Flopper-stoppers

[Jack Becker]

First time poster here. I'm working on a flopper-stopper rig on a boat designed as a sailboat but used as a long range power cruiser (i.e., basically just a fishing boat mast with outriggers). From what I've learned, the most difficult aspect of towing roll stabilizer devices is retrieving them. It's sort of like pulling an anchor up along the side of your boat, which tends to scrape up the topsides and is awkward at best, especially when you're out at sea and the boat is rolling around. Some folks pull them up to the ends of the poles and leave them there, but that means they're out of reach and difficult to secure, besides having that weight up high. Any line besides the tow line which is attached to the fish for retrieval is just one more line to tangle or snag debris or disrupt the proper tracking action of the fish. Anyone have any good ideas on how to retrieve the fish?

[Mike Field]

Welcome to the Forum, ETc. I take it you're talking about a rigid structure boomed out on one side of the vessel only? If you were to use a drogue on each side you could swing the booms in alongside, and then haul the drogues straight back on board using tripping lines.

If, on the other hand, you were actually referring to those intimate items of ladies' apparel, then I'm not qualified to comment.

[Jack Becker]

Mike, yes, it's a rigid structure, but it's on both sides, basically like a troller, lowered down to about 30 degrees from horizontal when in use. The fish are shaped like a delta wing, with a vertical fin on top and counterbalanced with a weight in the front. Each one weights around 25 or 30 pounds, I would guess. They can exert up to a couple thousand pounds or so of pull (mostly downwards) which apparently is very effective in reducing the rolling of a motor vessel. The boat is already equipped with all this stuff, we're just trying to find an easier way to pull the fish back aboard than by having to grab the tow line and pull it up by hand. We'd rather not add any other lines to the fish, simply to because that would increase the liklihood of snagging debris or getting the line tangled or fouled. I can't figure any way to do it.

[On Vacation]

Hae you considered installing the fish on a roller line mounted inside the tube continuing down the tube to the rigid mounting bracket at the boat. As you pull the fish out of the water, either winch the fish up to the pipe or pull it up to a closed position before pulling the arm up. Then after the arm is upright lower the fish down to managable length to grab and place on deck.

[Jack Becker]

I've seen a system on another boat in which the fish was hoisted up to the end of the pole, which was equipped with an arm to hold the fish away from the pole. A light line was attached to the tail of the fish and was tied to the stern of the boat to prevent the fish from swinging and banging the pole. The owner of that boat just lets the tail line trail free behind the fish while in use, which seems a little undesireable (I just had a line-in-the-prop episode on my own boat, so I'm a little sensitive to loose lines in the water), but to keep the loose end tied to the boat, even loosely, will create a bight in the line which would snag debris, create extra drag, and possibly screw up how the fish tracks in the water.

A davit along the side of the deck might work, if I could somehow transfer the block from the end of the pole to the davit, and then just winch the fish up to the davit. Don't know how I could do that, though. Just brainstorming....

[Adam C]

on the NORDHAVN powerboats we make (www.nordhavn.com) the paravanes are deployed and retrieved with a set of rule winches mounted on a boom. There is no retrieval line mounted to the paravane itself. It is self retreiving in a sense...

As you deploy the fish in the water, they hover back under the surface, by the transom. The more chain you let out, the further forward they go until they are almost amidships. When you retrieve them, the winch pulls the chain in, and the fish move back to the transom where you simply grab the last couple feet of chain and haul them in. We put a bracket on each side of the transom to hold them.

Note that we use chain, not wire rope. The wire rope has a tendency to "sing" as it is being towed, and the annoying whine drives you nuts after a while.

NORDHAVN has put out more paravane systems than any production boat, and we've tried all the systems before we came out wth our own.

Hope this helps, Adam.