Still waters may run deep, but deep waters are definitely not always still. The rolling motion of the ocean can make life aboard a seagoing vessel less than comfortable. Hence the thriving industry for companies trying to calm a rolling boat.
For the past 30 years, hydraulic active-fin stabilizers have been the choice of many builders of recreational trawlers and large motoryachts, and justifiably so, as they successfully work on most boats. In the late aughts, the recreational-yacht industry welcomed new players—including Seakeeper and Mitsubishi—into the market with advancement in gyrostabilizers. The gyros offered small- to medium-size boats effective stability, and came with the benefit of zero-speed stability, something active fins didn’t do particularly well.
Boatbuilders and owners are now welcoming another bilizer technology, already successful in Europe and making inroads into North America. DMS Holland is manufacturing and marketing the DMS MagnusMaster, a rotary-tube stabilizer that uses the Magnus effect, a physical phenomenon named after Ger physicist Heinrich Gustav
