A shared vision for balance and innovation delivers poise and comfort.

Seakeeper has been part of the Maritimo landscape from very early on in the esteemed brand’s history. Glenn Frettingham secured the deal and created the relationship back in July 2009, to be precise. Importantly, this was the very first sale outside of the USA, which makes Maritimo the first OEM in Australia, and also the entire Asia Pacific region, to adopt Seakeeper’s ‘motion-reducing’ technology. The installation of that very first M7000 Seakeeper has been followed up by well over 100 units now being placed into new craft, as well as retrofitted into the famous and innovative Maritimo motor yachts.

Seakeeper was created in 2001, with product development and trialling following thereafter, and the first, purpose built for the recreational marine market production units were launched in 2008. Seakeeper was the brainchild of Lawyer, turned hotelier, turned boatbuilder, Shep McKenney, and Naval Architect John Adams, a living legend in the realm of gyro stabilisation.

Seakeeper was, and still is a revelation, but just like Maritimo, they keep innovating and evolving. To find out more, we spoke with APAC Sales Manager, Chris Thompson.

Historically, stabilisation was solely available for ships, and large, displacement style yachts, with fins being the most prolific option. Gyro stabilisers had been around for a lot of the previous century, but their cumbersome size and mass rendered them not compatible with planning hulls. Seakeeper changed all this by containing the unit inside a vacuum, which had the added benefit of significantly reducing the power requirements, as well.
Today, engine rooms are designed from the get-go to house a stabiliser, and as a sign of Seakeeper’s dominance in the marketplace, they invariably fit straight in.

“I don’t know of many boats over 40 feet now that get delivered without some form of stabilisation. In the USA in 2023, 56% of new vessels between 30 and 80 feet had a Seakeeper installed at the factory”, stated Thompson by way of providing some perspective.

“The secret to Seakeeper’s success is they’ve built a product that’s reliable, with a great support network around the world. This augurs well for Maritimo, who are well and truly no longer an Australian or New Zealand centric brand now. As it stands, I look after Maritimo here in Australia, the Pacific, Japan, the USA, and Singapore/SE Asia. You’ve got to be able to back your product up around the world, and Seakeeper literally has hundreds of dealers around the world to support these boats wherever they go.”

“Seakeeper has evolved over that journey, with longer service life in between intervals being one of the key changes. Our Seakeeper 9 was the largest volume unit sold to Maritimo. Soon we will launch out fourth generation of gyroscopic product, including the 10.5 that replaces the 9. We’re now 35% more powerful, but in like half the space, and obviously, with reduced weight, as well. As everybody wants more usable space on board for the accommodations, these are really great developments.”

“Our units are raw water cooled, so as more and more equipment is placed into smaller engine rooms, this ensures the optimal performance of our gyros. All of it helps to allow for the mass is carried over or near to the centre of buoyancy, which improves performance of craft and gyro alike.”

Owners and guests are the main beneficiaries of this by way of increased comfort both underway, and at rest.

“The Seakeeper is a product that you turn on when you set foot on the boat, and then you turn it off when you leave the boat. You spool it up, run it, and then just forget about it, and let it do its thing. It’s not something that you have to interact with. You don’t have to play with settings, or adjust it to meet any conditions. It does it all for you. Also, unlike fins, which you cannot run when rafted up with other Maritimos, your Seakeeper can keep the boat level, and you don’t have to consider people who might be swimming next to your vessel, have the fins swim your boat up when on anchor, nor deal with extra through hull fittings, or the significant drag caused by fins at higher speeds”, added Thompson.

“It all comes down to the way it’s designed and the way it’s engineered. Boats exist in a saltwater environment, so placing all the computers, hydraulics for damping, motors, bearings and flywheel inside a vacuum not only protects them from corrosion, but also means the precision and balance built into a Seakeeper remain able to operate to its maximum performance and work throughout any roll period that the vessel encounters.”

As discussed, one thing that the two companies share is a continual evolution cycle. In the case of Seakeeper and their desire to have the highest level of comfort on board with the least amount of operator interaction, their total offering will soon extend to Seakeeper Ride for larger vessels, and is to be available for retrofitting to deliver the ultimate in stabilisation, as well. This incorporates their new Interceptors, which are super-fast acting, wider but shallower surface area, transom mounted rotary actuator (think buckets or scoops), right where it meets the running surface.

Referred to as a Vessel Attitude Control System, these are definitely not traditional trim tabs, nor the more common, vertical ‘blade’ style of interference to counteract pitch, roll and yaw. Specifically tailored for use at higher speeds, they not only deliver outstanding ride and comfort, but assist with efficiency, as well.

Being powered by a 12V DC electric rotary drive presently allow for the rotary blades to deploy 100 times per second at up to 300mm deflection, and thereby achieve up to a staggering 70% reduction in pitch and roll when underway. This is much faster and far more effective than the worm drive actuators found in blade style systems. Expect Seakeeper Ride for larger vessels to remain fast acting, but deploy to slightly greater depths to generate the necessary force to account for the greater displacement.

In this way, Seakeeper Ride is preventative, rather than reactionary. “It is about acting on the acceleration data as it comes in, and actuate the necessary rotary blade or blades to stop roll, pitch or yaw movement before it occurs. This is different to other systems where they react once said change in attitude has occurred, which then often results in an over-reaction, requires a counter movement back once more to correct it, and the cycle just keeps going on and on”, stated Thompson.

An important additional benefit is that Seakeeper are seeing a 7-8% increase in fuel efficiency with Seakeeper Ride, with no reduction in speed, which is currently only available for smaller craft up to 13m (42 feet). By the time it is available for your Maritimo this could be something in the order of 12-20 litres an hour, per side.

As boats continue to become a lot more like cars, with screens to control things, cameras to detect obstacles, and computers to assist you with docking, Seakeeper is best thought of in the same way as an automatic transmission electronically controlled active suspension system. You get in, select go, and it all just works, smoothly and harmoniously, which is so perfectly suited to the Maritimo ethos and lifestyle.