ROLL WITH IT
Like most boat owners, I had long wanted to fit some form of stabilisation to our 2004 Fairline Squadron 58. In the four years I have owned her, we have made extensive improvements: new interior, electric blinds, new exterior upholstery, new teak, new helm seats, helm refurbishments, mood lighting, watermaker and much more. There were not many projects left and I had no real desire to change the boat, so stabilisation was the obvious next step. The snag? Simple: cost.
There is no cheap way to stabilise a boat. I’d assumed electric fins would be cheaper than hydraulic ones – just how much can a few motors attached to some flippers cost? Answer: even more than hydraulic fins! How much are hydraulic fins? Even more than a gyro. Oh well, a gyro it is then! But fitting a gyro stabiliser brought with it two problems. Money, as I have already alluded to, but also where on earth to put it without spoiling the boat and losing space we actually used.
A chat with Seakeeper distributors Osmotech in Southampton yielded a price that, while as much as a Porsche Cayenne for a steel beach ball with some electronics attached, I could live with. So that just left the question of where to put it.
