By David Lesh | Director of Service
Seakeeper’s gyrostabilizers have revolutionized boating industry’s comfort standards over the last 15 years. Now, they aim to do it again with their latest innovation, the Seakeeper Ride system. This cutting-edge system automatically controls pitch, roll, and yaw while underway. According to Seakeeeper, the Ride system eliminates pitch and roll up to 70 percent, depending on the boat.
The system uses a pair of controllers, similar to interceptors, to achieve this. They are mounted on the port and starboard sides of the bottom of the transom. The blades are adjusted up and down at a high speed by electrically powered rotary actuators. These adjustments are made by the actuators at a rate of 100 per second, and can operate at a speed of 30 mm per second. The actuators are interfaced electrically with three-axis sensing hardware that evaluates the pitch, roll, and yaw while underway. This translates into a smoother ride at planing speed for boats in the 19’ to 35’ range.
In trials performed on a 28’ center console with Seakeeper Ride in auto mode while running in 3’ waves, the system was able to eliminate 45 percent of oscillation at 30 knots. Ride also eliminated list when all crewmembers shifted to one side by maintaining an even keel in auto mode.
Seakeeper Ride is offered in three distinct models with varying blade sizes for boats ranging in size from 19’-35’. Notably, the system can be installed aftermarket on most makes/models in this size range. Seakeeper Ride is also available as a feature on new models from Chris Craft.