I was hanging out with friends in our marina on Saturday afternoon when a marina neighbor/friend called me. He was bringing his 46 foot twin diesel boat into Hampton Harbor to return to the marina from Gloucester and lost forward gear on the starboard engine, and reverse gear on the port engine (Volvo Penta electronic shifters).
I hung up the phone, informed the group of the problem and we sprang into action. Some folks grabbed fenders (we have a giant "docking did not go as planned" ball fender that we leave in our cockpit all the time for these kinds of emergencies, so that was the first one grabbed) and climbed aboard the boat he shares a slip with, some folks grabbed boat hooks and prepared to catch lines, and two of us jumped in our RIB tenders and headed out to escort him in. Unfortunately, he needed to spin the boat counter-clockwise to back into his slip, and that's exactly what he could not do with the transmissions as they were. We used the two RIBs like tug boats and got him perfectly aligned by pushing on the two ends of his boat, while others got control of the lines from the docks and hauled him backwards into his slip. Everything went perfectly and we took it slowly so there was no damage or danger. Was actually really fun.
FWIW, the port transmission had a clogged screen on reverse shift valve, the other transmission seems to have an electrical fault in the shift solenoids or controls.
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