Boats

Seakeeper: An Insider’s Visit

A guided tour of the company’s manufacturing center

By Sam White

Updated: January 25, 2017

Just one of several buildings on the campus, the heart of Seakeeper’s manufacturing is located in Mohnton, Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings were 100-year-old textile mills. Sam White

Seakeeper has become one of the hottest new products in boating. The ability to significantly dampen a boat’s rolling motion using gyroscopic technology is a game-changer, and with that in mind, Marlin set out to visit their manufacturing location in Pennsylvania. There, the staff was treated to an insider’s tour of the construction and design of Seakeeper’s gyros. These are amazingly rugged and yet finely crafted pieces of technology, amazing in their own right, with tolerances tighter than the compressor blades in modern jet engines.

Sourcing manager John Ambs shows us around the facility. Here, he points out how the bearings are installed in the Seakeeper gyros. Sam White

Aluminum blanks will be milled into high-tech Seakeeper parts. Sam White

Spindles for the gyros await final inspection and installation. Sam White

A worker carefully grinds a part. Most of the craftsmen and women at Seakeeper have long tenures within their trades and take genuine pride in their work. Sam White

These are the flywheels for several sizes of Seakeeper gyros. These spin at high revolutions within a vacuum in order to provide gyroscopic torque. Sam White

Another technician supervises the operation of a grinding machine. Sam White

Just one of the several massive industrial machines that produce Seakeeper parts. Sam White

Hemispheres await final installation. They are mated together and then balanced as a single unit. Sam White

Grinding aluminum creates a huge amount of shavings, which are recycled. Sam White

Additional hemispheres are ready for flywheel installation. Sam White

These flywheels are ready to be balanced. Sam White

A close-up look of the precision work on the shaft of the flywheels. Sam White

Just like automobile tires, the Seakeeper flywheels are balanced on a giant machine that spins them at high speeds. Sam White

Notice the grinding marks? The final balancing removes minute amounts of material from this flywheel. Sam White

These units are undergoing quality control inspection. Sam White

Each Seakeeper is tested on a tilt table and run through an incredibly demanding protocol prior to shipping. The results for each unit are kept for future reference. Sam White

Seakeeper inventories a large quantity of spare parts for each unit they manufacture. Parts can either be shipped to a service center or directly to a vessel in need on a moment’s notice. The company also keeps a staff of techs ready to travel anywhere in the world to assist their customers. Sam White

More: behind the boat, seakeeper, Sport Fishing Boats

Free Email Newsletters

Sign up for free Marlin Group emails to receive expert big-game content along with key tournament updates and to get advanced notice of new expeditions as they’re introduced.