Stabilizing a motorboat !!

[Guest]

Hi! I'm currently converting/renovating a former 47' harbour patrol boat into a long-range motorboat. Having read Bebe's "Voyaging under power" , George Buehler's "Troller yachts" and other authors work - I have some theoretical platform, but need advice from you out there. In order to stabilize my boat I'm thinking of getting flopperstoppers installed. Obviously; this has to be custom-made to suit the boat. Some years ago MotorBoat Monthly had an article describing the trials and errors of fitting FS's to a Trader 36.
This article my have encouraged Trawler-owners to fit their own ?
Does anyone have personal experience (or know how to get to the source of this) ?
I'm not (just to say that) thinking of using a sail to stabilize my boat.

My ongoing project is described at my homepage http://home.world-online.no/~dreggen (Just copy and paste into URL).


Sincerely,

Pelle

 

[Col]

Try West marine in the good old U.S of A.
I'm sure they have a web site.They sell the things you are after.
Maybe someone else here can give you their url.

 

[longjohnsilver]

There have been articles in MBM I think fairly recently re round the world trip by the Jauncy family who had flopper stoppers made for their 50 ish foot motor boat. Perhaps someone knows the month the article appeared or contact MBM.

Westmarine web site is www.westmarine.com

 

[BarryH]

Flopper stoppers, can be purchased fromm compass watersports thru mail order. seem to remember reading that article and from memory they were fitted to the ends of "booms" either side of the boat.

 

[paulineb]

Flopper Stoppers

That's what my grandma used to call her bra.

Pauline B

 

[Guest]

Help on FS - Thanks!

Col and BarryH: Thanks for advice. However, I think that you might have mixed FS with the system at anchor. Underway, the FS rig runs wires by booms to delta-shaped "foils", however without the camber a foil would have. These delta-shaped "foils" , known as paravanes ,counteracts beginning motion. (I.e. the boats heels to port, the starboard paravane "digs" in and makes added resistance against the unwanting heeling. At anchor one would deploy two "buckets" with valves in their bottoms. As the bucket goes down, the valves open and the bucket sinks without much resistance. As the bucket is dragged up, the valves closes, and the bucket will resist the motion and in turns help to reduce the vessels heave. I thinks these "buckets" can be sold by mailorder, Paravanes, however, has to be carefully tailored to type and speed of boat. There is tremendous forces involved, and that's why it can not be sold over the counter. In addition, I have the paper catalogue of Westmarine and have also performed search at their site with no result.

Longjohnsilver: Thanks. I was a MBM subscriber until a year ago (PBO has always, and will still be my #1), but now I'm back on the track. I will try to get a backcopy of the actual MBM issue(s). In addition I'll try to phone Geoff Castle, owner of the Trader refered in the FS article some years ago. I have also made a new subscription to a magazine named Passagemaker. They'll have an article regarding the subject in their latest issue.
By the way, today I bought a 4.4m steel mast with a 3.05m boom. This will hopefully be the heart of my FS rig.

PaulineB: My best regards to your Granny, but I don't think using the specs on her bra will help me with my project....Unless it was extremely well built!

Sincerely,

Pelle

 

[Guest]

I had Koop Nautic, active fins retro fitted to my last Trader 50, and have ABT Tracs fitted to my recent boat a Trader 54. My wife would not go to sea without them, and the TRAC's are the dogs. If your interested go to their web site and they have a very helpful Europe enginneer who is regularly in the UK.