I’m in the last days of delivering a late model Ferretti from Lauderdale to Solomons, and these controls are... goofy.

They appear to be Micro-Commanders with Cummins decals. I’m used to the slight delay in going into gear, but this thing never throttles up the same way twice. Sometimes I can ease the throttle forward (synched), and she runs up nice and smooth. Other times, I take the throttle to the stop, and it just sits there a second and takes off like a friggin rocket launch. I can partially advance the throttles, and it’ll then accelerate on its own. It’s like there’s a time delay that works part of the time. I can generally feel it about to hard launch and pull back the throttle before it does. It’s fun feeling that massive torque, but I know that can be hard on things.

Then there’s the lovely vagueness in trying to apply throttle in reverse. Lots of range in the handle before it responds, then it is too much. I’ve run a few boats with these type controls, but none have ever done this. This is the first twin engine boat for this new owner, and I don’t want him to get into trouble. I’m assuming there is some way to address this.