but has the system been pretty reliable since?  There is not really any info I can find to suggest otherwise since early posts in 2012. We're 9 years on now and someone must have experience with the system? Costs of repair/re-programming?! 

Appreciate any feedback from owners.. Thanks in advance.

[jcnyb]

Hi Graham,

I'm one of the Jeanneau dealers in the UK, so not an owner, but as you haven't had any other answers and as we've sold as many as any of the other dealers 360 docking systems to our clients figured I'd contribute my 2pence.

As with anything and everything I would say there are pro's and cons to it which you've probably already worked out, i.e. ease of use, slightly more maintenance, more powerful reverse but a little more time to engage etc.

Since the update I've seen a very low failure rate, albeit a couple more than a standard sail or shaft drive but still in single digits over the last 5 years and most, if not all, were very minor issues.

Amongst others that we sold the first one we sold was one of the test boats that was first fitted with it from memory that one had some initial issues until it was updated but all the others were sold post update have never really had any issues although they are mostly sold to low use (often new to sailing) customers so none of them have had huge hours of use to really give a good sample.

I would say that when it works, which is nearly all of the time, it is genuinely very good, useful and makes the whole docking and slipping affair much easier and lower stress.

Most common issues I've seen with it are that very occasionally will not engage but its nearly always the case that the right sequence hasn't been followed (for example it requires the autopilot to be switched on which many people forgot and that no matter how much you tell them not too people have a habit (particularly new owners) to try and drive the boat everywhere on it, which its really not designed for, its literally for getting into and out of berths and is very good for that.

I've done some warranty works and investigations around a couple of ones we sold, which in fairness was usually nothing to do with the drive (which is a standard unit) or mechanism itself and the only criticism I'd have of it is that the 360 element its a very insulated system and the dealer network is not vast, so I'd consider carefully where you are based and where your nearest dealer is. In the UK there is a distributor but they're main bread and butter is the automotive industry and large ships, there is 1 chap there who could deal reliably with issues on that drive but its not a big product for them so finding him took some digging,
ZF have a couple of marine dealers I think but mostly on the South coast which would lubricate the process of getting work done if needed but I wouldn't expect your local chap to do much with the mechanism if it were to go wrong. Additionally if you're keeping it on the doorstep of a decent Jeanneau main dealer they will usually go out of their way to help with any issues.

I've not experienced any failures that had cost implications, perhaps someone else can fill this in although I guess cost will correlate to the nature of the failure, neither have I had anyone had to pay for a reprogram (they all should've been done under warranty and I suspect Jeanneau might still pick up the tab for this if it wasn't done).

Hope that helps!

[graham132kel]

Cheers for the informative reply. It's really good to hear your experiences with the mechanism, especially the pro's and cons!
It certainly sounds like an optional extra that not many people decided to add, and I'm now thinking it's something I don't want on a boat I own. 

Much appreciated, Thanks!