The SeaWise™ Stability Monitor

Specificially designed for the fishing industry, another new development leading on from the Kranskan has now been developed to prototype stage.

The biggest loss of life in the fishing industry is due to the sinking of the vessels when they lose stability. The new safety device developed by Hook Marine is designed for small craft at sea to warn of loss of stability.

The SeaWise stability monitor monitors the loss of stability through continuous roll period measurement. Its development has been sponsored by the UK Seafish Industry Authority and it is currently being trialled at sea. A patent is pending.

A working model has been produced to demonstrate just how the monitoring device works.

For more information on the SeaWise Stability Monitor please contact us here

How Stable is Your Boat?
New Product Monitors Stability Loss in Fishing Vessels

In November 2008, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch published a comprehensive report of fishing vessel accidents in the UK from 1992 to 2006. This study showed that around 60 per cent of vessel losses at sea are due to foundering or capsizing, and stated that the fatal accident rate for UK fishermen from 1996 to 2005 was 115 times higher than that for the general workforce in the country as a whole.

Perhaps the most significant finding in the accident analysis was the fact that while the accident rate in other industries has been declining in recent years, there has been no corresponding reduction in the UK fishing industry.

Flooding, foundering and capsizing are associated with a loss of vessel stability, and whether or not a boat has adequate reserves of stability when newly launched, stability reserves can be lost through overloading or ill-considered modifications before a boat even leaves harbour. While at sea, stability will be lost through water ingress, and ice growth on the superstructure may impose additional top weight. In many cases, it will be a combination of factors which will lead to the onset of unstable conditions, and the loss of the vessel. Owners also need to guard against weight creep – the unaccountable gain in weight of a vessel with time, due perhaps to rust formation, timbers becoming saturated, or coats of paint being added. Do you remove old equipment from your vessel, when taking new gear on board? It has been estimated that a vessel can gain as much as 1 per cent in weight each year of its life, with resulting reduction of freeboard and loss of stability.

Now an Ayrshire-based company, Hook Marine Ltd, has addressed the problem of stability loss, and is launching a new product to monitor the situation while a vessel is at sea. The roll test to establish a value for the metacentric height (GM) will be familiar to most boat owners. This test, carried out in the calm water of a harbour, uses the period of the vessel's roll to provide the skipper or surveyor with a value for GM. Hook Marine's SeaWise™ Vessel Stability Monitor carries out what is in effect a continuous roll test while the vessel is at sea, utilising any rolling motion of the boat to provide input to the device, while the installed software filters out the less significant rolling motions to which the hull is subjected by wind and waves.

Hook Marine carried out initial tests on one of the models used by Seafish for their well-known stability training courses, and then scaled up to both trawlers and creel boats at sea. In addition to the home market, the device has already attracted considerable interest in Ireland, Holland, Canada and the USA.

The SeaWise™ monitor was developed with assistance from Seafish. Tom Rossiter, R&D manager at Seafish said "It is great to see a UK company develop such innovative technology, especially for an issue as important as vessel safety. Seafish is proud to have played a part in the development of this product, and we would encourage industry to take advantage of the safety benefits it offers."

The SeaWise™ monitor scores heavily on several other important points. As with a lot of safety equipment, the SeaWise™ Monitor is relatively inexpensive, and is on sale for £2,480 before the application of any fishing industry grants and discounts which may be available. Installation is normally straightforward, with a yoke mounting for the 240 mm long display unit allowing easy installation above or below the wheelhouse window.

Further information may be obtained from Hook Marine Ltd