Modern technology: How can cruise ships prevent seasickness? – Reuters

They are like floating cities, and the possibilities of activities on board are usually as diverse as land: Modern cruise ships – the largest of which are more than 350 meters long and offer holiday atmosphere for more than 5000 passengers – can easily forget the Crusaders that he is at sea. Shopping malls, swimming pools, sports arenas, miniature golf courses, cinemas and concert halls, and even generous gardens to stroll in nature vacationers enjoy at or below deck -. If they can move

One thing is different at sea than on land, the ship is constantly in motion. And these movements, the rollers about the longitudinal axis and the pitch about the lateral axis or preferably a combination of both, many people can cause problems. You get seasick, and it’s with the diversified recreation over.

For a long time the shipyards is thus working on techniques to minimize these movements of the ship. The first fin or wing stabilizers have been patented in 1898 – at that time than along the hull extending rigid wings. Even with the pumping of ballast water in special tanks rolling experimented long. This system is also now used for equalization, so to keep ships lying at anchor or in port created in an upright position. – Especially for cargo ships loading and unloading very important

For the voyage by sea However, lateral stabilizers have prevailed, who now use almost all major cruise ships. They work like oversized fins and a good bit below the waterline are laterally extended from the fuselage. Rotatable about the longitudinal axis, they generate depending on the position up or down force and thus counteract an unwanted part of the movement of the ship. They are computer controlled and constantly in motion. However, they increase the resistance of the ship and thus fuel costs and reduce and the pace of the holiday steamer.

A new, innovative approach to prevent such unwanted vessel movements now have the company Hoppe Marine and Marintek found from Norway. They have developed a ship which produces in its interior waves to break the waves of the sea.

Germany makes it to # 2 on the most innovative countries worldwide. But the position is threatened.

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Special water tanks in the hull computer-controlled wave movements that counteract the external forces of the oceans , So far, though there is only a small model in the basin experiment, however, was able to demonstrate that this technique works quite effectively. The first ship equipped with this technology, Hyundai Heavy Industries is building in South Korea. It should be 155 meters long, can accommodate more than 800 passengers and are launched in June 2015. Whether this the dreaded seasickness a thing of the past, of course, has to yet to be proven. But in any case, an even quieter section of the cruise story is with this innovation ushered well.