Never seen a self-righting boat?

[PassionKid]

I was browsing the web and came across the Spirit of Canada and its self-righting capibilities. I have never seen this before. It looks like the keel actually moves to one side, causing the centre of balance to be shifted, thus causing the boat to self-right itself.

I found a video of it here if you care to watch ... do boats other then these multi-million dollar ones have such a technology or similar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIplsOf_DBQ

[knotaloud]

That's a good trick. movable keels a and counter balances are pretty comon, but generally I don't think they can preform this nifty rollover maneuver.

[Hyperion]

What a sexy boat.

[Gary M]

Pretty cool video. However I believe canting keel is mainly a racing feature which is canted off to one side to reduce heel when going to windward. This feature is becoming pretty common on custom race boats and some production ones.
This vessel is built for a single-handed around the world race. I saw it and met the skipper at the Toronto boat show in January.

These things are built wide and flat and are mainly down wind sleds that depend on their beam and form for a lot of their stability. Due to their beam they become pretty stable inverted so I guess a big advantage of the canting keel it the ability to make the boat self righting. I assume this was a self righting test that was likely needed before it could enter the race.

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

What a sexy boat.

You should see how the ladies react to the skipper. One would think, figuratively speaking, that getting dismasted off the Horn would affect a man's apparent virility. But I've seen Derek H. work a room, and it's apparent women want to rock his boat.

So to speak.

[LWinters]

So the other thing to note on this is that most full and modified full keel boats us regular sailors spend time on are self righting, right? Generally the ballast in any monohull that isn't designed with exceptional beam will self right in a knock down or even a roll. That's one big advantage of donig off shore work in a monohull vs. a catamaran. The video didn't show what that boat would do if it still had a mast and sails in tact acting as a heavier ballast than that canting keel. That would be a real test.

[MysticSkipper]

Besides the keel and ballast, my understanding is that the large convex foredecks common on crusiers also have a lot to do with self righting. If they had flat decks, they would be much more comfortable for passengers to lie in the sun and what not while cruising along, but having the curvature makes the boat unstable while upside down.

[seabreeze_97]

Neat, now do that in a blow.
Is it just me, or does that boat look an awful lot like the NASA lifting bodies?
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/n...-011-DFRC.html
What was old, is new again.

[sailingdog]

The wider beam and flush decks of racing boats tend to keep they in an inverted position. With the advent of the new canting keels, most races have required the boats be able to self-right by canting the keel and starting the self-righting process by doing so.

LWinters– The majority of ships on the ocean do not self-right... It could be argued that a catamaran or a trimaran has a position of ultimate stability—upside down with the mast acting as a keel. It could also be argued that a monohull keel boat has a position of ultimate stability of sitting upright on the bottom of the ocean... Not being as likely to sink is a huge advantage of a multihull when doing offshore work.

[tdw]

I'm a tad surprised that in order to self right the keel has to be canted. What happens if the mechanism jams ? Also , self righting without a mast does seem a bit odd but I guess they figure that when the thing is arse up the irg has gone to god or davey jones anyway.