It’s not easy to maneuver a 58-foot, single-screw cruising boat around the docks in the best of circumstances. Add a wind or current or a narrow fairway, and well, it’s easy for the captain to look bad and really hard to look good.
So, when Duffield Yachts was putting the finishing touches on hull number one of its Doug Zurn-designed Duffield 58 Down-East-style cruiser, the California company got a call from Palmer Johnson Power Systems, the distributor for Twin Disc. To make the boat more maneuverable, Twin Disc suggested using its MGX QuickShift transmission, EJS controls and Max Power hydraulic bow and stern thrusters. The Twin disc system simultaneously activates the throttle, transmission and thrusters. The captain can move the boat in any direction he wants simply by moving the joystick; there’s one at the lower station and on the flybridge, plus a remote.
Travis Duffield, VP of Duffield Yachts, is happy with the results. “I can’t tell you how easy it is to operate this boat by myself,” he says. “I don’t care if it’s windy, the tide’s rippin’ out or how tight the slip is, wherever I move that joystick the boat’s going to go.”
Take a look at the video below to see how easy the Duffield 58 is to move around. And here’s a link to our earlier story about the boat itself:
http://cruisingodyssey.com/2017/04/13/doug-zurn-design…beach-california/
