Sabre 54 Humphree Interceptor Trim Tabs
I’m 5’7”, and I sometimes have a hard time seeing over the foredecks of express-style boats coming onto plane. So I often depend on trim tabs to get a vessel’s bow down.
Happily, seeing over the foredeck wasn’t a problem for me on the Sabre 52 because she was equipped with large and beefy composite trim tabs that adjusted via switches at the helm controlling a servo motor located in the middle of each tab. These Humphree Interceptors had been installed after Sabre found that the Volvo Penta QL tabs weren’t getting the bow down quite low enough. You can see in the specs here that the test boat’s bow never rose above 4.5 degrees, thanks to the Interceptors.
In addition, these tabs featured an optional auto-trim control, which allow the software to adjust the trim without input from the helmsman.
Statement by Captain Alistair Bendall, captain of a Technomar 35meter yacht.
“MY Revolver is a 35 meter Technomar Velvet, she was originally built with trim tabs, these were removed and up graded to Humphrees, during a large mechanical refit.
On the first sea trial to set them up i was amazed at how much fuel consumption was reduced as we set them up. They also improved our turning circle at speed by a huge amount.
They are easy to use, just turn them on and off you go! In adverse weather they can be easily trimmed to give a better ride.
Great company and great product, next yacht i build, Humphree will be the automatic choice.”Comment by Humphree: This Technomar 35m uses 4 x H1200 plus control systems BTOS + CTOS (Automatic Trim & List plus Coordinated Turn)
Kilimanjaro III
You will be pleased to know that the last two boats that we built 053 “Cat Cocos – Islae of La Digue” and 054 “Kilimanjaro III” are both running very well with their Humphree systems.
I have just returned from two weeks in Tanzania where KIII did her maiden voyage, just the day after being unloaded from the heavy lift ship. News had spread of the new vessel and she was full with 575 passengers for the voyage from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam. The seas in this region are rarely large, but there is a fairly regular equatorial swell which can be confused when it reflects off the coast. Wind waves are over the top and can cause some pitching.
The Humphree system smoothed the motion of the vessel beautifully and helped to point out the difference between KIII with the active interceptors and KI and KII that do not have the Humphree system.
Fantome cat
I would just like to express my thanks to the team at Humphree AB for the supply and installation of our new system on our recently launched 30m Aluminium 300 passenger Ferry the “MV Fantome Cat”. The Fantome Cat was launched in March 2010 and over the pass 7 months we have seen significant fuel savings (10-13%) from this vessel from the previous new vessels that we built MV Palm Cat and the Maggie Cat and Sun Cat.
The Palm Cat was fitted with a competitors system that has worked efficiently for us, but the savings that we are seeing on fuel burn are tremendous, with the system already looking at paying for itself within the first 12 months of operation.
Also the support service we have experienced already from the Humphree Technicians has been second to none, when we had a small problem with the calibrations of the unit, the technician was on the plane and immediately here to help. The system has been set up so that the Master just needs to switch it on and forget it, which has proved to be very popular with them. We have identified that savings are being made whenever the vessel is travelling over 9knots.
We hope to continue to have a long working relationship with Humphree AB. I would have no hesitation in recommending and this system to other operators and I would happily encourage you to come and see the system in operation.