About the sea sickness, I would suggest you start sailing with a group in your area. Even though the hull/ motion might be different, it will greatly help you get use to the environment as well as gain knowledge about ocean navigating, currents, and how to read the swells. It would also free you up from designing and building a simulator, and get you more time on the water. I sail as well as kayak the waters around Oahu, and my sailing skills have transferred well to learning how to safely paddle my ocean kayak in windy big swell conditions. There is also a lot to be learned by sailers crossing oceans on pocket yachts. My good friend Coby just crossed the Pacific from Portland, Or. to Kaneohe, Hi. on a 20 foot Flicka sailboat. http://aboard-snookums.blogspot.com/. It took him 31 days, and was quite an adventure.

All the best, John

http://www.inmotionsimulation.com/

Waves on a lake are short, high frequency movements of moderate amplitude, whereas waves on the open ocean are slow long wavelength rollers with considerable amplitude. The frequency spectra are entirely different.

The same is true for other motions such as cars, flying, etc. Every modality has its own characteristic power spectrum.

You should also be able rig up an anti-gimbaled seat mount that uses (a part) the energy throwing you side ways to move you in the opposite direction. Sort of like automatically going “high-side”. If you did it electronically, you could use accelerometers to establish an artificial horizon (through your choice of planes). Then you could also have the drive leg input pivot to the seat vector as well.

I get thrown around a bit, too, in my velomobile; roadways with a steep outside camber are what got me thinking about what you could do if it could be done. I think if I look there I will find your picture.

When the boat is in the water you can have someone rock it while you are sitting inside. Timing 10 or so cycles will give a good idea of the cycle time. You could then probably support WiTHiN with tables and inner tubes and devise a motorized system to rock it at the right frequency. If you do this, I want to see the video.

I replaced fans on an indoor trainer with an aluminum flywheel and put a small high-energy neo-iron magnet near it. It was easy to have too much eddy-current braking from the magnet. If you made a flywheel that was driven off the propeller shaft with a step up chain drive you could mount it all to the drive leg and be able to have realistic drag and inertia.

Basically, make two metal disc mounted on frt wheel hubs in stands with an irregular wavy edge. Use skate wheels in yokes as followers to either push or pull for the action. Quite small motors should be sufficient as they would have to be geared way down to produce the proper speed for the simulated action. By having the two units ‘geared’ slightly differently, it would produce a continuously changing ‘wave’ pattern. I would think the whole works could be built with less then $200 & a days work in the shop.