A controlling influence
It’s not a coincidence that the word nausea comes from naus, the Greek word for ship. Owner and guest comfort onboard the yacht is paramount and the next generation of stabilisation systems are delivering incredible solutions.
A year ago, when Onboard last reported on stabilisation systems, much of the talk was about new electric fin stabilisers gradually being introduced by manufacturers, claiming a number of ‘unique’ firsts.
Claims such as being smaller, quieter, and easier to install, with quicker responding actuators made for an interesting debate.
Now, with fins and compact gyros being produced with the ‘mass-market’ in mind, today’s expectations have reached a point where it is genuinely unusual if a new motor yacht of even just 10m or above, does not have a stabilisation system ‘as standard’ or mentioned somewhere on the optional extras list.
Within this year’s report, it’s sophisticated control systems and associated software that stabiliser manufacturers have been focussing on in particular.
By utilising onboard wi-fi, engineers can connect, remotely, to service and maintain their systems, upload previous data, spot trends and diagnose faults before they even occur.
Quantum’s 5000S Control System, for example, is designed for remote access and is built on a modular platform, capable of supporting the old, current, and future control generations with greater capacity. The new control has recording capabilities that can be stored and downloaded later even when bandwidth is limited, often the case with yachts mid-ocean.