Seakeeper: Beyond the Gyro

In this episode of Full Displacement we sat down with Kelsey Barrett, Seakeeper's Director of Brand and Creative, to get the real answers: how the gyro actually works, what it costs at every size, what it costs to refit and maintain, what to check before buying a used boat that has one, and the newer product most boaters haven't heard of yet: Seakeeper Ride.
Stabilization used to be something only a 60-foot yacht had. Seakeeper built that market from a garage in Solomons, Maryland, starting in 2002, and now it's standard on more than 300 boat brands. We get into how they got there, what nearly killed the idea during the 2008 recession, and why the company's own advice is: don't buy the boat until you understand where it's going.

Resource & Contacts

💻 Seakeeper Refit Database: https://www.seakeeper.com/refit-projects/
🔋 Seakeeper Power Consumption Calculator: https://www.seakeeper.com/faqs/how-much-power-does-a-seakeeper-use/#battery-runtime-calculator
🚤 SeaKeeper Ride vs the Competition: https://ride.seakeeper.com/comparing-trim-control-systems/
📚More Seakeeper resources at: https://currentyachts.com/resources/directory/seakeeper

⚓️ Work with Current Yachts: 🛥️ Want to sell a boat? Visit our Seller Calculator to understand the service-based approach of listing your boat while protecting your equity: https://currentyachts.com/sell/calculator

👏🏻 Choose a yacht broker who cares as your buyer's broker. Current Yachts will defend your interest. Read more: https://currentyachts.com/buy
📅 Come find us at the boat shows: Annapolis, FLIBS, and TrawlerFest in September. RSVP links are on the events page: https://currentyachts.com/events

In this episode:

✔️ HOW A SEAKEEPER GYRO WORKS: a vacuum-sealed steel flywheel spinning up to 10,000 RPM inside a sealed sphere, bolted to the boat's structure. The gyroscopic torque it creates is what pushes back against a wave before it rolls the boat. Spinning it in a vacuum (instead of air) cuts the power draw by roughly two-thirds and lets SeaKeeper build a smaller, lighter unit than older gyro designs.

✔️ WHERE IT STARTS: the Seakeeper 1, for boats 23 to 30 feet, retails for $17,400 (installation not included). Seakeeper claims up to 95% roll elimination, though that number moves with sea state, more like 80% in choppy 5-foot seas, closer to 95% in calmer 2-foot conditions.

✔️ SIZING AND PRICING ACROSS THE LINE: from the Seakeeper 1 ($17,400, 23–30 ft) through the Seakeeper 10.5 ($133,900, 50–62 ft) up to the Seakeeper 40 ($365,400, roughly 80–110 ft). Units are combinable: two smaller units can approximate a single larger one if space is tight.

✔️ POWER AND RUNNING COSTS: smaller units draw 1–3 kW; many owners add a dedicated battery to the house bank rather than run it off house power. SeaKeeper's online battery calculator will tell you if your current setup can support one.

✔️ RETROFIT REALITY: SeaKeeper is retrofittable on boats from 23 feet to 200+ feet, does not have to sit on the centerline, and requires no hull penetrations. A small center console can often be refit in a couple of days.

✔️ BUYING A USED BOAT WITH ONE ALREADY INSTALLED: check maintenance records on the hydraulic and cooling circuits, confirm the warranty (2 years / 2,000 hours, and it transfers to a new owner), and know that hours are tracked by serial number and shown on the unit's own display.

✔️ SEAKEEPER RIDE: a separate, transom-mounted system (for boats roughly 19–55 ft) that eliminates underway pitch and yaw rather than at-rest roll. It uses curved blades making up to 100 micro-adjustments per second to correct motion before you feel it. Seakeeper's latest software update lets Gyro and Ride work together, increasing underway performance by about 40%, a free update for anyone who already owns both.

✔️ COMMERCIAL USE: Seakeeper units are stress-tested on recorded North Sea sea-state data before they ever leave the factory, and they're in service on commercial vessels working offshore wind farms in some of the roughest water in the world.

Who is Current Yachts?

We are a full service yacht brokerage company located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Annapolis, Maryland. Our licensed and bonded professional brokers assist yacht sellers and buyers every step of the way.
🎥 Our podcast Full Displacement helps educate yacht sellers and buyers, and shares what is happening in the yacht brokerage market: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcE3-wOQgN8C7VGybRHBjzf9uZsr6tPs
We are revolutionizing yacht sales by offering a transparent, service-based pricing model that puts yacht buyers and sellers first. How?

1️⃣ Our flat-rate selling expense replaces inflated yacht brokerage commissions. And the buyer-side commission (called co-brokerage) only gets paid if a co-broker is present.
2️⃣ Our buyer-broker representation agreement means our yacht buyers receive the unbiased guidance they need to protect their interests.
3️⃣ Our modern platform streamlines the listing intake process including an listing agreement you can generate and signed digitally within minutes. Our platform ensures real-time communication with a dedicated team and provides analytics for all parties.

🏁 The result? More transparent yacht sales, and faster, more efficient transactions.
⚓️ Discover the Current Yachts difference at https://currentyachts.com/

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