Hook Marine has recently launched a new stability monitor for fishing vessels that could play a significant role in preventing the loss of craft at sea.
The technology has been developed over recent months under sponsorship from the UK’s Seafish Industry Authority and Scottish Enterprise.
Small fishing vessels in particular are often lost at sea due to a serious loss of stability. This is commonly attributed to over-loading (particularly above the water line), the ingress of water, or vessel modification without due recognition of the impacts on stability.
Hook Marine has successfully completed tank trials with a model supplied by Seafish, and is currently conducting sea trials on board a number of fishing vessels.
The device measures the roll period, or time elapsed between rolls, to give an indication of the overall stability of a vessel. The longer the period for one complete roll, the less the vessel’s stability and the reduced likelihood of the vessel returning to the upright position. If a potentially situation hazardous arises, detection by the stability monitor will forewarn the skipper that there is a problem and enable prompt decisions to be made to rectify the situation.
