Hello, I'm the owner of a brand new 46 foot European built yacht which has factory fitted Sleipner/Side Power retractable bow and stern thrusters. The thrusters are wired to the house battery bank ( 570 AH capacity).
During commissioning the bow thruster started rapidly moving between port and starboard. It was then shut down and it was discovered that the coupling had sheared. Earlier that day the stern thruster had stopped delivering thrust. On further investigation it was discovered that the coupling had also sheared.
The local Sleipner agent initially blamed the problems on either “set up issues” or “low voltage”. Later its seems to have been accepted that the bow thruster issue was caused by a stuck solenoid/controller and the side to side movement is an attempt by the software to un-stick it (although one that resulted in sheared couplings). The new controller box and couplings took 6 weeks to arrive.
After installation both thrusters worked correctly, however 1 week later the stern thruster sheared the coupling again ( the stern thruster had been successfully operated in approximately 3 berthings since the new coupling was installed).
Annoyingly the plastic clip on joysticks on the dual proportional thruster controller have a habit of falling off if pressed low down and I have had to SuperGlue them on, since they were often falling off at critical times during berthing manoeuvres.
3 months since the initial problem, the marine electrician has identified that the stern thruster doesn’t seem to have any form of delay in it when it moves from one side to the other, whereas the bow thruster does have a delay. His theory is that it is an older unit where the delays were activated by relays, which seem to be missing from the unit. Apparently the new models have a delay built into the software, so the theory is that upgrading the software on the older model might help. I am yet to receive any confirmation from Sleipner on this theory and the documentation is unhelpful.
I have never activated the thrusters for more than a second or 2 at a time and the battery and engine temperature indicators on the controller have always showed close to full remaining capacity. On a couple of occasions the bow thruster stopped working with a “Communications error”, but then worked again after being turned off and on. I have also had occasional low voltage warnings from the B&G instruments that are connected to the house bank. There has been a high failure rate in instruments connected to the house bank ( depth sounder, auto-pilot controller, auto pilot rudder reference unit and windlass chain counter sensor) which might be related. The batteries are fine and have been tested by the marine electrician.
I’m not going to comment here on the level of engineering, quality control and support in this saga ( it should be obvious to anyone reading this), however it would be great to hear of any suggestions or experiences, given the glacial pace of support and in particular whether it should have been installed off the house bank and whether that is of adequate capacity.
Many thanks,
During commissioning the bow thruster started rapidly moving between port and starboard. It was then shut down and it was discovered that the coupling had sheared. Earlier that day the stern thruster had stopped delivering thrust. On further investigation it was discovered that the coupling had also sheared.
The local Sleipner agent initially blamed the problems on either “set up issues” or “low voltage”. Later its seems to have been accepted that the bow thruster issue was caused by a stuck solenoid/controller and the side to side movement is an attempt by the software to un-stick it (although one that resulted in sheared couplings). The new controller box and couplings took 6 weeks to arrive.
After installation both thrusters worked correctly, however 1 week later the stern thruster sheared the coupling again ( the stern thruster had been successfully operated in approximately 3 berthings since the new coupling was installed).
Annoyingly the plastic clip on joysticks on the dual proportional thruster controller have a habit of falling off if pressed low down and I have had to SuperGlue them on, since they were often falling off at critical times during berthing manoeuvres.
3 months since the initial problem, the marine electrician has identified that the stern thruster doesn’t seem to have any form of delay in it when it moves from one side to the other, whereas the bow thruster does have a delay. His theory is that it is an older unit where the delays were activated by relays, which seem to be missing from the unit. Apparently the new models have a delay built into the software, so the theory is that upgrading the software on the older model might help. I am yet to receive any confirmation from Sleipner on this theory and the documentation is unhelpful.
I have never activated the thrusters for more than a second or 2 at a time and the battery and engine temperature indicators on the controller have always showed close to full remaining capacity. On a couple of occasions the bow thruster stopped working with a “Communications error”, but then worked again after being turned off and on. I have also had occasional low voltage warnings from the B&G instruments that are connected to the house bank. There has been a high failure rate in instruments connected to the house bank ( depth sounder, auto-pilot controller, auto pilot rudder reference unit and windlass chain counter sensor) which might be related. The batteries are fine and have been tested by the marine electrician.
I’m not going to comment here on the level of engineering, quality control and support in this saga ( it should be obvious to anyone reading this), however it would be great to hear of any suggestions or experiences, given the glacial pace of support and in particular whether it should have been installed off the house bank and whether that is of adequate capacity.
Many thanks,
