Floating apparatus and method for extracting power from sea waves

Method of extracting power from waves comprising the steps of:

• deploying an apparatus comprising a plurality of buoyant body members connected together to form an articulated structure, each pair of adjacent body members being connected to each other by a coupling member in such a way as to permit relative rotational movement of said body members under action of the waves, whereby each coupling member comprises an element adapted to resist and extract power from the relative rotational movement of said body members;
• orientating the structure such that the front end of the structure faces into the oncoming waves;
• and extracting the power absorbed, characterised in that the method comprises the further steps of:
• applying a roll bias angle (ψ) to at least some of the coupling members in the articulated structure, such that the axis of relative rotation of at least some of the coupling members is skewed at a roll bias angle (ψ) to the horizontal;
• and applying a variable constraint to relative rotation of each pair of adjacent body members in order to control the dynamic response of the structure to wave action, wherein the constraint is varied periodically according to the magnitude of the waves.