Genesis 400 Targa

It's exciting being at the frontline of new technology, riding the wave of anticipation that follows its inception, and figuring things out.

Real breakthroughs don't happen everyday in the marine industry, though Swedish Volvo Penta and Kiwi boatbuilders Genesis Marine reckon they're onto one.

The partners in crime have created a sporty 40ft sportscruiser powered by a pair of Volvo's impressive new D6 electronic diesel motors with common rail technology, but, more to the point of my fly-by-night visit to the Shaky Isles, the package includes Volvo's radical new Inboard Performance System, or IPS for short.

In fact, the Genesis 400 Targa pictured here, which hit the water at the Auckland Boat Show in March, was the first boat in the Southern Hemisphere sporting the revolutionary IPS system. As such, the boat created unprecedented interest in the usually a mundane world of boat motors fitted with ho-hum outboard, stern or shaft drives.

So did the boat go? As the Kiwis would say: my words, yes. I'm not going to show all my cards yet, but at the time of writing, Volvo Penta had installed and tested its new IPS on 14 different sportscruisers in the 35-to-40-footer league including a UK-made Fairline Phantom 40, a svelte Italian Cranchi 41 and American Four Winns and Tiara boats. What I can report is that the Genesis 400 Targa left them all in its wake. So not only is this the first IPS drive in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the fastest one tested to date by a margin of about two knots.

Being first to trial IPS has its ups and downs. On the upside, it will allow the successful Kiwi company Genesis Marine, Volvo Penta's biggest client in New Zealand, to get the jump on its competition. As the technology is untried on most boats, boatbuilders will face a period of sea testing and fine tuning before they discover the perfect match of IPS drive, software, hull and installation. It is my view that this new technology isn't something you can just drop into an existing boat and that is that. Volvo Penta were upgrading and still working on new software to adjust the electronic rudderless steering system at the time of writing.

Having said that, there is much to reveal about the Volvo's new IPS drives, their handling, performance, installation, and pros and cons. Also, there's the host boat, the Genesis Targa 400, which I last tested almost three years ago.

Like IPS, the boat has advanced down a path of evolution, with the introduction of new designer decor and soft-furnishing options, and upgraded entertainment systems. There will be future changes to the hatches and subfloor storage areas on boats fitted with IPS. The IPS drives create a lot more room at the transom and lazarette where sterndrives would otherwise be fitted and the motors themselves are located about 400mm further forward than a boat with sterndrives.

To these things, you can add yet more thrilling technology by way of the latest Raymarine E120 combo colour display with GPS chartplotter, radar, depth sounder and, inevitably, a link to the engines so you can replay engine-management data to the big screen.

The E120 also has S-video so you can run up to four cameras, a laptop and even entertainment like a Gameboy. More importantly, Raymarine is working on developing an autopilot that's compatible with IPS, as is Volvo, I'm told. Unfortunately, there is no autopilot available yet.

 This boat also boasted BTS. What's that? Short for Boat Trim System, which is a new product from Volvo Penta's QL (that's Quality Line) of boat accessories. BTS comprises small electric motors and retractable stainless-steel blades that are a fraction of the size and weight of conventional trim tabs, yet apparently just as effective. However, we had a BTS problem on the Genesis that wasn't rectified till my departure. Nothing too serious, it was more a case of being baffled by new science.

INTERIOR TOUR
As I have experienced this boat's layout and accommodation before, I will keep the rundown brief and focus more intently on the IPS.

Some background on Genesis. It's New Zealand's biggest sportscruiser builder trotting out about 25 boats a year, with seven models from 38ft to 51ft in length overall, the latest being a new 490 due for release in a year, after which will be a 510.

Available as a Targa Saloon (lockup) and Flybridge model, the 400 Targa was a neat sportscruiser with hardtop incorporating sunrooves, but with an open aft bulkhead so the indoor and outdoor living areas were seamless. The mouldings were fair, with few bumps and lots of curves in everything from counters and amenities centres to cambered decks, which some boaties don't like but which at least had a handy amount of diamond-pattern non-skid grip.

The boat is relatively light at 9000kg thanks to composite construction. The decks are made using foam and Coremat, while the hull is GRP with foam core, solid GRP sides, glass-encapsulated timber engine bearers, and glass-encapsulated foam stringers.

Indoors, all the galley cupboards and high-gloss joinery comes in a choice of American cherrywood, jarrah, walnut, English Tawa, and various veneers. This boat had the heavily-grained walnut joinery, and new interior colour scheme labelled simply "D" that features natural-toned, soft-touch Novasuede wall liners and mock-croc-skin-covered scatter cushions with a blue-metal coloured upholstery and carpet. A new buckskin vinyl featured on the outdoor saloon lounges.

There were cool reading and overhead halogen lights, a new woven bedhead instead of a mirror, and plenty of natural light due to a skylight in the galley and deck hatches (in need of a privacy screen over the forward bed) and portlights.

The boat had a couple of Solarvents to help with air circulation.

Headroom below ranges from a moderate 180cm (6ft) near the bow to 195cm (6ft 6in) near the foot of the four moulded steps leading off the cockpit. Accommodation comprises an offset double bed in the bow, behind a privacy curtain, and two large single berths back in the aft cabin, which has the boat's only hanging locker. But there are oodles of cupboards, lockers and drawers elsewhere for stowing clobber, crockery, cutlery, personal effects and even large bulky items. As mentioned, Genesis is working on reconfiguring the underfloor cockpit area to provide better storage for outdoor equipment now that the motors have come forward 400mm.

Indoor seating is a strength. Besides the small built-in dressing seat next to the double berth, there is a generous curved feature lounge opposite the galley that could seat six people around a small oak dinette. Nearby was the Sharp LCD 12V television, DVD and CD sound systems, plus the logical AC/DC control panels, with the main battery breakers in the cockpit.

This boat didn't have a generator but a 2500W inverter that could run the icemaker, microwave oven, the hot water heater and so on, for at least a weekend before you needed to crank over the engines, which had their own start batteries, of course. Aussies will doubtless want a generator and probably air-con, too. These are options.

Interestingly, the portside galley had a three-burner LPG stove, and gas to the outdoor barbie at the transom, plus a microwave oven, under-counter 12/240V fridge, small top-loading freezer, 1.5 sinks and a good amount of Corian food-prep space. However, there were no fiddle rails or extractor fan. With a second fridge and icemaker in the cockpit, you do have a boat that you can stay-away on for up to, say, a week at a time.

The 450lt of water is quite generous for at least three days of liveaboard boating for a full complement of four. And the aft cabin isn't just for kids; the two big single beds and dresser lounge were tres accommodating when I tried them on for size. Last but not least, the head to port is a fully moulded unit with a Lectrasan loo and shower with a sliding curtain not a permanent stall. As such there is a good amount of floorspace.

While there are bigger 40-footers on the market, this boat had a nice vibe and great finishes, plus handy beds and amenities. It should satisfy a large part of the market, including boaties who like to cruise by day and overnight on occasion.

COCKPIT CAPERS
Hardtops are all the rage on sportscruisers at the moment and this one shows why. With sliding sunrooves, big windows and wipers, and indoor/outdoor seating, you get the best of both worlds and can go boating in comfort no matter what the weather. The boat had plenty of amenities for dayboating: fridge, icemaker, sink, hot and cold water, deck shower, gas barbecue and swim ladder and extended boarding platform for hanging out.

The U-shaped lounge to starboard could seat six people around the folding drinks/lunch table. There were additional small single seats opposite the two-person helm seat, both of which needed some kind of footrest. There are small stools for fishing from the cockpit. The boat had a seven-stacker stainless-steel rocket launcher for stowing the rods out of harm's way and a stainless-steel U-bar for security on the boarding platform with rodholders for when you want to soak a bait for a snapper.

Access around the sides of the boat is helped along by non-skid tread-patterned panels and I found it simple enough to reach the fender baskets, at least. The boat also has sliding side windows so, with hatches open, you could create excellent airflow. I noticed not one whiff of diesel smoke or spray being sucked back aboard.

The boat was extensively equipped at the helm station: cool carbon dash panels, the Raymarine E120 multifunction chartplotter, Maxwell windlass remote and chain counter, trendy new analogue engine gauges and alarm gauges, a rudder indicator and clock, controls for the BTS trim fins, switch panel, spotlight and VHF radio.

The main controls included a bowthruster, EVC electronic shifts and an LCD Volvo Penta engine-monitoring panel. There is turnkey, not pushbutton ignition, surprisingly, and a sports steering wheel linked to the highly-intelligent computing system that changes the direction of the IPS drives to alter thrust and provide steerage in accordance with your movements of the wheel.

Underfloor, beneath two big hinged deck hatches, and a third hatch near the dinette table, I found direct access to the engines, their oil dipsticks, and the IPS units, which require very little time to install, much to the delight of boatbuilders. The engines are toed-in by two degrees, can be jackshafted to 1.7m from the drive, and the IPS system is said to be applicable in hulls from 12- to 23 degrees.

The water pickups are behind the props, so only Houdini could make it past the whirring blades to block the intakes, and the exhausts exit the IPS units to send what little smoke there is underwater and away. Mounted on extra-soft rubber mounts, the engines had very little vibration at idle. You could also walk along the engine blocks without risk of throwing a shaft out of alignment.

The corrosion-free bronze IPS running units have 400hr servicing intervals and are designed to be sacrificial should you somehow clobber a sandbank. Ahead of the engine room, the forward utility room had access to the aluminium fuel and water tanks, the Racor fuel filters and batteries.

IPS ON THE MOVE
Auckland is a wonderful recreational boating playground, with as many twists and turns as a Swiss watch, as well as enough bays, harbours, channels and passages to keep a boatie busy on a lifetime of discovery.

On test day, the waters were playing the tourist game: perfectly calm, with blue skies and few boats. The views played from the helm seat like an inflight promotional movie for Auckland but my focus was unwaveringly centred on the IPS and its handling.

From cold start, the 370hp D6 IPS500 motors are clean-running and remarkably vibration free. With hydraulic transmissions, I thought it surprising that there was no trolling-valve or low-idle setting offered with the engines. When put into gear, the boat really jumps, making parking difficult to do slowly. It is, however, a mightily manoeuvrable boat and not a task to drive.

 I drove the boat from its pen by nudging the throttles in and out of gear. When the throttles are reversed, the boat turns on its effective length from the props to the bow, which is more like a 25-footer than a 40-footer. Such is the responsiveness of the drives that it is possible to park this boat off the wheel.

Contrary to what I had read, I found it simple to figure out and, with the bowthruster and counter-rotating props, you can put it any which way you want, including sideways into a berth with all the deftness of a crab scuttling into a wave-washed crevice.

Low-speed driving off the wheel was excellent and the boat turned around a series of poles unlike any shaft drive, of course. However, let me make the point contrary to Volvo Penta. I am not viewing IPS as a replacement for shafts, as has been touted, but as a whole new genre of drives that appeals to the performance-minded boater. The twin 370hp motors and big props gave stunning acceleration, so much so that you really did need to forewarn your crew with a heads-up of "hold on". Holeshot could have been even better had we got the BTS trim system working. But full marks to Volvo Penta for the common-rail fuel-injection system, which provides the grunt down low without the whine of those pesky superchargers on some Volvo Penta motors. Turbocharging takes care of the top-end oomph.

So how fast is the fastest IPS-equipped boat? The Genesis 400 Targa topped out at a sprightly 40.1 knots at 3600rpm, which is damn fast, especially when you poke your head around the GRP hardtop. As such, cruise speeds were right up on the usual mid-20 knots. The motors sounded happy humming along at 3200rpm for a 34.2 knot cruise burning 107lt/h in total.

For long-range cruising, the boat returned 25.6 knots at 2610rpm while burning 72lt/h in total for a range of 320 nautical miles leaving 10 per cent of the fuel supply in reserve. Fast or slow, the IPS drives seemed very efficient to me, with no thumping of water in tight turns on the hull, and a smooth feeling like, well, jet engines.

However, tight turns weren't easy to come by. While the initial IPS software program did provide snappy lock-to-lock turning, as evidenced in the Genesis promotional DVD of this boat, Volvo Penta changed the software to a setting that is just too cautious. In fact, at speed, the turning circle was akin to that of a school bus.

I have it on good authority, however, that within six weeks of my visit to Auckland, Volvo Penta will be offering three different response programs for the driving of its IPS. These will be selected for boats with deadrises from 12 to 23 degrees. Selective steering makes sense, since the dynamics of a deep-vee hull are very different to those of a moderate-vee hull such as the hull on this Genesis.

As it was, the boat turned at displacement speeds on less than its length, came around sharply at low-planing speeds as it turned more off the nose than the drives, but at high speed running free, the drives didn't want to take control aggressively enough. The Managing Director of Volpower NZ Ltd, Wayne Patten said the reprogramming was a result of some American boats apparently turning hard on their side with the old program. Hence the selective driving program for varying hulls.

So there's still some work to do with IPS ahead. But that's not uncommon with radical new technology and there's certainly no turning back. For many boat manufacturers, the key to reliable performance might lie in designing hulls to suit IPS. The Genesis 400 Targa appeared to be a good model before the steering software was changed.

Looking across at the 747 parked beside me at Auckland airport, one might speculate that aeroplanes could well have been the source of inspiration for the Volvo IPS engineers. I left Auckland thinking about forward-facing propellers, IPS, and how with more time I could have really seen some Kiwi magic in the Genesis 400 Targa. Maybe next time. Meantime, it's my view that Volvo has hit onto something b-i-g.


HIGHS