Seakeeper, Seakeeper Ride Release Sizing for Catamarans
Seakeeper, Inc., a leader in marine motion control, is offering Seakeeper and Seakeeper Ride sizing and software specific to attending to the hull styles of catamarans.
While catamarans offer some advantages, these boats are still susceptible to wave action and their unique hull designs can present several trade-offs such as flatter turns, increased yaw or bow steering, and porpoising motions at high speeds.
Seakeeper Ride utilizes proprietary variable gain algorithms to optimize its performance on boats of all types and in all sea conditions without special tuning or calibration by the operator. While its current software will provide impressive underway pitch, roll, and yaw stabilization on catamarans today, early next year Seakeeper will introduce custom software specifically optimized for catamarans’ unique performance characteristics.
For installation on symmetrical and semi-symmetrical hulls, Seakeeper Ride controllers can be mounted on both inboard and outboard sections of each demihull. On asymmetrical hulls, Seakeeper Ride’s controller will be mounted on the outboard section only where there is available space.
Though Seakeeper has long focused on monohull vessels as its primary market, the Seakeeper option is already available on some catamaran brands, such as Costa Custom Boats, Freeman Boatworks, Front Runner Boats, Insetta Boatworks, Invincible Boats, SeaHunter Boats, and World Cat. However, performance prediction through Seakeeper’s proprietary sizing software has been unavailable. With more testing and better understanding of the variances in catamaran hull design, Seakeeper can more confidently size these vessels with up to 18 ft. (6 m) beams going forward for builder integration or refit applications.
Catamarans typically require 1.5 to 2 times the angular momentum (gyroscopic stabilizing power) than a monohull of comparable size due to greater natural roll damping characteristics. Installation has been done in either or both demihulls, above or below deck in between the demihulls.
SeaHunter Boats will be the first catamaran builder to offer Seakeeper Ride as standard equipment across its full catamaran line. SeaHunter offers the Seakeeper option as well, for the ultimate stabilized platform.
A Freeman Boatworks 28 will be available to demo at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) from October 29 - November 2, 2025.