Seakeeper and Seakeeper Ride
So, you’ve heard the buzz and decided it’s time to take control of your experience on the water. As you dive into your research, you’ve come across Seakeeper and Seakeeper Ride. Both offer stabilization—but how are they different?
Here’s a quick look at how they compare:
WHAT THEY DO:
- Seakeeper: Eliminates up to 95% of boat roll, the side-to-side motion that causes seasickness and instability, especially at rest.
- Seakeeper Ride: Tackles pitch, roll, and yaw underway, reducing up to 70% of the movement that causes slamming and unpredictable handling while you’re on the move.
Seakeeper Key Benefits
- Active Control – smart technology that actively senses sea conditions and responds accordingly, enabling Seakeeper to be used at rest, underway, and in all sea conditions.
- Vacuum-Sealed – allows the flywheel to spin three times faster, cuts its weight by two-thirds, and halves the power requirements. The vacuum also allows us to protect the most critical components (flywheel, bearings, and motor) from the marine environment and prevent corrosion.
- Cooling System – patented system that removes heat from within the vacuum enclosure and dissipates it through a glycol/seawater combination, providing the ultimate performance in the smallest and lightest package possible.
Seakeeper Ride Key Benefits
- Pitch and Roll Elimination – eliminates up to 70% of underway pitch and roll motions that often cause uncomfortable pounding or slamming.
- List Control – never allows vessel list from movement onboard, wind, uneven load while underway, and/or prop torque.
- Auto Trim – uses a customized Trim Command Curve to automatically adjust the boat to match the optimal running angle at any given speed.
- Hole Shot Control – optimized to allow for faster acceleration that gets the boat on plane more quickly which improves fuel economy during the transition to planing. The operator never loses sight of the horizon, increasing safety for all on board.
- Coordinated Turn – automatically adjusts the heeling angle of your boat during turns for more comfort, increased safety, and better performance.
HOW THEY WORK:
- Seakeeper: Inside a vacuum encapsulation, a flywheel spins at speeds of up to 9,750 rpm. When the boat rolls, the Seakeeper tilts fore and aft (precesses), producing a powerful gyroscopic torque to port and starboard that counteracts the boat roll.
- Seakeeper Ride: Seakeeper Ride’s controllers are mounted to your boat’s transom, below the waterline. Using custom, proprietary inertial sensing hardware and software, the system understands how the boat is behaving in all three axes and commands deployment of the rotary blades to counteract pitch, roll, and yaw. As the blades are deployed, they intercept the flow of water off the transom and create lift, managing the vessel’s motion instantaneously.
WHEN THEY WORK BEST:
- Seakeeper: Ideal for boats at anchor, drifting, trolling, or cruising.
- Seakeeper Ride: Only available when the boat is underway. The system begins trim authority at 10mph and full stabilization benefits begin around 20-25 mph.
WHY CHOOSE ONE? OR BOTH?
Rather than choosing between them, many boaters install both Seakeeper and Seakeeper Ride to create the ultimate stabilization system. Seakeeper keeps you steady at rest, and Ride takes over while underway—ensuring you’re always in control, no matter the conditions. The addition of a Seakeeper enhances the underway performance of Seakeeper Ride by an additional ~10-20% from our tests.
EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS
Whether you’re buying a new boat or refitting an old favorite, there’s a solution for you.
- New boat: Many builders offer Seakeeper and Seakeeper Ride as standard or optional features.
- Retrofit: Our dealer network makes it easy to find and install the right systems for your vessel.
Change your boating experience with Seakeeper stabilization technology.
Contact us to learn more about Seakeeper gyro stabilization and Seakeeper Ride underway stabilization.
Why does Seakeeper’s flywheel spin in a vacuum?
We break down the basics to show you why a gyro in a vacuum enclosure is THE most efficient stabilizer you can have on your boat.
When Not to Use Your Seakeeper
Seakeeper was designed to dampen a boat’s cyclic roll motions. It is not a substitute for adequate hull stability, and it won’t prevent instability of other types, like those caused by improper boat operation.
Seakeeper Sizing and Performance
It’s easy to watch videos and see the difference between a boat’s side-to-side roll when the Seakeeper is unlocked and locked. But is that real?
