To stabilize or not to stabilize?

Larry and I have the same setup with the passive stabilizers. With the active fins, I understand you loose half a kt on cruising speed. We loose the same with the paravanes, and I believe rolling chocks also claim about half a kt. With the inside waters of the PNW, we rarely have our paravanes down and most of the time we don't need them as we tend to be more fair weather. That said we have them and can use them when necessary. We will be going to the Central Coast of BC this year and I suspect we will make more use of them. The paravanes work really well but you do have to deploy them so they are not as convenient as active fins, but one advantage is they are largely maintenance free. They are great when you get into a pristine anchorage and you want to keep other boats away! ;-)

I have heard of paravanes jumping out of the water and hitting pilothouses on trollers, however, these may be due to design flaws on those particular vessels. In addition, I don't plan in being out in weather that is so severe that paravanes are flying out of the water.


Jim
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The grasshopper design will keep the the paravane polls from flopping up out of the water which would allow the fish to strike the hull. Most pleasure boats that I see do not use the grasshopper design.

Guess I'm missing something here. What is the grasshopper design.

Old deckhand said:

The grasshopper design will keep the the paravane polls from flopping up out of the water which would allow the fish to strike the hull. Most pleasure boats that I see do not use the grasshopper design.

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Grasshopper design? Do you mean "Jackknives" between theorems and the mast? These are often used on trollers, but would be a difficult install on wider a vessel such as mine (kk42).


Jim
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Perhaps Jack knifes are the same as grasshopper legs. The GL are common on commercial boats. They are an articulated metal arm usually extending between the mast and the paravane poll. When the pole is up the arm is closed and when the poll is down the arm opens up. Up position looks like this ^.

JDCAVE said:

Grasshopper design? Do you mean "Jackknives" between theorems and the mast? These are often used on trollers, but would be a difficult install on wider a vessel such as mine (kk42).


Jim
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Between the theorems and the mast? How does spell check get theorems from poles?

...yes. Probably the same.


Jim
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"the arms" perhaps?

Old deckhand said:

The grasshopper design will keep the the paravane polls from flopping up out of the water which would allow the fish to strike the hull. Most pleasure boats that I see do not use the grasshopper design.

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I have seen these on boats that have an "H" fame for the paravanes. JDCave's and Hobo each have "A" frame designs. After 10K plus miles with the fish in the water, our poles have never come up. The fish have come out of the water a few times in big seas but never coming close to striking the hull.

Britannia,
We've been sailing 40-50ft sailboats for over 10 years. We recently (3 months ago) jumped into a Selene 53 which is stabilized with fins. We have done 4-5 days at sea with both and the difference in the fatigue factor was drastic.

In my limited experience the motion of our sailboats was very different than the motion of our trawler with the fins "off". First of all in the sailboat we're closer to the water so motion is not amplified as much. Regardless, there is more roll in the trawler with the fins "off" than in the sailboat. What ultimately makes it for us more uncomfortable is the large difference in roll pattern. The sailboat moving much more rhythmically made it more comfortable.

With our fins on, there really is little to no roll. The major movement is the boat pitching, for which stabilizers don't counteract (I understand gyros do ($$$$)). The feeling inside becomes far more comfortable than our sailboats ever were underway. While underway we can put things down anywhere and later find them were we left them. Even drinks. Do that in seas in what sailboat?

You are correct, it is more an issue (I think) of comfort than safety. The fins play a huge role in that but they are only part of the equation, not being as exposed to the elements is another major factor together with more comfortable living conditions overall. If sailing is closer to camping, I guess we have a nice RV now.

For us, we had to have them. No question.

We also learned that there are options. Ours is powered by a take-off from our main transmission. So using them is only an option if we're under power by our main engine (we have a get home backup). They can also be powered, independently from you main. There are tradeoffs both ways. We like not having to run an additional power source (cheaper run, less to maintain). On the flip side if powered independently you can use the stabilizers (at least our model) at anchor.

Hopefully you find a chance to go out on a trawler and and feel the difference for yourself. I would encourage you to walk a dock and ask an owner. If someone seriously approached us, we'd take them out, and I bet many others would also.

In any case, this is our experience thus far. Hope it's usefull.

Harry & Karen

I have a rear view mirror on my bridge. It's name is the Sea Ray mirror. Inevitably when I am not looking a big power boat operated by either an ignorant idiot or an arrogant ass will pass me at close quarters. I have always wished for stabilizers so I could raise my glass in a toast when he passes. It is impossible to have the boat totally battened down for such an occurrence.

In my part of the country stabilizers would be much more important in the ICW than offshore.

seasalt007 said:

I have a rear view mirror on my bridge. It's name is the Sea Ray mirror. Inevitably when I am not looking a big power boat operated by either an ignorant idiot or an arrogant ass will pass me at close quarters. ...

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Like this?



Fortunately, we had enough space to turn into his wake. The fellow TFer whose small wake is between, did not.

FF said:

Our system seems simpler to deploy and retrieve, as I can deploy in a few minutes and retrieve just a few more, less than 10'

Description , drawing , photo, video?

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What I haven't posted the pictures yet?

I did write the stats on my blog, but now that you remind me, I did promise more pictures of the finished product.

I promise this winter, it will be in my list, as I am finally happy with the finished product.

Larry,

I have adjusted the up down lines while underway, if only to see if there was a difference.

Also, tightened the fore and aft guys as needed.

JDCAVE said:

I have heard of paravanes jumping out of the water and hitting pilothouses on trollers, however, these may be due to design flaws on those particular vessels. In addition, I don't plan in being out in weather that is so severe that paravanes are flying out of the water.

Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

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Yep, I've seen it in a movie, do it must be true.