We installed the SeaKeeper Ride 75 Quad system on our 43 Post over the haul-out season. Today was the first limited on-water run. I'm very happy with the initial performance and looking forward to Monday when we will be able to get some actual results data. Rather than post all the details in multiple places, you can read more here: https://www.thehulltruth.com/boatin...eper-ride-43-post-sportfish.html#post17505552
So this is a strictly underway type of unit? I guess when I sea the name seaKeeper I associate that with a gyro type unit. What's the minimum speed required for this transom unit to be effective?
Ride is inactive below 5 mph (no idea why they don't quote it in knots). Can set desired basline pitch trim with speed from 5 mph to 60 mph. Obviously the Post doesn't use the upper half of the range. Can add or remove base trim manually at any time. In the limited testing yesterday we had good performance from 20 kts to 24 kts. Didn't run to full throttle, 30 kts. Only got below 20 kts entering the harbor and my home cove so not enough time as slowing down to do Ride auto/manual comparisons yet.
Very interested to hear how it does on one of those 3-4’ nasty wind chop days on the bay. Price sounds super reasonable relative to the benefit. I talked to the sea keeper ride rep at a boat show a little while ago but I was so disgusted with his technical acumen I walked away. my youngest daughter gets seasick and I would gladly pay quite a bit more than your all in cost to make it more comfortable for her. unlike your 43, I do use the Bennetts on my 42 a lot. They give me an extra 1.5 kts or more at cruise. However, they must not be deployed in a following sea. So I’m also interested if the ride would solve that scary following sea behavior of the traditional tabs.
The ~$5k was labor, adhesive, small bits. Doesn't include the Ride hardware, cables, keypad which are listed on the Ride site.
Did some rough water testing of the Ride system yesterday. General results are we ran faster, smoother, more in control and easier to drive in all "Ride on" conditions. "Ride off" speeds ranged 18-22 kts, "Ride on" speeds ran 23-24 and in some conditions 26 kts. We ran Ride off and Ride on in head seas, quartering head seas, beam seas (only at about 2', all we had in the cove where we could get a clean beam swell), quartering following seas and followings seas. To make comparisons easier wer did Ride Off testing with the units fully retracted, and removed the base trim for Ride On runs so they never removed any trim, could only add trim for the dynamic corrections. "Ride on" on one head sea run I could see a crossing swell go past and under the boat but could nover feel it in roll or change to pitch. Conditions were 1-1/2 to 4+ seas (the Annapolis real time bouy which is a few miles south of where we were running but more sheltered from the west winds/waves recorded 4-1/2+). Buoy recorded winds were 16-18 kts with gusts 23-26 kts. Waves were short period Chesapeake Bay waves. I was impressed with the results. My associate was impressed how much control the system had on our "big" boat. Testing control authority we could "dive" the bow more than I would ever be comfortable with (I pulled the trottles to abort a couple of tests).
Ride doesn't run in Auto below 10 mph. The slowest we recorded data was 18 kts. We usually did turn Ride back on when doing end of run 180 turn arounds as low as 12-15 kts as it did help roll and redced the spray over the fore deck.
Were the ride off/ride on comparisons at the same throttle settings? In other words, was the trim increasing your efficiency by those amounts? Or was it that you were able to throttle up more with ride on because you weren’t taking as much of a pounding?
I ran the Ride Off runs as fast as I could maintain control. Ride On I ran at our normal cruise, didn't try to push to the control limits. Ride Off were about 2200 RPM, Ride On were about 2400 RPM. In 1-1/2 to 2 in the river we ran Ride Off and Ride On both at 26 -27 kts, 2700 RPM. For both Ride Off and Ride On we had the "reference" trim with devices fully retracted, ie. Ride Off they were fully retracted and Ride On the Trim Table it was trying to maintain was also fully retracted. The boat is slightly faster ~1/2 kt (calm water runs 2400 RPM) with the Ride Trim Table at 10% deployment. In the river a couple days earlier ran on the governors at 2950 RPM and 30 kts with Ride at 10%, was 29 kts Ride fully retracted.
