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Comfortable Boats

End sea sickness and travel in comfort.
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I spend a lot of time out at sea on small boats and there is nothing worse for my customers than rough seas. even moderate seas are enough to make a lot of land lubbers sea sick which obviously detracts from their enjoyment.

I think boats should be made in two parts. The hull would be free to move with the sea and ride the waves. Then the top part would be a couple of metres higher up on legs that stretch and contract to allow it to stay level. This way the boat can move freely while the passengers up top stay level and, as a result, happy.

It wouldn't work very well in mid Atlantic type storms where the waves are huge but then, the sort of trips these boats would be used for would be cancelled in really rough seas anyway.

andy!, Sep 09 2002

Anti-seasickness Design http://www.halfbake...easickness_20Design
Almost exactly the same, a week ago. [FarmerJohn, Sep 09 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Ship Stability http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Ship_stability
esp. gyroscopic [csea, Jan 08 2012]

[link]






       I don't think it's that similar. Joker wants to stop the side-to-side, andy! wants to stop the front-to-back and side-to-side. The way I envisioned Jokers was you still had the (excuse my lack of nautical terms) front and back of the boat attached to a fixed point so as you went up a wave you would still get a foward/backward motion and would still get sick. andy!'s idea, on the other hand, sounds a little more like a floating compass to me. The shell of the hull is allowed to move fowards, backwards, port, starboard (I do know these terms), up, and down; while the passenger section just rides on the legs that are attached to the hull section.
barnzenen, Sep 09 2002
  

       Gimbleboat. Hey, how about a boat within a boat?
bristolz, Sep 09 2002
  

       The way [barnzenen]describes this has made me.. suddenly.. leave my seat and run ....for...the.....
skinflaps, Sep 10 2002
  

       <aside in the interests of pedantry> Adaptive suspension is no longer permitted on F1 cars. (Ferrari couldn't make it work as well as Williams and McLaren, so they got the FIA to ban it.) </aside>
angel, Sep 10 2002
  

       Hmm, that Farmer John idea does look quite similar. I will try and do a bit more research next time.
andy!, Sep 10 2002
  

       I suffer from terminal nautical ignorance, but it seems that somewhere I've seen hydrofoil type boats that run smoothly because the hull is lifted out of the water above the waves and the foils are deep enough in the water to be minimally affected by the turbulence of the surface water. Of course this would only help while under way.
half, Sep 10 2002
  

       Ferrari are bastards. On track, this is a good idea, but detracts from my ability to piss people off by not getting sea sick.
kaz, Sep 10 2002
  

       Actually, center of the boat is worst place to be
thumbwax, Sep 11 2002
  

       There was a ship that tried this, early 1900s or late 1800s, but I can't find it at the moment. Due to the lack of computer control at the time, it failed, was bolted in place to be a 'normal' ship but was unpopular because the lounge only had small windows high up near the ceiling, and was scrapped.
StarChaser, Sep 11 2002
  

       The centre of the boat is only the worst place to be if you don't have any visual reference. On a small boat the centre of point is the place that moves around the least (while to boat is stationary). As long as you can see out side to the horizon sitting near to the centre of the boat will probably help. The horizon acts as a stationary reference point for your brain so it doesn't suffer the effects of motion sickness quite as badly, I think.
andy!, Sep 15 2002
  

       [bliss] my point was that I don't get sea sick, thats generally what pisses of my weaker stomached companions.
kaz, Sep 15 2002
  

       Big cruiseships have a system already that minimizes the rocking and rolling of the boat. They use four smallish hydrofoils(wings in the water) that can push up or down depending on their angle of attack. a computer and some solid state gyros compute the angle the hydrofoil should be in and actuate them using hydrolics. Because most of the rolling of a boat is caused by resonance, a small force to counter this is enough to stabilize the ship. It is a much simpler solution than your boat in a boat anyway.   

       Oh nevermind, old idea.
nietsch, Mar 21 2004
  

       Why not simply built giant catamarans with large beam ? They should be much more stable than a typical cruise ship.
VJW, Jan 08 2012
  

       See [link] for other techniques. Even some larger yachts have motor-driven gyroscopic stabilizers. Makes quite a difference!
csea, Jan 08 2012
  

       If you don't like wave action, travel by submarine.
mouseposture, Jan 08 2012
  
      
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