Building your own Paravane System?

Tad Roberts said:

One thing that's not obvious in the photos (of the Nordic, Krogen, or Volunteer) is some form of hold-down for the poles. The commercial guys in BC use two pieces of pipe in a scissor arrangement off the mast, which is clear of everything.

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In case anyone is wondering what Tad is talking about, here's an example of scissor holddowns on a BC troller's poles:

Should one snag the bottom or a log or a sea land container , something has to let go.

Good design would suggest that what lets go is easy and cheap to replace.

A piece of line would seem ideal . Inspect the various designs to see what the break point is.

When I built my poles they fold back not up used 10 ft aluminum square tubing. My biggest problem was harmonic vibration solved the problem with a rubber gasket on the hinge. I manual retrieve the fish with a boat pole walking them back to the stern at slow speeds.

The Paravanes on my boat look home made.
I will take some pictures of the set up this weekend and post them on monday.
A simple set up.
The biggest issue I can see is a way to store the poles.
You are going to need some sort of mast to hook them onto when not deployed.

SD

You are going to need some sort of mast to hook them onto when not deployed.

We prefer to lay them down as the air height of the boat determines weather you slip under a bridge , or wait for the next hour or the train to go by.

Hi. Have you made any progress on your project yet?? I am thinking about doing the same thing with my 35 sundeck. I think the biggest problem I see so far is location front to back. Terry in Alaska.

This visiting recreational trawler transited from the PNW to California had a paravane rig.

I'd suggest anyone adding paravanes read the Transport Canada Safety bulettin on the issue.

The purpose of this Transport Canada Ship Safety Bulletin is to caution the operators of vessels which are equipped with this type of roll damping system against the hazards associated with their use such as, reduction in vessel's stability, system failure from poor maintenance and operational hazards. read more

Well I have removed the poles for my flopper stoppers and am in the process of having fabricated / modified a set of s/s paravane poles.
The originals came of a sister boat belonging to a mate of mine.
he has upgraded his sail rig and paravane set up.
I have 2 sets of fish that I will play with when the time comes.
I am still looking for a 2 nd had rig to fit the boat.
It may be ketch riged or just a main mast and then a gallows set up for the paravane mount.
All still in planning , pre build stage at present.
Off to NZ tomorrow for the Napier Art Deco festival and a bit of trout fishing and then back to work.
Will continue with the project late March when I am home again.

Mark, that is a nice looking little boat but would rather see the poles mounted from the moulding (rub rail) than the cap rail. Would make the set up a lot stronger. Normally the moulding is thru bolted in the deck beam so a lot of inherent strength is built in.
Just my 2cs worth
Cheers
Benn

If you take a huge roll and the upper vane unloads the pole can flop inboard with a crash....

This is easily solved by angiling the pole up from fairly horizontal.

Sure it might reduce the effective length a small bit but the foreguy and afterguy will work as a down haul since they have an effective working angle .

boatpoker said:

I'd suggest anyone adding paravanes read the Transport Canada Safety bulettin on the issue.

The purpose of this Transport Canada Ship Safety Bulletin is to caution the operators of vessels which are equipped with this type of roll damping system against the hazards associated with their use such as, reduction in vessel's stability, system failure from poor maintenance and operational hazards. read more

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Interesting. I have often had similar concerns. These days, if I could afford an ocean capable boat, and it did not have active fins in good condition, then I would go for gyro stabilisation. The cost has come down quite a lot.

When I built my system I decided to be really simple poles go back not up. The arms only 10 foot long And everything can be retrieved by hand with a boat pole. I've been really happy with it.

On a new build I would install a wide centerboard trunk, and power a board as a vane would be .

A thousand years of CB trunk building assures a tight boat

and the usual CB kick up on grounding would be better than vane holes in the hull.