Seakeeper introducing smaller units

Over the weekend some one told me that a number of retrofit units have pulled themselves free from the stringers they were attached to. Curious, can anyone corroborate this?

Well, if true and I suspect it is, then it is a poor installation job and the gyro is just doing its job producing large righting forces. The company obviously consults on installations and will learn from these experiences what it takes to manage the forces.


David

djmarchand said:

Well, if true and I suspect it is, then it is a poor installation job and the gyro is just doing its job producing large righting forces. The company obviously consults on installations and will learn from these experiences what it takes to manage the forces.


David

Click to expand...

I don't mean to nitpick...but I don't think they are "righting forces". I think it is just the gyro's "rigidity in space" while the boat tries to move around it. I guess all I am saying is that it is not a counterofrce in an opposite direction. It is just its physical porperty to remain rigid in space.

Baker said:

I don't mean to nitpick...but I don't think they are "righting forces". I think it is just the gyro's "rigidity in space" while the boat tries to move around it. I guess all I am saying is that it is not a counterofrce in an opposite direction. It is just its physical porperty to remain rigid in space.

Click to expand...

Either way, it takes a lot of force to inhibit a boat from rolling. Most stringers are installed with only downforces in mind and are surprisingly easy to rip up, based on a couple of remodeling jobs I have done. Sticking them in a finished hull shell with secondary bonds like normal stringers would not be enough by any means.

Brooksie said:

Either way, it takes a lot of force to inhibit a boat from rolling. Most stringers are installed with only downforces in mind and are surprisingly easy to rip up, based on a couple of remodeling jobs I have done. Sticking them in a finished hull shell with secondary bonds like normal stringers would not be enough by any means.

Click to expand...

I would expect stringers would have to be desigend with twisting forces(torsional?) in mind since that is most of the load produced by engines.

I guess Bake is right that it is actually the boat that supplies the twisting forces, but my stringers wouldn"t know the difference.....and they'd come right out of there with the advertised resistance torque that device could produce. When I think of how much stress it is on the cap rails to stop roll and then figure the reduced leverage of moving that stress span to the width of the Gyro base, .... not on my boat.

I wonder how much less force is required to reduce rolling when the resistance is from the very beginning and applied throughout the rolling period? Slowing the roll after it has developed even a tiny bit I think is another issue.


I may be wrong but would love to see the numbers and believe they may be lower than most think. Even a small sail (but maybe bigger than a trawler riding sail) cuts out a lot of roll..at anchor if I boom out to the side and take tension on my dingy...it lessens most rolls quite a bit.


Curious.....

Fwiw the ferretti 80 in front of me has a pair of them and the captain and more importantly the owner is not a fan. They take too long to spool up use a generator by themselves and only work at anchor. The owners next boat will have stabilizers.


Via iPhone.

psneeld said:

I wonder how much less force is required to reduce rolling when the resistance is from the very beginning and applied throughout the rolling period? Slowing the roll after it has developed even a tiny bit I think is another issue.


I may be wrong but would love to see the numbers and believe they may be lower than most think. Even a small sail (but maybe bigger than a trawler riding sail) cuts out a lot of roll..at anchor if I boom out to the side and take tension on my dingy...it lessens most rolls quite a bit.


Curious.....

Click to expand...

I am trying to wrap my head around that from a physical standpoint. I would think that the force would be the same. The movement may be less but the physical force that is acting on the boat would be the same regardless of whether the roll has already started or if it was stunted before it got going.

I just have to ask, do people really buy this stuff?

On a practical note...

I looked into the new "smaller" units.

Smaller is a relative phrase.

They are still every bit as big as a marine generator in an enclosure.

And they are if memory serves correctly something over 1,000 pouds.

Try figuring out a place to put one on a boat is not easy!

I would never retrofit them to a boat that wasn't designed with them in mind. Just my conservatism. I'd at least want the original naval architect involved. But I'm that way on lots of things. Don't put pod drives on a boat designed for straight. Don't put Arneson on a boat designed for jets. But then it's comparable to my views on software. I run it all very vanilla as the manufacturer most fully tested it.

I also find traditional stabilizers properly matched to a boat work very well, so don't have that compelling need for gyro and some of the negatives of gyro I just don't want to deal with.

Sailor of Fortune said:

I just have to ask, do people really buy this stuff?

Click to expand...

I have a friend that has one on a SeaRanger 48. They like it. They are currently cruising. They spent a significant amount of money on it....so that might sway their opinion.

Just out of curiosity, where are they cruising? I'm making an assumption that they are putting hours on their boat at sea, at least coastal cruising. If it is the difference between 1 of them cruising or not, then it is totally worth it in my book (if your the other one!). I'm curious who is the customer base of these units.

An excerpt from a Boattest review of a Sea Ray L650 Fly.


That gives some of the good and the bad of them. Now, what is missing there is a comparison against other stabilizers.

I'd also say design of boat plays a role. There are some very good boats that definitely must have stabilizers and others in the same range that do quite well without them in most conditions.

ksanders said:

On a practical note...

I looked into the new "smaller" units.

Smaller is a relative phrase.

They are still every bit as big as a marine generator in an enclosure.

And they are if memory serves correctly something over 1,000 pouds.

Try figuring out a place to put one on a boat is not easy!

Click to expand...

I think these newer versions weigh around 800lbs or less and run on DC power.

Even if they were free, I do not have the free space for one. Besides, lack of one makes it important to choose a good anchorage.

High Wire said:

Even if they were free, I do not have the free space for one. Besides, lack of one makes it important to choose a good anchorage.

Click to expand...

Very true!

Sailor of Fortune said:

Just out of curiosity, where are they cruising? I'm making an assumption that they are putting hours on their boat at sea, at least coastal cruising. If it is the difference between 1 of them cruising or not, then it is totally worth it in my book (if your the other one!). I'm curious who is the customer base of these units.

Click to expand...

They started in Texas and are now in the Chesapeake. Likely headed south soon and into the islands. And that is a good point. I think SHE likes it a lot. So she is happy!! Strange little gizmo for sure.

I understand that they take up to 40 minutes to spool up to full effectiveness although they begin to exert a stabilizing effect in about 20 minutes. Fin stabilizers are pretty instant.

Pretty slick though...

cafesport said:

Fwiw the ferretti 80 in front of me has a pair of them and the captain and more importantly the owner is not a fan. They take too long to spool up use a generator by themselves and only work at anchor. The owners next boat will have stabilizers.


Via iPhone.

Click to expand...

Why would they only work at anchor? Gyros work whether you are moving or not. That's the whole point of having them.