Since ancient Polynesians first navigated the mighty Pacific Ocean, seafarers have sought ways to lend greater stability to their oceangoing boats. Polynesians built multihull sailing craft with wider beams that resisted roll to enhance comfort and safety—cutting-edge technology for 3,000 years ago that enabled this culture to navigate vast distances and settle innumerable South Pacific isles using relatively small boats.
Today, the quest for greater stability afloat continues, with major strides taking place in the recreational boat market—most notably in technologically advanced systems that exert dynamic forces on boat hulls to help neutralize the heave and pitch of rough seas.
This is the future of stabilization, and it’s occurring on two major fronts: gyroscopic stabilizers and dynamic attitude control systems. Let’s take a look at both methods and learn why they represent the next big thing for boaters.
Gyroscopic Stabilization
My late friend Dick Uranga used to liken a day of offshore fishing to spending eight hours on an exercise machine. Indeed, after returning from many a trip in rough seas, my legs and back ached the next morning, the lingering effects of constantly working muscles to maintain balance on deck. I have a name for the pain: angle-over. Yet advances in gyroscopic stabilization for boats can minimize angle-over, as well as the misery of seasickness. There are a number of brands in the stabilization field, including Boat Stabilizer, Quick and Veem, but few have been as aggressive as Seakeeper in developing and promoting new systems.
Seakeeper has a wide range of models for recreational and commercial boats, including its biggest: the Seakeeper 40 for yachts up to 110 feet in length. Yet the most compact and affordable gyros, such as the Seakeeper 1, 2 and 3, hold the greatest interest and potential for the majority of boaters. That’s because these models are optimized for boats as small as 23 to 30 feet in length (for Seakeeper 1) to 35 to 41 feet (for the Seakeeper 3).
To understand how a gyrostabilizer works, think of a bicycle. When not moving, the bike easily flops from side to side. Yet, when you’re riding it, the spinning wheels result in a gyroscopic stabilizing effect to keep it upright and balanced—at least for the most part.
The same principle is at work with a product such as a Seakeeper gyrostabilizer. The motorized gyroscope keeps the boat from rolling, whether at rest or underway. By design, it has no effect on pitch (fore and aft motion) or yaw (lateral movement). Eliminating pitch could conceivably prevent the boat from meeting waves in a seakindly manner; eliminating yaw would interfere with the ability to safely steer the boat.
I have had opportunities to experience Seakeepers on a number of boats, and each time I have been amazed at how stable the boat became with the system in operation. Most recently, I was aboard the new Boston Whaler 330 Vantage, as well as the new Intrepid 41 Panacea, both equipped with Seakeeper 3 systems. It reduced roll in 2- to 3-foot seas while at rest in a beam sea, stabilizing the side-to-side movement to between zero and 2 degrees, according to my tests with an inclinometer. This made it easy to walk about the deck without getting tossed around, reducing the “exercise-machine” effect and enhancing the safety factor. Not only was roll virtually eliminated, but the system was so quiet that you could barely hear it running.
It operates on 12 volts DC, with no need for AC input, such as from an onboard generator. Though the Seakeeper 3 can operate from the power supplied solely by outboard-engine alternators, the control system is typically backed up by a bank of 31-series house batteries connected in parallel. If the engines are not running, the Seakeeper 3 can run four to six hours on the three batteries, depending on sea conditions, and it will shut itself off automatically if voltage runs too low. Maximum draw is 85 amps during spool-up, but during operation, the draw decreases to anywhere between 35 and 75 amps depending on the sea state.
Dynamic Attitude Control
Another technology that holds the promise of greater stability and comfort afloat are advanced attitude-control systems, which automatically—and precisely—fine-tune the ride with blinding speed based on sea conditions. These amazing systems can minimize, if not eliminate, bow oscillation, pounding and listing while underway.
More than one company has already introduced such futuristic systems, which are unlike the familiar horizontal trim-tab plates that boaters have relied upon for years. Cutting-edge brands offering automatic attitude-control systems include Humphree, Zipwake and Seakeeper.
The design philosophies of each varies a bit. Humphree and Zipwake, for example, use interceptors, which are vertical composite blades on each side of the transom bottom that deploy downward to create hydrodynamic lift by intercepting water flow under the boat. These are integrated with high-tech sensors, integrated microprocessors and ultra-fast actuators that drive the interceptors to dynamically control the pitch and roll while underway.
The Ride system from Seakeeper uses a different approach, employing a pair of blade-like controllers on each side of the bottom of the transom. The electrically powered rotary actuators can adjust the blades up and down at mind-boggling speeds.
“Seakeeper Ride’s proprietary, rapid-deployment rotary blades make 100 adjustments every second,” says Andrew Semprevivo, president and CEO of Seakeeper. Those adjustments are based on taking 1,000 measurements every second, and the controllers operate at speeds up to 300 millimeters per second, Semprevivo points out.
Engineered for boats up to 42 feet in length, Ride can eliminate up to 70 percent of pitch and roll while the boat is underway, according to the company, though each boat will respond differently to the system. The sealed electric controllers are housed outside the transom. Only one small hole is required to pass the power cable into the bilge area. The module itself attaches with a high-strength adhesive such as Plexus.
Read Next: The Marine Lithium Battery Revolution
Ride’s controllers interface with an electronic three-axis sensing software module that understands how the boat is behaving in terms of pitch, roll and yaw, then sends commands to the controllers to instantaneously quell bow oscillation and minimize roll. It can also “learn” the boat and the sea conditions to deliver the optimal performance. A helm keypad turns the system off and on, but Ride also networks with compatible multifunction displays that offer graphics showing operational parameters with touchscreen control.
To explore the difference that Ride can make, I installed the Ride 450 system on my 21.5-foot Cabo 216 saltwater fishing boat and ran it at speeds up to 31-plus knots into 3-foot seas. With the automatic function off, the bow rose and fell at the mercy of the waves. Not only was this pounding uncomfortable, but it also robbed the boat of efficiency, reducing its fuel economy.
However, with Ride in auto mode, bow oscillation was minimal, allowing the boat’s sharp entry to cut the waves when necessary, but also allowing the bow to rise slightly to skim the water between waves. Ride eliminated about 45 percent of oscillation on my boat, resulting in far greater crew comfort.
To test for correcting a list, we shifted crewmembers from side to side. Without the auto function, the boat developed a serious list. With the auto function on, the boat never departed from an even keel.
Turns feel a bit different. In auto mode, the boat still leans into turns, but not nearly as much as without it, boosting the comfort level. I asked Semprevivo if Ride can smooth out an inherently rough-riding boat. “It will make a rough-riding boat less rough and a smooth-riding boat even smoother,” he said.
The Ride 450 is designed for boats up to 26 feet; the Ride 525 is for boat 27 to 30 feet in length; and the Ride 600 is for boats 31 to 36 feet. Seakeeper has also recently introduced the Ride 750 and 750 Quad system for boats up to 42 feet in length. The 750 system consists of two larger controllers and will fit most vessels in this size range. The 750 Quad, on the other hand, has four smaller controllers and is suitable for unique transoms that may have hull design elements that restrict space for installing the system’s actuators.
The science of creating greater stability afloat has advanced mightily in recent years, let alone since the ancient Polynesians explored and settled the islands of the South Pacific.
Dynamic attitude-control and gyrostabilization systems expand the opportunities for owners of boats big or small to enjoy more time on the water with greater comfort and safety.
