Boating

Shock and Aah

There’s a line from one of the

all-time greatest guy movies,

The Godfather, in which the

aging Don Vito Corleone

character says offhandedly to

his grown son, Michael, “I like

to drink wine more than I used

to. Anyway, I’m drinkin’ more.”

To paraphrase Don Vito,

when it comes to boating, I

like to sit down more than

I used to. Age catches up with

us all, and, as a result, many

of us don’t stand at the helm

as much as we did when our

backs and legs were younger

and more resilient. Yet some

helm seats are not a lot more

comfortable than standing

while running in rough seas.

Seaspension has not only

recognized this, but it has

also developed a relatively

affordable shock-mitigating

seating system that pampers

us middle-aged guys and

might save the backs of

younger skippers.

Shock-mitigating helm

seats are not new. Stidd

Systems, for example, has

been around for years, but its

shock-mitigating helm seats

are designed for yachts and

military applications, and

prices start at around $6,000.

By comparison, the

Seaspension seating

system, which is distributed

exclusively in the United

States by Taco Marine, costs

far less. One of its 25-inch-

tall M30 pedestals retails for

about $750. The pedestals

are designed with footprints

to replace a standard

recreational marine pedestal

seat. The question is: How

well do they work?

To find out, we ventured

into the notorious Santa

Barbara Channel aboard

a Parker 2520 Pilothouse

boat equipped with

both a Seaspension M30

pedestal (at the helm) and

a conventional Garelick

pedestal (for the portside

passenger). The seats were

both Garelick 251 helm chairs

with armrests.

With the help of Taco

Marine’s Mike Kushner,

Seaspension inventor and

president Peter Burer, and

Eric Hermann of Executive

Yachts (who loaned us

the boat), we were able to

experience and gather data

using a sophisticated IST

EDR-3 triaxial accelerometer

with three sensors — one

each placed on the deck

amidships, on the passenger

in the portside conventional

pedestal seat, and on

the helmsman seated in the

Seaspension-equipped seat.

Our goal was to measure

the G-force of each, comparing

data from sensors on the deck

and conventional seating

to the Seaspension seating.

Unfortunately, the infamous

Santa Barbara Channel was

pretty docile on the afternoon

of our sea trial — great for

boating, but bad for testing

a shock-mitigating seat.

We were, however, able to

find some gnarly wakes

from passing ships and oil

boats, and we pressed hard

on the throttle as we crested

the man-made rollers.

We learned that the

Seaspension seating reduced

G-forces by 60 percent

compared to the conventional

seat (see the IST readout

below). “The harder the

landings, the more of a

difference the Seaspension

will make in G-force

reduction,” Burer says.

The Seaspension-

equipped helm seat was

clearly more comfortable

than the conventional seat.

“As someone who developed

back problems as a result of

boating, I would not go out on

a boat without Seaspension,”

says Hermann.

Unlike Don Corleone, I

don’t like to drink wine more

than I used to. But I do like to

sit down while underway, and

with the comfort afforded by

the Seaspension system, I will

be sitting a lot more.

To see the Seaspension

system in action, check out

our video at boatingmag.com/

taco-marine-seaspension-

shock-mitigation-seating.

— J.H.

We tested the

Seaspension

system aboard

a Parker 2520

Pilothouse o

the Southern

California coast.

PHOTO: RON BALLANTI

BOATINGMAG.COM APRIL 2016 77