The Righting in Capsized Seas

The Righting in Capsized Seas began in 2016 with the principal aim of completely capsizing (or “turtling”) a keeled sailboat on open water. Because of the significant ballast, a keelboat is a type of boat whose tendency is to always remain upright, and even if overturned (such as in a storm), the boat will “right” itself. In doing so, keelboats reach and cross a state of rotational equilibrium, or what is called “the angle of vanishing stability” in maritime parlance. In October (2016), Eckblad successfully performed a controlled-turtling and self-righting of a keelboat in Morris Cove, CT.
Turtled Suspension brings the physical experience of a self-righting keelboat to viewers through a sculpture designed to engage and spur interaction with this phenomenon. The suspended keelboat is rigged with a rotating armature, which would otherwise allow the ballast to keep the boat upright. The self-righting inclination is undermined by tethering the mast to an anchor on the floor. This suspended inversion allows viewers to approach the upside-down vessel, move the mast back and forth, and feel the weight of the vessel shift across the fulcrum overhead as the ballast tries to persistently right the boat.