Seakeeper Ride System

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Open Models

Open 352

Starting at $445,860

Open 322

Starting at $340,690

Open 302

Starting at $290,280

Open 282

Starting at $236,570

Open 262

Starting at $165,355

Open 252

Starting at $127,705

Open 232

Starting at $93,290

NEW Open 212

Starting at $85,970

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Heritage 261

Starting at $166,800

Heritage 231

Starting at $96,975

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Masters 267

Starting at $161,065

Masters 267OE

Starting at $161,065

Masters 247

Starting at $103,035

Masters 247OE

Starting at $103,035

NEW Masters 227

Starting at $86,970

The Open 232 running on the water with the showing off the Seakeeper system.

A first-of-its-kind Vessel Attitude Control System (VACS)

When you are thinking about the new Seakeeper Ride, other products on the market may come to mind. First off, the Ride product line is not a gyroscopic system like you may have seen on our larger models with the optional Seakeeper. It is designed to be installed in the same location as traditional trim tabs. However, the features of this product far outperform trim tabs and other similar self-leveling systems on the market. Traditional self-leveling trim tab systems simply don’t have the speed, technology or sensors required to stabilize. Compared to the Seakeeper Ride, those systems are slow and designed to just level the boat. Having zero capabilities when it comes to smoothing out the ride of the boat underway.

Wave motions can happen consistently or inconsistently, they can be big or small and can come from any direction. Often, these motions occur in just milliseconds. Utilizing Seakeeper Ride's proprietary software and hardware, rapid-deployment rotary blades make 100 adjustments every second to combat wave motions.

Sportsman Boat on a trailer showing off the Seakeeper Ride System.

The Seakeeper Ride System is the first-of-its-kind Vessel Attitude Control System. This system can eliminate up to 70% pitch and roll underway.

Seakeeper Ride controllers are mounted to your Sportsman's transom, below the waterline. Using custom, proprietary sensing hardware and software, the system understands how the boat is behaving on all three axes and computes a counteracting sequence to reduce pitch, roll and yaw. As the blades are deployed, they intercept the flow of water off of the transom and create lift, correcting the vessel’s motion instantaneously.

Interactive Demo

Visualize how the Seakeeper Ride System works. Click the Seakeeper Logo on the keypad to stabilize the boat.

Explore seakeeper ride equipped models

Studio image for Open 352 Center Console

In Action

Seeing is believing

Key Benefits

Pitch & Roll Elimination

Seakeeper Ride eliminates up to 70% of underway pitch and roll motions that often cause uncomfortable pounding or slamming. The elimination of these motions contributes to increased safety and provides comfort, control and confidence to all on board.

Coordinated turn

Seakeeper Ride automatically adjusts the heeling angle of your boat during turns for more comfort, increased safety and better performance.

Auto trim

Seakeeper Ride uses a customized Trim Command Curve to automatically adjust the boat to match the optimal running angle at any given speed.

List/level control

Seakeeper Ride never allows vessel list from movement onboard, wind, uneven load while underway and/or prop torque.

Hole shot control

Seakeeper Ride is 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.

How it works

Each Sportsman hull is designed to run at a certain angle, keeping this running attitude consistent allows the hull design to perform at an optimal level and achieves the best ride, performance and fuel consumption.

On the outer part of the hull, there are two controllers that do the actual work. The rotary design requires a minimal amp draw making them very efficient. The blades deploy a total of 1 inch to create the counter effect needed to stabilize the boat.

The Seakeeper Ride can go from 0-100% deployment in 1/10th of a second. Meaning, that it can make fine adjustment very quickly. Using proprietary software, telemetry and sensors, it is able to detect the movement of the vessel. It then computes a counter adjustment and this is what makes the ride smoother.

Why it’s better

One of the most exciting features about this product is how extremely intuitive it is. The product is completely autonomous and just works without needing any input at all. Everyone will be able to enjoy the smoother ride from the minute you launch it, to the second that you put it back on the trailer. Whether you are a weekend warrior going to the sandbar or a hard-core offshore fisherman, this product is 100% effective in all of those conditions.

Another advantage is its ability to keep the boat level as weight shifts around the boat. As an example with traditional trim tabs, if a person goes from one side of the boat to the other, then that will necessitate a separate adjustment of the trim tabs. Seakeeper Ride system takes care this problem by auto leveling on the fly. This system outperforms just because of how quick it is. It can react and stabilize throughout the entire process so you’re not only leveling, but you’re also stabilizing for a much smoother ride.

While being autonomous is an advantage, some sea conditions may require you to have some some slight adjustments and for that you can use the Seakeeper Ride app built into the Garmin screen. In the Ride system, those adjustments are known as a bias. The app allows you to add a bias to adjust the running attitude or deliberately create a list to account for sea conditions.

You're in Control

The Seakeeper Ride systems still allows you to be in control in certain situations. From time to time, there are sea conditions that may require you to make slight adjustments to the boat's running angle. For those adjustments, you can use the Seakeeper Ride app built into the Garmin. The app allows you to add a bias to adjust the running attitude or deliberately create a list to account for sea conditions.

Let’s imagine that you needed a little bit of an angle or list in the boat’s current sea conditions. The operator can go into the OneHelm App and click the port or starboard buttons to add that in. The Seakeeper Ride system will continue to stabilize the boat but retain this bias to one side. You can always reset it back to zero when it’s no longer needed.

Advanced Trim Adjustments

Proper engine trim is required to have a low time-to-plane but the Seakeeper Ride systems assists here as well. The way the system does this is by reading the Trim Command Curve profile that we have flashed into the boat. We’ve created a profile for each boat that will result in great all-around performance in many sea conditions. For the advanced users that would like to make certain adjustments to fit their boating style, there's an advanced settings section on the App to make adjustments.

Tech Talk - Learn How it works

Explore our Tech Talk episodes that dive into details of the Seakeeper Ride system.

Animations of the new Seakeeper Ride system.

Season 1 - Episode 18

Introduction To Seakeeper Ride

In this episode of Tech Talk, Sportsman Technical Sales Rep, Jim is Introducing the latest product from Seakeeper, the Ride System. Jim will break down the basics of what this system does and how it operates.

Season 1 - Episode 19

Seakeeper Ride Basic Settings

In this episode of Tech Talk, Sportsman Regional Sales Rep, Aaron is going over the basic settings for the latest product from Seakeeper, the Ride System. Aaron goes in depth on how to adjust the basic user settings to make sure you're operating the system like a pro!

Season 1 - Episode 20

Fuel Economy & Performance With Seakeeper Ride

In this episode of Tech Talk, Sportsman Technical Sales Rep, Jim, is comparing fuel economy and performance numbers with the Seakeeper Ride system on and off. This has been a common question since the launch of this product and Jim is here to show us real world numbers. He's using these comparisons to answer all of the questions and concerns that the Ride system will cause too much drag and decrease performance.

Controller components

Controller
One full assembly of all parts below

Rotary Blade
Deploys in and out to build pressure on the seal plate to control vessel motions

Seal Plate
Supports the actuator and the lifting forces created by the controllers

Rotary Actuator
Physically drives the rotary blade in and out of the water

Actuator Plate
The foundation that holds the actuator and seal plate to the transom plate

Wedge Pack
A combination of wedges to angle the seal plate relative to the hull bottom

Transom Plate
Adhered to the transom to support the lifting forces created by the controllers

All of the pieces of the new Seakeeper Ride system broken out

System components

Distribution module

Provides power and communication between the controllers and the software module

Software module

The “brain” of the system that includes Seakeeper’s proprietary software and motion sensor

Additional Benefits

Rapid actuation

Rotary blades deploy at a rate of up to 300 mm per second, making 100 adjustments every second; enabled by power-dense rotary design that requires just 7-10 Amps for operation

Full underway control

Controls all motions (pitch, roll, yaw) thanks to deployment speed and proprietary control software and hardware

Intuitive

Predicts motion and responds instantaneously to eliminate them before they’re felt with no buttons to push nor adjustments to make, providing a boating experience you never imagined

Reliable

Drivetrain is completely sealed in a dry and greased environment with no mechanical exposure to saltwater