Roll Stabilizers

[DeepFrz]

This link to a manufacturer of roll stabilizers was posted on a mailing list I belong to and I thought it might be of interest to the people on this board.

Boat Roll Stabilizers, Flopper Stoppers, At Anchor Roll Stabilizers, Marine Stabilizers

I wasn't sure what subject to post it under, I hope this works.

[cdennyb]

if you buy a catamaran instead of mono don't these become useless?

[just couldn't help myself...]

[klem]

I am curious as to whether anyone has ever used a product like this at anchor. I have never seen a boat with them, even in quite rolly anchorages. I have seen plenty of fishing boats and some trailer yachts use them underway. It seems to me that if you set them on the boom of a sailboat, you would get a lot of noise as the load cycled. I realize that there is a lot of noise anyways in a rolly anchorage but I wonder whether it would get worse?

This is just a question out of curiosity, I have no plan on getting anything like this myself. So if you have used them, do they work well?

[Bash]

I would be worried about a major loss of style points using such a contraption on anything other than a power boat.

[cal40john]

I guess I'm too cheap to appreciate $600 each for these when I've seen so many designs on the web and in books that you could do for $20 or less.


I've never done a flopper stopper here in the highly protected anchorages of Puget Sound, but my friend who cruised Baja said there were a few places where his were invaluable/necessary. I forgot to ask which kind he had, but I absolutely know they weren't $600 a piece.

John

[Randyonr3]

In an open anchorage a flopper stopper is worth its weight in gold as once the boat starts to rock it continues to get worse as the frequency of the wave blends with the boat..
Its like bouncing a ball, once it starts bouncing, it takes little to keep it going ..
But almost anything to interrupt the frequency will mellow the boats movement..
We use an old plastic milk crate with two flippers attached to the inside bottom and a lead weight attached to the underside.. as it goes down with the weight of the leaded underside, the flippers allow it to fill up, when comming up the flippers close and the weight of the water filled crate is pulled upward, slowing down the rocking motion..
And we often attach ours to the end of the spinnaker pole pointiong out ward.. We also "Barber haul" the anchor rode to point us into the oncomming waves so the waves are comming into the bow and giving a calmer ride..

[goboatingnow]

flopper stoppers on a sailboat.....

surely the mast and boom setup is all wrong, mast booms and spinakers pole are designed to resist upwards pulls, not downward

DAve

[Randyonr3]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

flopper stoppers on a sailboat.....

surely the mast and boom setup is all wrong, mast booms and spinakers pole are designed to resist upwards pulls, not downward

DAve

Another comment from an arm chair sailor..

You'll find that in "Real Life" while cruising, many designs pull double duty or triple duty..
You need to get your nose out of that book and out on the open sea, and you'll find life is a lot different than what you imagined.....

[svHyLyte]

We carry a flopper stopper and use it whenever we cannot spring the yachts head into the seas/chop, in an anchorage. Ours is about 2' x 3' and is suspended from the end of our spinnaker pole which is set in place with fore- and after guys. Depending upon the amount of sea we have to deal with, we may angle the pole up so that the flopper stopper sits only a few feet off our side, or leave it fully horizontal, with which the pole end is about 13' out-board. In either case the flopper stopper is suspended 6-8 feet below the water surface. (We do hang Chem-lghts on the outboard end of the pole and at mid-length so someone doesn't bang into it in the nigh.) The device works very well and we have sat comfortably while other around us have rolled their guts out.

FWIW...

[Nauticatarcher]

We used a similar design stabiliser but made ourselves, we had an attachment point for our spinnaker pole low down on gunwhales amidship, it stopped our roll at anchor dead and once it had been used my wife wouldnt hesitate too force me to use it any time we anchored and a roll came through, wouldn't cruise without one now!

[goboatingnow]

You need to get your nose out of that book and out on the open sea, and you'll find life is a lot different than what you imagined.....

well is 17 years and 23,000 sea miles good enough for you, including winter deliveries in the north sea, biscay, etc while you sun yourself in sunny California.

I personally have never seen flopper anythings on sailing boats. ( and only rarely on mobos;s as there is virtually no long distance mobo anythings in Europe), but hey I like your first 42 nice boat delivered one thru a goodly storm

but hey back to my armchair.

[Randyonr3]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

well is 17 years and 23,000 sea miles good enough for you, including winter deliveries in the north sea, biscay, etc while you sun yourself in sunny California.

I personally have never seen flopper anythings on sailing boats. ( and only rarely on mobos;s as there is virtually no long distance mobo anythings in Europe), but hey I like your first 42 nice boat delivered one thru a goodly storm

but hey back to my armchair.

In 17 years and 23,000 sea miles and you havent seen a flopper stopper on a sailboat.. If in fact you have done what you say, and never used a flopper-stopper while at anchor, you've really missed out on something..
We're not talking about using these under way.. only at anchor to keep the boat from rolling..
Sometime take a 5 gallon bucket and fill it part way full of rocks and hang it out on the spinnaker pole with the pole paralell to the water and the bucket full of rocks a few feet under the water.. adjust the heigth with the lift on the end of the pole.. stick the pole out off the beam of the boat.. you'll be surprised how stable the boat becomes......

[goboatingnow]

Easying myself out of my armchair.

I'm not for once arguing about the use of flopper stoppers. I have read a good deal about them on long distance trawler yachts ( back in my armchair you know).

What I do know is the effect in masts and booms. for example centre sheeted booms leave the end quiet exposed to cycical loadings, I have witness a boom snapped by dipping in the water.

Equally mast loadings are not designed for large pulls from the side.

I have no issue ( other then asthestics) with the concept, merely the idea of using my precious mast or boom. But I'm not a NA so there.

[fishwife]

Creeping into the sail boat domain Having used flopper stoppers on my motor cruiser, if I'd known how good they were, I'd have found some way of rigging one when I had a sail boat. Though back then, I may have worried about style issues

P.

[mesquaukee]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Easying myself out of my armchair.

I'm not for once arguing about the use of flopper stoppers. I have read a good deal about them on long distance trawler yachts ( back in my armchair you know).

What I do know is the effect in masts and booms. for example centre sheeted booms leave the end quiet exposed to cycical loadings, I have witness a boom snapped by dipping in the water.

Equally mast loadings are not designed for large pulls from the side.

I have no issue ( other then asthestics) with the concept, merely the idea of using my precious mast or boom. But I'm not a NA so there.

Mast loadings from the side?
The little bit of load placed on on a mast from a flopper stopper is minimal compared to the load placed on it from the wind. The halyard supporting the flopper stoper will break long before the shrouds or the mast. The bending moment on the mast where the boom or spinaker pole connects to the mast is similar to that of sailing.

A center sheeted boom will never snap due to the loading placed on it by a flopper stopper at anchor. All loading is compressive, not bending as when dipping the end of the boom in the water when sailing.

As for asthetics one gladly gives that up if you have to spend some time in exceedingly rolly anchorages due to weather constraints. Rather be ugly looking than rolling 30 degrees port and starboard.