38XO

Took delivery of our 38XO this past Sat. As expected we found a number of minor things being a new boat. Only thing that was not working at all was the stove top but the dealer is looking into that, they think it may be a loose wire. Biggest quality control issue I think are all the missing magnets or misaligned magnets on the window shades. 1/2 of them are missing or don't work so that must have fallen through the cracks. A few cosmetic things as well, all will be fixed etc. Next weekend we will be living on the boat for 3 days so we should see what else we can discover.

In terms of electronics and mechanical stuff:

The electronic remote battery switches will take some getting used to. BLUE indicates off, RED on.
Initially these remote battery switches didn't work at all from the helm. Either all off (blue) or all on (red) resulted in all my DC equipment having power. In other words, there was no way to turn off the DC batteries (like flipping the house batter switch off). 3 service people looked at it and could not figure it out. I solved this one myself as it turned out the remote switch breakers in the bilge were set to bypass the remote helm switches and set to on. Meaning 12vdc power was on and the remote switches were disabled. Once I set correctly, the helm remote battery switches worked as expected.

Surprised to find out my boat has TWO massive house batteries. I thought it would come with one as you get the 2nd if you have a seakeeper ( which I do not). So I have 5 batteries, 3 starting and 2 large house.

Yamaha/Seastar joystick operation. This was not a responsive and does not work the same way as my Mercury Axis joystick. The Merc was more responsive and more intuitive. I only have a very little time on the seastar so it will take more getting used to and practice. According to the docs there is a concept of primary and secondary movement. So moving the joystick forward then twisting is not the same as twisting then moving forward. The Axius system does not work like that at all.

Had some trouble with the bluetooth on the Fusion and had to shutdown and start up in order to get it to work again. Could not figure out how to connect via fusion wifi either.

4 Sharp smart tv's all work well. Nice they are all the same and use the same remote (we have 4 remotes).

We had the factory install extra USB ports so there is one on each side of every bed and couch. I am so glad I did this. No matter where you are sitting or laying down, there is a usb port next to you.

We also had the factory modify the lower aft settie. Instead of having 3 drawers at the end, we have one drawer and the couch now extends all the way to the closet. The backrests are removable as well. This means a full size adult can sleep there. The mod came out great. I'll post pics next week.

I will be getting some more sea time this upcoming weekend where I will learn about the autopilot and electronic anchor modes.
I will also get more time on the joystick. The joystick operation overall is the part I'm nervous about. There are only 3 props in the water with 3 blades each. That's not as much bite as the dual props with twins on my last boat. The boat also has a larger side profile which isn't going to help in the wind.

One last thing... I was going to install the Siren Marine remote monitor unit myself. I did on my last boat as well. The initial connection requires connecting directly to the batteries, something that used to be simple. On the 38XO there are NO accessories connected to the batteries at the battery lugs themselves. The only wires attached to each battery are the massive +/- wires. I see negative bus terminal blocks all over the place but I don't see how/where to connect any positive wires especially if they need to connect to the battery directly (can't be turned off)

More to come

More on the Optimus 360 joystick. A few months back when I was reading up on the joystick before I got my boat I glanced over the joystick docs but figured how hard could it be especially since I was very used to the Axius system. Push the stick in any direction and twist etc and the boat responds.

So flash forward to my sea trail on the 38XO. When taking the boat out of the slip then having to turn or do some complex maneuvers I couldn’t get the boat out go where I wanted. It was frustrating and a bit scary. Coming back into the slip I also had trouble and needed to use the bow thruster. Keep in mind there was no current and only light wind.

Then I went back and actually looked at the manual in more detail. Not only is there a concept of a primary and secondary commands there are other things to know as well. There are 3 primary movements, forward/reverse, sideways and rotation. It is recommend to return to the joystick center position when switching between primary movements. Also there is a built in pause when changing primary movements unless moving from forward to reverse.

There is a reference card in my doc that goes over how it works and what the recommendations are. There is definitely something I’m going to have to think about when docking with the joystick until it becomes second nature. The good news is I’m hoping with my new knowledge on how this Optimus system works I’ll be able to control the boat much better.

I’m hoping to be able to test this all out more this weekend.

Thanks for the update. Like you, I took delivery of my new 33 express and working through the minor issues. The biggest issue was a leaking freshwater hose barb in the toilet. Easy fix, pain to remove toilet and find the leak.

I must say, with every new boat, the initial punch list always existed but once you get them all addressed, you’ll be good to go. Post pics when you get a chance.

Btw, the Yamaha joystick does take more time to get used to. The Volvo joystick is more forgiving but eventually you get used to the Yamaha stick. Trim the engines up a bit so that the prop reverse water flow is going under the boat. The prop exhaust always caused the prop to lose bite in reverse on those v6 4.2L engines as it agitates the smooth water flow then pushes the water directly to the transom. Counterbalance effect.

Rlazar, I purchased the 33 xo earlier this year and had the same challenges. I have had much better success trimming the engines up a bit but still utilize the bow thruster in conjunction with the joystick. Appreciate you sharing tips on the use of the joystick. Great boat man, absolutely love the XO and I hope you and your family enjoy.

Two weeks after delivery they did the calibration on a calm day. Works like a charm now. You will see ideal performance after the calibration. It truly is a game changer for docking. Even over 20+ knot winds I can make the boat go sideways using boost. Let us know how it goes.

I am still waiting to have mine re-calibrated.  However, I would push to have yours done again. From what I was told, the Regal factory does not calibrate the units, they only verify it works.   This means if yours was done, it would have been done by your dealer.   Maybe find  out if they did that?  Also, as in my case apparently it was not done right or sufficiently.  I know they say it has to be calm with little to no wind when they do it.