active fin stabilizers

Gentlemen/Ladies,

Any contacts known for installers of active fin stabilizers? *I've spoken with some of the manufacturers, and am in need of someone well experienced to oversee/install an active system on Cape Cod. *Have heard some names, especially in Florida. *Full displacement Selene.


Best,


Rick

I'm not sure if this will help but here are a few articles on the topic.

Danny

http://www.passagemaker.com/MagazineandEvents/TheMagazine/ReadArticle/tabid/277/articleID/923/Default.aspx

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.passagemaker.com+active+fin+stabilizer&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

I hope this helps.

Dionysios

As somebody else said, it's too bad that Passagemaker screwed up it's forums so badly. Used to be a good resource. Guess you're trying to get folks back over there, eh?

I suggest you contact New England Boatworks in Portsmouth, RI. It is about a 6 hour run depending on Cape Cod port. I have a Selene 47 with Niaids, presently in Fall River. They make for a pretty smooth ride (usually!!). Installation can be expensive - even a 2hr removal/install by Niaid techs for a routine service cost me $1K in Florida but I was told would run $2K here in the NE.

Chris
1999 Selene 4701
"Auriga"

$15-20,000 a few years ago as I recall.

Keith wrote:

$15-20,000 a few years ago as I recall.

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And I think that would be o the cheap side of things.* I was thinking near 30k.

" I was thinking near 30k." Or more

That's why some folks will go the flopper stopper route 1 /10 the boat bucks.

1/100 in terms of ongoing maint.

And then there is Dramamine for no boat bucks.

FF

Gentlemen,

Thanks for all of your help, *will keep you posted regarding price, and type.


Rick

FF - some of us don't mind spending*the money to join the 20th century, let alone the 21st. Why some may even want to buy a Furuno Nav 3! Flopper stoppers etc are dangerous and inconvenient and look crappy too. Read PMM from about 3 years ago detailing the Nordhavn exiting an anchorage with flopper stoppers down. Grabbed a sailbotes anchor rode and pulled the bote into the NH killing the admiral. You can have em. Am I missing them on your boat picture?

"Flopper stoppers etc are dangerous and inconvenient and look crappy too."

BOATS are dangerous and inconvenient , notice the Zeus drive for non boaters to get back ashore with.

We are installing F-S for use underway , at anchor with shallow draft we simply anchor out of the swell.

That some hobby folks get killed or harmed is hardly a supprise , read the number of MD that die on twin engine aircraft when 1 stops.

For the Ultimate safety a fire proof closet sounds like a great place to live, for some.

The hassle we are designing OUT of a F-S setup is the increase in air height.

We love a 10ft bridge air draft , at times it saves many many 1/2 hour waits.

So the mast is being created of 3 inch heavy wall SS with an insuide HD lift tube that will give the height required when needed offshore.

On a "yachyt" boat the look is whatever you want , on a lobster boat a mast is hardly unexpected.

I got quoted $45K in Mexico for Wesmar (55' steel boat with the room for stabilizers already built in).* I also got a quote for $100K (!) for the gyroscopic stabilizers that PMM had an article about last year.*
Either way, that's a bunch of money.* They are sort of on the "Boat List" but they stay at the bottom until we have a passage like we had this week with beam seas the whole way!* Then the Admiral miraculously makes them move closer to the top....

ASK for a ride aboard a boat fitted with F/S and see if they will do the job for your bride.

But if you do get the ride, make sure the Bride is also the one to drop them in the drink and bring them back up... all to be done in a tight seaway.

We just returned home from a*Norwegian Cruise to the western Carribean- No, not the Pearl! The stabilizers on this girl come out from the side- like wings on a plane. Any idea where they go when docking? Also- I believe I have seen fixed stabilizers on the bottom of some vessel hull designs. How effective are these?? Steve

flopper stoppers are dangerous? hmmm, how come so many fishing boats and now converted fishing boat made for cruising are useing em? guess they are stupid people who don't know what they are doing.

Outlaw

Forkliftt wrote:

The stabilizers on this girl come out from the side- like wings on a plane. Any idea where they go when docking?

*

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A 120 foot corporate yacht I was associated with for awhile in Seattle had the prototype of this type of stabilizer.* The yacht was built by Abbeking & Rassumussen (sp?) in Germany in 1966 for Augie Bush (then the head of Anheuser Bush).* Designed by Philip Rhodes, the original name of the yacht was "A and Eagle" which is the registered name of the Anheuser Bush logo.* This type of stabilzer works like the stabilizer and elevator of an airplane. Each stabilizer fin has two parts--- a forward fixed portion and a hinged, powered after portion.* When not in use or for docking the whole fin pivots aft to fit into a recess in the hull.

They still make this type of stabilizer and I suspect it is similar to what you saw on the ship you were on.

*

Call the sale rep to come out to your boat to give his opinion a idea.* On some of the true full displacement round bottom the active fin will not work ad/or be very efficient for the money.* This summer when we pulled the Eagle we had the Niada Sales rep come out ad look.* Upon seeing the Eagle he state up front the active fin would not work efficient and would cost to much money, 30 grand.*

*
He advised rolling chokes and/or fish stabilizers.* the reason because of the round hull the fins would stick out past the hull, and/or be unprotected which would negate to a certain degree the protected shoe prop, and at slow trawler speed the fins would have to be bigger.* So eve if you want the fins it may not be economical and/or efficient.

*

Phil Fill wrote:
...because of the round hull the fins would stick out past the hull, and/or be unprotected which would negate to a certain degree the protected shoe prop....

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A year or two ago a Grand Banks 66 (a boat that never should have been built in the first place-- they only built 3 and are so unstable that they need the stabilizers on at idle speeds in smooth water) ripped one of its active fin stabilizers off on a rock during a GB cruise in Alaska.* They almost lost the boat.

Active fins are great and well worth considering for in any vessel you are wanting to purchase. Installing on an existing boat is many $$ and*can only be justified by your pocketbook and cruising habits.

Some boats as P/F notes are not candidates. In my boat quest of 3 years ago, active stabilizers were on my search list. PMM of a few issues ago talked to proper installation - a good read for those interested.
*
In the latest Yachting magazine another article appeared on the Windhorse. Dashew states in a 25' beam sea the boat rolled 4 degrees with stabilizers on. It should be noted that Windhorse has fish too - Dashew doesn't use them except at anchor where he cites the benefits.

I know some people*don't like active stabilizers because of the install cost, and that is quite fair - no different than trying to justify a new Furuno system over the old one you have working. But the train has left the station as to their benefits and ease of operation. Thus far the biggest operating cost for me has been new lip seals - $1200 - every 3 years done by the boatyard. The seals cost about $200. As far as boats sinking due to stabilizers, a good install should not allow the boat to be breached - the fins simply break off. But as with rudders and shafts, strange things can happen to the nonaware.

sunchaser wrote:

As far as boats sinking due to stabilizers, a good install should not allow the boat to be breached - the fins simply break off. But as with rudders and shafts, strange things can happen to the nonaware.

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I did not mean to imply that fin stabilizers increase the risk of a grounding.* I don't know the details of the GB66 accident, but suffice it to say that if the boat hadn't been taken that close to the rock, it wouldn't have hit it.* If you have fin stabilizers it's just matter of being aware of them and making sure you don't hit anything with them, which is no different than what a good boater should already be doing with regard to the prop(s), rudder(s) and hull of his boat.

"The fins simply break off",,, great advertising but proven false by experience.

FF

pmm had an article on a krogen that grounded on a sand bank.
in attempting to tow it off one stablizer was riped from the hull,
the boat was patched , refloated and repaired.
the greek ferry ms express samina* loa 377ft hit a rock its stablizer
fin put a 3 metre ? gap in the side of the engine room, flooding destroyed the generators no power for pumps water tight doors open vessel lost
with large loss of life.
*as with most systems pros and cons

A good install is simply that, with backing plates, thicker hull sections and proper placement. But there is no accounting for those who choose to take shortcuts and run aground - the Krogen being a good example. And not to mention that many *Krogens, with composite hulls below the water line, are not good candidates for stabilizers.

I assume you mean a cored hull? Lots of Krogens have stabilizers installed and work fine. Just like anything, you have to install them correctly.