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It's funny the way I first found out about OPS, a deceptively ho-hum-sounding acronym for Regal's new Optimized Performance System. I was sitting in the engine room of the company's new flagship, the 5260 Sport Yacht, with my back against the forward firewall and pen poised over a notebook, when I started wondering about a large, box-like fiberglass structure on centerline, back against the transom.
Hmmm. Was it a special tank for fuel, water, or waste? Was it the inside of a deformation in the running surface somehow related to the Volvo Penta IPS drives beneath? Was it a means of facilitating entry into the ER from astern, once the tender garage hatch was raised and, with it, the thick fiberglass panel that supports the optional outboard-powered Avon RIB?
"What the heck's that?" I finally asked project manager Phil Baier. The question precipitated a long and involved explanation of a seldom if ever publicized, or even talked about, aspect of joystick-controlled azipod drive systems—an undeniably revolutionary technology marketed by both Volvo Penta and Cummins-MerCruiser.
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Both Volvo Penta's IPS, with its forward-facing props, and Cummins-MerCruiser's Zeus system, with its aft-facers, have the same basic L-shape underwater form: a near-vertical leg exiting the running surface and a lower, stern-drive-like torpedo holding the props. Since in both cases the props generate thrust parallel to the boat's bottom, speeds and efficiencies may diminish as bow rise increases and thrust vectors change from horizontal to angular during on-plane operation.
"We think OPS is the answer, though," said Baier, proprietarily rapping his knuckles on the box I was now scrutinizing with even deeper interest. It is essentially a reservoir, he explained, molded into both the bottom and transom and designed to fill with roughly 700 pounds of water at displacement speeds and empty at planing speeds. The mechanism is both passive and quick. Water simply whooshes in through holes in the transom and exits the same way, according to Baier.
But there was more to the story. The 5260, Baier added, had been expressly designed with a weight-forward em-phasis to accommodate IPS. So at slow speeds with the reservoir full, the extra heft at the transom levers the bow up, allowing the boat to run at zero trim for maximum thrust and efficiency. At planing speeds with the reservoir empty, the decreased heft at the transom lets the 5260's weight-forward emphasis come into play, reducing both bow rise and torpedo down-angle and boosting speeds and efficiencies.
Of course, I was antsy to see how OPS actually worked. And so I undoubtedly hurried Baier through the rest of our tour of the test boat's engine room, a fairly straightforward, uncluttered place, partly due to the seamless integration of raw-water, steering, and other systems into our two IPS 600 powerplants and partly due to the unencumbered cleanliness of the forward firewall. This latter feature, by the way, results from a lovely little layout that sidelines virtually all ancillary equipment (including welded-aluminum water tanks, Marine Air air-conditioning units, ProNautic battery chargers, and Westerbeke genset) outboard of the mains and concomitantly facilitates entry and exit through the day hatch just above the firewall.
Once I was finally at the wheel, dockside performance was gratifying: Using the Volvo Penta joystick to starboard of the wheel, I walked the boat sideways away from her starboard-side-to slip at Florida's Sanibel Harbor Resort and departed the marina as if the rather rousing headwind hadn't been blowing at all. Easing toward the Sanibel Harbor Bridge doing about 7 knots, I noticed our running attitude in the comparatively calm water was zero degrees. OPS seemed to be working as predicted.
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