Beneteau A12 Antares

 

Issue: October/November 2005

The Beneteau Flyer 12 is not your typical luxury sport boat. Her classic lines are reminiscent of an old-world motoryacht.

But these lines disguise a new world hull designed specifically around Volvo's revolutionary new Independent Propulsion System (IPS) with forwardfacing drives.

What's unique about this craft , compared to most other IPS driven vessels, is Beneteau and Volvo collaborated from the ground up to design a hull featuring level underside ports to mount the IPS drive units on. Th is gives much better performance than simply mounting the drives on an existing hull.

For me, the enjoyment I got from taking a conventional Beneteau Antares 12m for a long run on the Mediterranean Sea disintegrated when I switched to the IPS-driven Flyer 12. This boat clearly demonstrated the advantages of IPS. The IPS Flyer was powered by twin D6 310hp Volvos and she left the conventionally powered 12m Flybridge Antares well in her wake.

WHAT THE HECK IS IPS
At this point I should explain what IPS is all about. Volvo has released a revolutionary drive system featuring a leg with the propellers facing forward. It was partly inspired by its well established yacht Sail Drive, which has the leg coming from the underside of the hull instead of the stern.

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IPS delivers unobstructed forward thrust and improved power at the prop. And set-up correctly, all cavitation in turns should be eliminated. The disadvantages are unclear at this stage, but some commentators have noted they feel uncomfortable about having the prop so exposed. But Volvo has designed the leg to drop off in drastic circumstances, such as a high-speed grounding, saving the hull and engines from severe damage. And after all, a lot of traditional shaft drives on planing hulls have exposed props without the safeguard of Volvo's 'sacrificial-leg system'. There is a lot more on the topic at www. volvo.com if you're keen for more detail. Only time will tell whether the space saving IPS is the new way for midrange powerboat propulsion. But my initial experience onboard the Beneteau 12m Flyer indicates this drive system has a lot going for it.

So far, most of the boats (and there are only a few) have had IPS units retrofitted to hulls that were designed for legs or shafts. The IPS is essentially a twin-engine arrangement, with the legs coming from either side of a deep-vee hull's keel. But imagine a craft with only a moderate deadrise. If the legs only were just whacked on, in tight turns the prop with less water (the side raised during the turn) would have trouble performing at its best. But there were no such problems with this Beneteau Flyer when I got to drive this magnificent 'red rocket' off Valencia in Spain. From the outset it was clear this large craft manoeuvred like a much smaller vessel. Its steering was as light as a feather and tight turns could be completed without any loss of power. The hull demonstrated all the sea-keeping skills of a top 12m-vessel and the flared bow kept everything dry.

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