The Stabilizer Series: Part 1
Best4Boats.com launches our multi-article series on the latest boat stabilizers and technology—starting with a Seakeeper demo in Seattle.
By Arnie Hammerman and Norris Comer
Boats move. It is what they are intended to do. Mind you, they are supposed to move primarily forward and backward and not so much side to side. Stability is important to boaters and today there are some really incredible products that help stabilize boats. Every boat’s design affects its inherent stability, meaning different stabilizing equipment is needed depending on the boat’s size, speed and purpose. Figuring out what type of stabilization is best for a boat can be complicated. I admit it was confusing seeing all the brands and the different stabilization options at the recent Miami International Boat Show.
Multiple manufacturers of stabilizing equipment have many different ways to accomplish stabilization, and they all think their methods and products are better than the competition. This article is intended to introduce this subject and Best4Boats will continue this discussion and explore more and different stabilizing solutions in subsequent articles.
Seakeeper in Seattle: Seakeeper 1 and Seakeeper Ride 450 combo
Norris Comer
The seas were close to glass and the sky unusually cloudless the Seattle February morning I hopped aboard for a sea demonstration of the Seakeeper 1 with Seakeeper Ride 450 systems. The demo boat was a Boston Whaler Outrage, a very popular 22’ model. This particular hull was generously loaned out by the owner, presumably a Seakeeper evangelist, and powered by a single Mercury Verado 300-horsepower outboard. I was in good hands with US Coast Guard veteran and mega yacht captain Morgan Harnay who worked with Seakeeper units for years before joining the company.
“I knew of Seakeeper before even working with them,” said Harnay. “I captained a cruise ship in Hawaii that was equipped with six Seakeepers, big units.” Seakeeper as a brand was the vision of founders Shep McKenney and John Adams. They partnered up in 2001 and installed their first gyro stabilizer prototype on a 43’ Viking yacht in 2006. At the time of this writing, there are Seakeeper units 1 through 40 for different vessel size tiers up to 110’ in length.
Harnay called the boat owner a happy customer. “He [the Whaler’s owner] is located in Alameda, California. They have some really big seas in the San Francisco Bay area. This boat can now go underway most of the time because of the systems that he has on. Before, he really had to pay attention to the weather forecast and current and tides. Now on this boat, 3-foot seas, 3.5-foot seas, no problem.”
We depart the dock and I get the spiel that corroborates my research. Our boat’s Seakeeper 1 is the company’s smallest model, advertised as ideal for boats 23’ to 30’ in length but our 22’ Outrage must work or I wouldn’t be aboard. The gyro stabilizer concept specifically counterbalances the roll motion of a boat. The essence of the technology is to house a rapidly spinning flywheel, we’re talking up to over 500 mph fast, within a gyroscopic sphere. This physical force is the fundamental phenomenon behind the entire concept. When properly paired with the vessel’s 12V power system and Seakeeper software, the stabilizer system spins as much or little as needed in order to counterbalance incoming roll. The unit, which utilizes hydraulics and a cooling system, is fully contained within a vacuum sealed, flush mounted housing, so no holes in the hull are required.
To a lay observer, it looks a bit like a large cooler with a window to a UV-lit spinning metal orb. Very sci-fi. Aboard our Outrage, the Seakeeper 1 unit was housed at the bottom of the center console cabin.
“I will say this 22-footer with our system feels more like a 30-footer,” said Harnay. “You will see what I mean by that when we get underway.”
We tossed off the dock lines and started playing around on the water. The Seakeeper gyro stabilizer is most effective from zero speed up to about 10 or 12 knots. While it can still contribute to a smoother ride at higher speeds, this lower speed range is its sweet zone. This automatically specializes the tech for specific use cases. For a small, quick boat like our 22’ Outrage with a 300 Mercury Verado, the gyro would be activated when stopped or at trolling speeds while fishing for example. But most folks would get a setup like this to go much faster, and that’s when the Seakeeper Ride 450 system works best when stabilizing at speed. When working in tandem, the combination showcases Seakeeper’s abilities across speed ranges.
“Ride is an active trim control system,” explained Harnay. The Seakeeper Ride replaces trim tabs with a high-tech actuator connected to automated computer software which they refer to as a Vessel Attitude Control System (VACS). The Seakeeper Ride system controls pitch, yaw, and roll. “It controls the vessel attitude underway. As soon as you reach about 10 miles per hour, our software will take 1,000 readings per second.”
The Demo
Captain Harnay took the boat through its paces, starting when the boat was at rest. It’s easy to roll an idle 22’ boat, so we hopped back and forth beam-to-beam to get the boat rolling. She tipped normally—no surprise. He then engaged the gyro and we attempted to roll the boat in the same manner with little success. The boat remained unrolled with eerie determination. Harnay continued to rollick around to create motion while I peeked belowdecks at the whirring unit. On our demo boat a clear window let me track the gyro’s stabilizing movement with Harnay’s acrobatics. While not exactly high adrenaline, the demo was pretty impressive thus far.
We got underway, staying under 12-knots at first. The Seakeeper 1 flywheel spins up to 750 RPM according to Harnay and one can disengage it manually from the helm station. However, thanks to the software, one needn’t worry about engaging or disengaging it when coming up to speed. The gyro, when engaged, can work in conjunction with the Seakeeper Ride system at higher speeds. As the vessel accelerates the gyro has less influence while the Seakeeper Ride system increases stabilization effects at speed. The two systems complement each other with the gyro helping most when stationary, or at slow speeds, and the Seakeeper Ride system being most effective when moving fast.
Harnay executed several tight maneuvers at low speeds with the gyro stabilizer both engaged and disengaged. On such a calm day as this, the change in state was more subtle but certainly noticeable. A tight donut without the engaged gyro prompts the rider to reach for an arm rail, while when engaged one stands unsupported more easily. It’d be interesting to see this demo in fouler seas—not conditions I generally yearn for, but I’d like to see the systems in sea states that better warrant their use.
Next we got into higher speeds to show off the gyro to Ride transition. Harnay went from stationary to a 30-knot cruising speed with the whole system disengaged. The boat got onto a plane at about 17 to 18 knots over the course of eight or so seconds. The bow lift was about 40° during this time. We went on another series of tight turns at 30 knots. The experience was as it should be—bouncy, noisy, fun.
Then we did the same but with the Seakeeper 1 and Seakeeper Ride 450 activated. We achieved planing at around 13 knots with the bow rise about half of before. I kept an eye on Harnay for any sneaky skippering shenanigans, but it all seemed on the level to me. The boat popped onto plane very smoothly and close to immediately.
At 30 knots of speed, the turns also felt smoother and more precise. Again, I didn’t see the skipper doing anything different the first time. Sharp turns that sent me digging into position before were smoother. For skippers who don’t want to completely hand over control to the software, one can manually adjust the actuators just like traditional trim tabs if desired. At this point the gyro is still engaged and counteracting roll as best it can.
“Ride was first designed for smaller boats under 30 foot,” said Harnay. “We actually launched Ride for bigger boats that we can go up to, I think, 45 feet now. Big guys. We have a big actuator 750, now we have quads. You can have four actuators on the transom if you have triple or quad engine setup.”
Verdict and What’s Next
All things told, I must say that the Seakeeper 1 and Seakeeper Ride 450 system combo worked as advertised. The 22’ boat we were on was stabilized very decisively by the gyro at low speeds and performance improved by the Ride system at higher speeds. The one caveat I have is that I experienced all this tech over a relatively brief demonstration on a calm day. A weekend over foul seas doesn’t sound fun, but I’d listen to anyone who had such an experience over me. But overall, I was impressed.
Probably the sticking point for the overwhelming majority of boaters will be the price. The Seakeeper 1 unit I demoed has an MSRP of $16,900, not including installation of course—which to be fair sounds relatively easy as a self-contained flush mounted unit. Additionally, the Seakeeper Ride 450 system I demoed, made for boats up to 26’, has a retail price of $4,500. Bear in mind that this systems combination is for boats under 30’, a market tier largely for mom-and-pop fishing families and pocket cruisers on a budget. Heck, one can grab a fishing slaying used Hewescraft or good old Tollycraft 26 for about that price. But if money is no object and maximal comfortable is a key factor in one’s circumstance—maybe a loved one gets seasick easily for example—the unit does seem to work as advertised.
As far as trends and what’s next for the company, Harnay talked about how Seakeeper interest has sharply grown on the West Coast over the last year or two. He was pretty tight lipped about the company’s future releases but making the “next generation” units even more compact and lightweight with more power—torque—is a trend to watch.
“Obviously we’re working on different things on gyro that will not be able to talk about here,” said Harnay. “Still in development and I know that we are working on the research and development side. It’s a really big part of Seakeeper—it’s an engineering company. They put a lot of work and effort on that side. We do have our little secrets.”
Seakeeper Combo in Miami
Arnie Hammerman
Recently I was able to experience the Seakeeper Ride system, a new type of vessel attitude control system on a demo ride in Miami. As luck would have it, the same captain, Morgan Harnay that Norris had cruised with the week before in the chilly waters of Seattle was driving. Now it was my turn to see what all the fuss was about.
The Sportsman 26 we were on was powered by twin Mercury 200s and equipped with a Seakeeper Ride 525 and a Seakeeper 1 gyro. We headed out of Miami Beach Marina on a sunny 75° day and immediately got caught in some rolling waves funneling down government cut because of the Easterly 15-knot breeze. All the stabilization systems were turned off and I asked Morgan to stop the boat and turn on the gyro that had been previously spooled up. The effect was dramatic at zero speed. The sideways rolling stopped abruptly as the gyro kicked in showing how well the Seakeeper 1 stabilized the boat when at rest.
Often when I’ve tried to test stabilizers or a boat’s rough water capabilities, it has been too calm to really feel much difference. I was excited to have some conditions worthy of testing. We continued outside the cut where there were rolling 3’ waves. With the gyro turned off we ran south with the waves abeam to focus on the Seakeeper Ride system’s performance. I watched the Ride display panel show the interceptors moving up and down which looks similar to other automatic trim tab displays, but the Seakeeper Ride system is a bit different.
Seakeeper Ride doesn’t have vertical blades like interceptor trim tabs, instead it utilizes a curved foil that extends horizontally from the hull. This configuration is specifically designed to provide immediate lift and reduce pitch and roll motions which it proved to be doing quite well at as we raced along sideways to the waves. The Ride system’s actuators only penetrate the water around one inch, but their unique shape gives them more bight. The actuators also move very rapidly, and the swift response combined with subtle real-time adjustments provide effective stability and comfort. The Seakeeper Ride system primarily adjusts fore and aft movement similarly to other trim tab/interceptors, but its fast response stabilizes the ride and keeps the boat from rocking side to side when underway.
Harnay let me take the wheel and I started out with all the systems off heading slightly into the rolling swells. I adjusted the Seakeeper Ride system manually at first and it did bring the bow down like regular trim tabs do. Rolling up and down the waves there was just no way I could adjust fast enough to keep us steady. I pressed the button, and the automated Ride system kicked in. The rapid response of the automatic control immediately and noticeably smoothed our ride. It was a dramatic change. We had a screen set to show our incline and it went from a 5° to 7° roll to less than half of that while only using the Seakeeper Ride system. I then had him kick the gyro on as I drove, and you could feel the difference even more with both the gyro and the Ride system working together. Not only was the fore and aft motion steadied but sideways rolling was further dampened. Cruising around 25 knots in pretty lumpy conditions, our roll dropped to only a few degrees. This was an impressive demonstration of both the Seakeeper Ride and Seakeeper 1 gyro systems. These systems are not currently integrated but working simultaneously they provide the best results. I have been on previous gyro tests but the conditions for this test really showcased the stabilizing capabilities of both these systems.
I gave the helm back to Harnay and we turned back into the channel surfing over the small rolling waves and getting a bit splashed as we raced in alongside another center console. It was a great day to be on the water. While I love Pacific Northwest boating, enjoying the sun and warm waters of Miami was a welcome change. Experiencing the stabilizing capabilities of the Seakeeper Ride and Seakeeper Gyro systems made the day even better and got me thinking about how new technology is make boating safer, more comfortable and fun. Later that day I would test Dometic’s new DG 3 Gyro but that story will have to wait for our next installment.
