Sandra and Regan Fleming have owned a number of Riviera Motor Yachts in the past and their latest is a new Riviera 68 Sports Motor Yacht. This model along with the 72 Motor Yacht feature a number of our products as standard. In this article Sandra and Regan outline their experiences with the equipment and how these pieces of technology have made boating so much more enjoyable for them.

How long have you been boating and where do you mostly enjoy spending your time on the water?

I’ve spent most of my life boating growing in New Zealand and spending plenty of time on the water on a range of boats our family owned over the years. Most of my experience came from driving single engine shaft drive boats, so I have an understanding of how important reliable products are when out at sea. More recently we have spent the last 16 years boating in and around the Broadwater on the Gold Coast with plenty of offshore fishing and inshore relaxing. We’ve also spent the last 3 years based out of Hamilton Island and enjoying boating around The Whitsundays which we just loved. We’re just about to leave for another adventure heading off to Noumea in the boat, really looking forward to the trip.

Why did you choose to install the Twin Disc, Seakeeper and SeaTorque products on your latest boat?

We’d spent many uncomfortable nights on friends and our previous boats and heard a lot about stabilisers but didn’t quite understand how they worked. We went out on a demo with Twin Disc and were immediately amazed and convinced we needed one. We wouldn’t own a boat without one now.

In terms of the EJS and EPS, we’d had boats before with joystick control but using different engines and drive systems and after we tried the EJS were we’re just sold. It is just such precise equipment offering way more control than the other systems we’d experienced before, the EJS makes manoeuvring so simple and the EPS makes berthing a breeze. I think the key difference is the positioning of the thrusters and how they work with the engines, giving more overall control of the boat versus the positioning of od drives that have to work so much harder. We also had a preference for shaft drive boats over Pods as well.

The best thing about the EJS and EPS is there’s no stress when we come in to tie up regardless of the conditions, and like the Seakeeper we wouldn’t own another boat without them. The SeaTorque shaft system has also made a noticeable difference to the performance of the boat with a significant reduction in vibration and noise.

Have the products performed to your expectations?

Above our expectations! Sandra is testament to how good the EJS system is as this is the first boat she’s been happy to take the controls and just so impressed with how light the system is to use whilst being very responsive. In terms of the Seakeeper, we’ve been boating for about 700 hours already on this new boat and not a thing has fallen out of a cupboard or a door flown open, regardless of conditions.

What was your service experience like with Twin Disc?

We had a few little challenges at the start, as you always do with boats. I’m hands-on when it comes to overseeing the servicing of all the equipment on the boat and I found the Service Technicians were maybe taking me for granted and not listening to some of my thoughts around our service requirements and a few small issues. After a discussion with Glenn and John Harrison the Service Manager they better understood my position and how I like to take an active interest in the servicing side of the equipment and we quickly resolved the initial issues. We also spoke about fixed price servicing that is more beneficial for my requirements. Apart from that the service from Twin Disc is always first class.

What would you say to someone considering Twin Disc, Seakeeper and SeaTorque products for their boat?

Just do it! It’s pretty simple as we’ll never own another boat without them. Do the demonstrations Twin Disc offer as they are a great way to experience the products first hand. The EJS and EPS especially just make berthing so stress-free and easy.

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 Twin Disc Pacific will be conducting on-water demos for visitors to the 31st Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, 23 to 26 May 2019.