I bought a new 2012 Oceanis45 and have multiple problems with the engine and dock and go system. Anybody knows anything about it?
Oceanis45
- Thread starter Odyssea
- Start date
If I just laid out that much money for a new boat and had problems, I would be screaming at the dealer and the company to get it straightened out immediately! I am not aware of any issues with this boat. I have an '88 OC 430 which is great. Good luck.
We have a new Oceanis 45 and just wanted the bow thruster. And in fact, our dealer steered us (pardon the pun) away from the dock and go system because Beneteau was having a number of challenges with the system, many of which were electrical. Our bow thruster is awesome and we've had no issues with it. Did your dealer level with you about these problems? They should have...
Unfortunately my dealer was certain that all issues with the dock and go had been corrected by Beneteau and recommended the system as a must for the boat. We started the first day of ownership with failure of the dock and go , then electrical failure. We got stranded with failure of the fuel pump and then a few more failures of the dock and go that left the throttle and engine inoperable. These problems were repaired 6-7 times to "perfect" operation but obviously recurred. After last repair the bow thruster was not working. Not certain what my rights are (lemon law?)
the problem is they keep saying they fixed it but a few days later something else goes wrong and they have to fix it again (6-7 times). One of the times they said the boat was in perfect condition after repair and was fine for my planned trip (40mls). Once I cleared the docks the transmission quit and there was no throttle (engine was still running). The waves slammed the boat to the nearby wall
When did you purchase the boat? The early D&G systems were faulty.. there is a V.2 that has been released and all the V.1 should have been replaced.
Make sure you read the operation manual on the D&G this is VERY IMPORTANT. It is not hard to drain the voltage with the bow thruster, let alone with a joystick. Making sure your voltage is up high enough and do not drop below 11v-12v. I've had a D&G fail on me, but thats because I was testing the limits.
Make sure you read the operation manual on the D&G this is VERY IMPORTANT. It is not hard to drain the voltage with the bow thruster, let alone with a joystick. Making sure your voltage is up high enough and do not drop below 11v-12v. I've had a D&G fail on me, but thats because I was testing the limits.
The boat was delivered May 2012. I was told it has the 2nd generation D&G. They replaced the original 80 alternator to a higher power one and that resolved the electrical issues. The system however does not really deliver the functions it was supposed to, and crashed 3-4 times so far after very conservative use. The surprising thing is that the motor and the transmission crash too and the boat is uncontrolable. I don't really get it how it's connected to be able to do that. Or the boat has more than one issues? My dealer kind of blew me off and I am waiting for Beneteau's response
Odyssea: Has your problem been fixed? I currently experience similar problems with my '12 OC45 D&G.
It might be a good idea to hand it over to the dealer for an extended period of time like a week (if you have the time/transportation) and tell them to iron it out for real. Obviously this is a recurring major safety issue, and as mentioned, on a $400K+ boat, needs to be fixed properly and to your satisfaction. If the dealer refuses to budge, the call to Marion, SC should escalate the issue. Good luck in your challenge. Buying a new boat should not be like this, and hopefully it will end well for you.
Sean
Sean
I have a Sense 50 and delivery was delayed for 6 months while they worked out the problems. Took delivery in 2012 and the system promptly failed. It is a sobering experience being in a narrow fairway with 20 knot crosswinds when the system cuts out and the bow thruster fails completely. After many harsh words, technicians flown in from Miami etc etc it now works. But the problems were well known and the so called V2 didn't really address all the known problems. My conclusion on the system is that while it works it does not live up to its billing. There is a lot of delay and hesitation which you have to learn to live with. It requires patience and a soft touch even when you have a response delay in a strong crosswind.
I am interested to hear of any other problem being experienced with this system, I am a boat owner but work on the other side of the fence. Due to our location we were left to deal with D&G problems with minimal support, after much investigation we advised Beneteau in early 2012 that there was a low voltage issue being generated by the pod rotation motor.
Pod rotation power was being drawn from the same source as the electronic control, this low voltage spike causes the system to go into fault (as mentioned above) and forces the helmsman to shut down and restart to reset the system. Beneteau intorduced a wiring upgrade early 2013 to overcome this problem, the upgrade is over complex and not as reliable as our original change (we trasferred all control circuits onto the engine battery, place all high loads onto the service battery, install a VSR to ensure engine battery voltage does not drop to the levels of the service battery during high pod rotation demands).
Very interested to hear other experiences and resolutions found.
Pod rotation power was being drawn from the same source as the electronic control, this low voltage spike causes the system to go into fault (as mentioned above) and forces the helmsman to shut down and restart to reset the system. Beneteau intorduced a wiring upgrade early 2013 to overcome this problem, the upgrade is over complex and not as reliable as our original change (we trasferred all control circuits onto the engine battery, place all high loads onto the service battery, install a VSR to ensure engine battery voltage does not drop to the levels of the service battery during high pod rotation demands).
Very interested to hear other experiences and resolutions found.
I do not have the POD on my OC45. I purchased my boat as dealer inventory so was not in the position of selecting options. That being said I have had issues with my chart plotters and Autopilot that are possibly voltage drop related. I am going to monitor this in the coming season.
One big concern I have is how my batteries were maintained prior to purchase. My boat was built in late summer/early fall 2012. I purchased it in August 2013, so it spent a winter in the dealers possession. I get low voltage warnings at the panel after what seems like a short time sailing.
All this aside it is not my place to second guess those who have opted for the POD, but for myself personally I would not have ordered it. Even though the bowthruster is not perfect, it does go a long way to covering most situations. The money spent for the POD is the equivalent of a genset.
One big concern I have is how my batteries were maintained prior to purchase. My boat was built in late summer/early fall 2012. I purchased it in August 2013, so it spent a winter in the dealers possession. I get low voltage warnings at the panel after what seems like a short time sailing.
All this aside it is not my place to second guess those who have opted for the POD, but for myself personally I would not have ordered it. Even though the bowthruster is not perfect, it does go a long way to covering most situations. The money spent for the POD is the equivalent of a genset.
The batteries shouldn't be going bad so soon - even with poor maintenance. On the other hand if they let them go dry or through multiple complete discharge cycles .....
First thing I'd try is a load tester on the batteries. There have been a number of reports of MFDs going off on 423's. Had that happen once while I was using the bow thruster. Turned out my batteries after 4 years were marginal. New batteries and no more problems.
I have AGM Batteries and from prior experience with my wife's BMW they do not seem very tolerant of being allowed to fully discharge. We used to park her car in the winter and were not the most diligent in keeping the battery charged. This resulted in two replacements over the course of 3 years. We only got 2 years out of the last one. I know batteries don't like to be discharged for long periods, but I wonder if AGM's are more susceptible to damage from this. I am going to have them load tested as well. My slip neighbor has the same boat and his batteries have died a few times from the shore power ground fault circuit protector tripping, a common problem with this newly required device. His batteries are failing already after only a year. My suggestion to anyone with expensive AGM's is to be very diligent in keeping them charged.
Boat fixer,
I have found myself in charge of a vessel with the dreaded "Dock and Go" and would love to hear more about how you conquered the problems. Do you have any more details about how you went about separating the high loads from the control circuits. I have an Oceanus 55 with an enormous bank of AGM's for the service bank so hopefully that will be sufficient to cure some of the inherent issues with the system in standard form.
Cheers,
Sherwy.
I am sort of surprised lawyers haven't heard of this. Wouldn't D+G represent a class, certainly if I was looking for a big Bene I would avoid the D+G versions. On the autopilot I switched out from an old Robertson to a new Raymarine and that thing was extremely fussy about voltage. If the voltage wasn't just right it would give up disconnect and start beeping. I eventually fixed it by putting a smallish 12Ahr battery right on the power terminals of the autopilot. Possibly rewiring with big wires would have done the trick as well.
I've had a win! I spoke with the local Quick bow thruster distributor here in Australia and they said my symptoms sound very similar to a problem they had a while back with an identical boat in Sydney. They suggested I call Guy Oliver from Olectric in Sydney as he figured it out. I spoke with Guy who was very helpful and extremely knowledgeable as always. Same as me, he got no help form ZF or Beneteau so he had to figure it out himself. Basically, the problem with this particular model lies with the fact the bow thruster is 24 volt whereas the ZF and Quick control box is all 12. Beneteau install a couple of small Hella relays to step up the thruster activation signal to 24 but that's where the problems start.
The Quick control box is normally connected directly to the contactors in the thruster which draw around 350-400mA. The Hella relays only draw about 50mA, so the Quick control box interprets that to mean the thruster is not working so it switches itself off and alarms after 3 or 4 seconds. I got my sparky to install a resistor in the relay circuit to increase the current draw to 400mA and it now works perfectly. Well, as good as this system can work anyway.
To be clear my symptoms were that the system would alarm and the bow thruster would shut down after only 3 or 4 seconds of continuous use. The only way to reset was turn shut down the main, ignition off and then fire it all back up again. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sherwy.
The Quick control box is normally connected directly to the contactors in the thruster which draw around 350-400mA. The Hella relays only draw about 50mA, so the Quick control box interprets that to mean the thruster is not working so it switches itself off and alarms after 3 or 4 seconds. I got my sparky to install a resistor in the relay circuit to increase the current draw to 400mA and it now works perfectly. Well, as good as this system can work anyway.
To be clear my symptoms were that the system would alarm and the bow thruster would shut down after only 3 or 4 seconds of continuous use. The only way to reset was turn shut down the main, ignition off and then fire it all back up again. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sherwy.
I have a sense and my actuator broke that made my throttle not respond and was dead in the water. The actuator is full of computer chips and such it shakes them loose and fails. 1200$ part. Yanmar part. But throttle wouldn’t respond restarted a few times and then got it in gear at 2000 rpms then it wouldn’t respond, stuck in gear.