{"id":818,"date":"2020-02-02T14:24:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T19:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=818"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:51:26","slug":"flopper-stoppers-on-privateer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=818","title":{"rendered":"Flopper Stoppers on Privateer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We installed flopper stoppers as part of the build and commissioning process three years ago. And never used them until just last week. Not that we haven’t rolled, we have. But were heretofore either too lazy or too late to deploy them. More on the “too late” comment later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you unfamiliar with the various stabilization options for a trawler such as ours, there are two approaches to enhanced stabilization while running, paravanes or hydraulic fins. We have hydraulic fins for stabilization while underway. They work well, as long as the hydraulic systems are operational. Paravanes also work well, but do not require hydraulics, so you might see a serious ocean crossing trawler with both for redundancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paravanes and flopper stoppers look somewhat similar, so might be confused with each other. But paravanes drag a “fish” though the water that dives with speed and this creates very strong loads on the system. Paravane systems are therefore pretty beefy. You see them on commercial fishing boats everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flopper stoppers just pull drag panels up and down while the boat is at anchor and therefore are not nearly so strong. Looking at the picture above, you can see how the system functions. Poles are deployed from either side of the superstructure, guyed from the mast above and then with lines fore and aft. The drag panels, we call them doors, are then lowered from the boat deck into the water. They function by sinking easily but providing resistance when pulled up; the “doors” open and close in opposition to each other with the roll of the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Doors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is one of the doors. You can see it is hinged down the centerline, with cables for connection to the down line. They are about 3’x3′ and weigh about 20lbs. They can be a bit awkward to raise and lower. They can easily bang against the hull if you either are not careful, or you are already rolling. And this is what I meant about being “too late” to deploy the system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
lines from top of the mast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These guy lines hold the pole out perpendicular to the boat and horizontal with the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pole attaches to the side of the boat at the upper boat deck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The poles tuck up against the boat deck when folded back and then pivot out when deployed. The operation can be a little tricky. The attachment point also needs to be well reinforced. We specified the system at time of build so this area was beefed up in the mold. This can be accomplished as an aftermarket operation but requires a bit of work, with maybe some advice and councel from the builder. I know some folks have mounted their poles lower on the hull in order to make it easier to reinforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that we have a mast. We had originally specified an arch but the builder determined that the arch did not have sufficient height to enable the angles necessary to support the poles. Now that we have the mast, we sorta like the look! As an aftermarket install to a boat with an arch, a center pole for support might work well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our poles are carbon fiber to keep them light, but aluminum works well. They look like re-purposed spinnaker poles and that is probably what they are (were). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deployment takes about 15 minutes if you keep all the lines attached. We are looking at adding additional lines to aide in dropping the doors over the side and may have storage bags fabricated that attach to the outside of the boat deck rails to simplify deployment and retrieval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how does the system work? We are quite pleased with our first experience. We were anchored in a bay with direct wind protection but were expecting a wrap around swell with an oncoming front. When the swell arrived we did roll, but the roll max angle was lower than expected, the roll rate was much slower and the roll attenuated much faster than in the past. After an initial roll, the next roll was about 50% of the first, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a mild swell, visible to the eye but less than a foot in height. Plenty to roll us when abeam the swell. We were able to sleep through the night just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do have a concern about what we would do if we needed to vacate an anchorage in an emergency. Lots of gear in the water. Although we haven’t tried it, we believe we could motor short distances at low speed, to re-anchor for example, with the doors just raised out of the water. For more estensive maneuvering we could pull the doors up on deck but leave the poles extended. Not a perfect solution, but it could be done quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are headed to Cambridge Cay next and will be there for a month. With a strong North wind a pretty good swell can come in so we will deploy the system for the entire month and report back on performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We installed flopper stoppers as part of the build and commissioning process three years ago. And never used them until just last week. Not that we haven’t rolled, we have. But were heretofore either too lazy or too late to deploy them. More on the “too late” comment later. For those of you unfamiliar with … Continue reading “Flopper Stoppers on Privateer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,1,74],"tags":[16,8,18,17],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bahamas-cruising","category-krogen","category-trawler-cruising","tag-flopper-stoppers","tag-kadey-krogen","tag-privateer","tag-stabilization-at-anchor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=281","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":0},"title":"Fish on!","author":"greg","date":"March 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A run on the sound side of the Exumas is always an opportunity to catch something. Our first fish off Privateer. This one was about 25 pounds. For the fishermen, we caught it at 9 am in about 400 feet just outside the cut north of George Town. Trolling a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bahamas cruising"","block_context":{"text":"Bahamas cruising","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?cat=28"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mahi.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mahi.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mahi.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":723,"url":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=723","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":1},"title":"AIS Surprise","author":"greg","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"We took Privateer out today just to check all the systems after a 2000 hour service and a change of all her oils and fluids. All that went fine. The area just north of Newport can be pretty crowded so occasionally someone shows up near us that I didnt see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Krogen Trawler cruising"","block_context":{"text":"Krogen Trawler cruising","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/IMG_0161.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/IMG_0161.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/IMG_0161.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=44","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":2},"title":"Chasseur Little Harbor 54 Our prior boat","author":"greg","date":"June 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Krogen Trawler cruising"","block_context":{"text":"Krogen Trawler cruising","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chasseur","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Chasseur-202x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=124","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":3},"title":"Warderick Wells by trawler","author":"greg","date":"August 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park A beautiful place. Well protected from development and fishing by the park laws and boundaries. And great for cruising in a natural environment. Plenty of places to anchor and excellent moorings. We were here a few years back while cruising on Chasseur and looked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bahamas cruising"","block_context":{"text":"Bahamas cruising","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?cat=28"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":256,"url":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=256","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":4},"title":"Stuck in North Palm Beach","author":"greg","date":"December 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"So here is a truism of boat ownership; New boats are no more reliable than well-maintained old boats. Not a very scientific analysis on my part, but we have owned a few old boats and now have a new one. Between the infant mortality of new equipment, and we are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bahamas cruising"","block_context":{"text":"Bahamas cruising","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?cat=28"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Genset-Removal-675x900.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Genset-Removal-675x900.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Genset-Removal-675x900.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?p=191","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":5},"title":"Stuck in Newport","author":"greg","date":"September 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We are sitting in Newport, kinda boxed in by Jose. And Maria is right behind. So we may be here for a while. Tempting to try and end run through NYC, but the Jersey coast isnt all that attractive either. As of 22 Sep we are still stuck here. Maybe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Krogen Trawler cruising"","block_context":{"text":"Krogen Trawler cruising","link":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mvprivateer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Jose.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvprivateer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}