Now that I’ve had the Dockmate on Have Another Day for a few months, I don’t want to give up my loaner system. By contrast, a Dockmate single-engine demo boat has the twist motion use only the bow and stern thrusters. My boat’s torquey motors and big props mean that I can pretty easily spin the boat on differential thrust alone, so I asked that the joystick’s twist motion be set up to put one engine in forward and one in reverse while not using any actual thruster power. A Dockmate installer can customize nearly every aspect of the system’s operation. The Dockmate installation is virtually invisible, with only a master power switch and the charging pad showing at the helm. The author says navigating his boat by remote took some practice. It’s best not to turn your body 180 degrees because in your brain, the angle creates a mismatch between the direction you push the remote and the direction the boat moves.īONUS VIDEO | We had a chance to test Dockmate's "Docking Made Easy" remote docking system at TrawlerFest Stuart. Navigating my boat by remote control took a little practice. During two months of testing, I’ve never had a control input fail to transmit and execute a command. Immediately after completing the system’s installation, I walked the remote down the dock and using my boat’s horn found its range is in excess of 300 feet.
All the remotes are waterproof, float and include a neck lanyard. The Dockmate Single or Dockmate Twin has membrane push buttons for single- or twin-engine installs. The Twist is a joystick-style remote for twin-engine and pod-driven boats.
Also in the safety department: In the event of any failure, dead batteries or other unexpected event, the system is designed to return to neutral, with the engine controls at the helm active.ĭockmate offers two styles of remotes. This safety mechanism avoids a stuck relay and unintended actuation, such as thruster and engine commands. Critical functions such as thruster and engine commands have double relays, both of which must close to engage the function.
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