How Stabilisers Reduce A Ship's Roll

Stabilisers are used to reduce the amount of roll experienced by large ships.

In this video, we look at a few different stabilisation techniques. We investigate how different methods work and how successful they are at reducing a roll.

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[CasualNavigation]

Thanks again for the amazing response to this video.


Just to clarify a few things that have come up a lot in the comments.




The stabilisers are a little confusing in the animation. They do twist rather than flap up and down. I struggled to animate the twisting motion when viewed from ahead so exaggerated the up and down element instead. Apologies for any confusion caused.

[Orygoldminecraft]

Thank you, i was having trouble stabilising my cruise ship in rough waters

[Unformed]

Oh no... Not one of these channels, where my life has nothing to do with it even remotely but videos are fascinating enough I just keep watching...

[loonari]

We need human stabalizers for drunk people, underrated channel

[AGENTist]

At my Navy school we do a lesson called "Stability", it full of calculations but in theory this video is a pretty good presentation of how a ship rolls and how the stability is calculatesd. Well done on the images

[lucliebelin]

There's one system you have forgotten to talk about.
In the big military ships, mostly the aircraft carriers, there's an active stability system also, and it must be very effective for the planes to land safely, even in rough weather. Inside the hull, between the center of buoyancy and the centre of gravity, there's two sets of rails going perpendicularly from the center axis, side to side. On these rails, there's one big mass which is moved by computers in the opposite direction of the waves.

[apropercuppa]

I once took a trip with my family from England to Ireland and we caught a Ferry from Holyhead across the Irish Sea to Dublin. The sea was that rough that one of the ships stabilisers had completely broken. The Captain struggled to stabilise the vessel and couldn't arrive into the Port. It was at that point that he announced he had to turn back. What should have been a few hours crossing turned into something daft like a 4-6 hour trip.

Partly because of how rough it actually was, was why it took so long, and obviously the technical difficulties of handling a ship that might not be responding well, lol. Lucky for us, we all took travel sickness tablets first because near enough everyone was sea sick. The toilets and troughs were filled with spew. A great memory for sure.

[Scji]

This is a myth, stabilisers are in fact a lot of fat people (called Stabilons) on the ship who run from side to side, this is very well hidden as they do it underneath the deck. I would know, I was a Stabilon, they force fed us to keep us fat from all the running 😔

[maelstrumyes]

Thanks I really needed this info for my 3 month journey from Norway to Iceland
In 105 A.D

[daciamcv]

The fin stabilisers were first used on royal navy missile ships in the 1960's they were used to hold the ship steady while it launched it missiles one of the first non navy ships that had this system was the Royal Yacht Britannia . I was an electronic wireman working for Muirheads of Beckenham and I wired the control box for this Yacht

[joshuasim]

Question. Any chance that all these stabilizers are installed together in one ship and work coherently? That would be glorious!

[dwafakiin]

I've been looking for a video like this for ages, I play a game called Stormworks, where you build ships and such for search and rescue operations, but some of the ships can get to a decent size, and as in the name of the game, you encounter storms, so it can be rather difficult to keep your ship upright during a heavy storm which is often when you need to use these rescue ships. Thank you for the video, it's been really helpful!

[jeffson]

I was on the QM2 from NY to Southampton in May 2009. There were 30ft waves in a storm. I was amazed at how stable the ship stayed.

[GothicHellhound]

I'm gonna be honest, your stuff was randomly in my feed and I just went. 🤷‍♀️ why not and now I'm just watching a lot of your vids

[Can_Head]

Going on a cruise later this year and I hate the sea, understanding what I'm going on and how I'm being safe really helps. As apposed to just being told I'm safe with no explanation.

[hardboiled]

Rejoice! for the mighty youtube algorithm has found yee

[JayRSwan]

Not for cruise ships, but there are another 2 types of active stabilizers that also work while stopped. One uses a heavy spinning weight on the center line inside the boat and a gyro to counter the force. The 2nd one is also spinning, but on the outside, like the active fins. Because they are spinning in the water, you don't need to be moving to build counter force.

[corthew]

When I was in the Navy I use to play around with subtle rudder action to stabilize the ship. The idea is simply to counter the wave action with a slight bow turn in the direction of the list.
You have to be a bit ahead of it of course so the ship has time to respond but waves are very consistent in their timing so its really all about that...Timing.

[mateuszkrakowiak]

It's 3AM, and I'm watching this... I love YouTube so much, interesting things and knowledge served everyday

[shanerooney]

I don't remember when I found this channel, or really anything about this channel.
So this video came as a very pleasant surprise.