Anyone who reads the stuff I write will eventually see that I'm a little tetched on the subject of boathandling and slow-mo maneuvering. There are a couple of reasons. First, boathandling's very important--unless you can easily and safely extract your boat from various marinas and docking situations and then return her to either the same or another marina or docking situation with the same relative level of ease and safety, you can't really enjoy all the other aspects of cruising, fishing, or whatever else you want to do. And second, I love boathandling and slo-mo cruising, even though it's taken me years to learn how to do it and cost me more than a few scrapes, dings, and bouts of anxiety.

The picture above was taken from the flybridge of a boat I recently tested out of Miami--the Bertram 511. I snapped the photo while we toodled along the Miami River, a fairly narrow, scenic (it's loaded with boats, tugs, and island-hopping ships), and somewhat congested stretch of water that separates Bertram's manufacturing facility from sea-trial city, otherwise known as the Atlantic Ocean.

At any rate, while navigating the Miami River I was able to get pleasantly familiar with an onboard feature provided by the folks at ZF--it's called Autotroll. Yeah sure, there are numerous engine-control systems available on boats these days, but this one struck me as being particularly nifty, principally because it's so darn simple. Quite frankly, I've played with several other systems over the past few years and none of them seemed so self-explanatory and ergonomically comfy. Check it out:

The only evidence of Autotroll shown above is the small, squarish panel to the right of the steering wheel and mounted flat on the dashboard. Give this baby a couple of dabs with a forefinger and you're immediately in Autotroll, a mode of operation that precisely--and the key word here is precisely--controls the amount of slo-mo propeller power you put into the water. Lemme give you a close-up of the panel below:

The way this thing actually works is what I like most about it. Once Autotroll is engaged, you simply adjust your engine-control levers while gauging the result by monitoring a vertical series of annunciator lights on the sides of the squarish panel, in much the same way that you monitor trim tab deployment via a dashboard control panel. Fine-tuning operating speed in the slo-mo realm's never been easier. And, as I mention in the sea-trial report on the Bertram 511 (we're talking the March issue of PMY, I believe), it beats the livin' daylights out of clunkily clutching first one engine into gear, then the other, in hopes of maintaining steady progress along a restricted waterway without disturbing other vessels, particularly those tied ashore, with a sumptuous wake.

But hey, the frosting on the cake is this. Should you need to stop in a hurry (I remember having to do so once on an especially terrifying evening when, as chance would have it, I caught vague sight of an unlighted vessel smack dab in the middle of a narrow channel that had remained fairly obscure on my radar, due to clutter from nearby buildings), you simply pull your engine-control levers into reverse and get full power automatically. Cool!