fish vs plate flopper stoppers at anchor

[ofer]

i have just finished installing the paravanes on my boat. tested them in some 5-6' at 5 seconds conditions. run for about 12 hours and am totally impressed with how much they helped. I am stoked.

now for the question. i don't mind leaving them as is at anchor or would it make a big difference if i acquire a special flopper stopper type device.

i prefer to carry less gear and also less change ups but if it makes a big difference then i don't mind going that route.

thanks

 

[mvweebles]

As a guy with specialized flopper stopper gear, if I were in your shoes, I'd just try your fish and see how they work out. My gut feel is you'll get close to half the effectiveness of my setup. My plates are bigger and designed to facilitate decent, but your poles are probably longer. There's no down-side to trying what you have.

Congrats on getting your 'vanes operational.

Peter

 

[PierreR]

I will second what mvweebles said. My fish probably got about half but the fish tend to swim in all directions. Don't leave out enough chain to let them hit the boat.

 

[Simi 60]

Our fish did bugger all at anchor in comparison to our "magma on steroids"

The fish also spun around all night twisting the dyneema.

 

[Snapdragon III]

On my old boat I tried the fish at anchor and they were ineffective at stoping the roll, but tended to swim in circles and get all messed up. I made some plates out of 1/4" aluminum that were sized as big as would fit in my Lazeret storage area, about 18"x 28", with a four leg spectra bridle. They worked pretty good. Didn't sink quite as fast as I would have liked, but helped a lot.

 

[Larry M]

We used our fish from our paravanes as flopped stoppers all the time. The only modification we made was to shorten them up when we anchored in shallower water. At rest they, they hung 15’ below the surface.

 

[Ted]

We used our fish from our paravanes as flopped stoppers all the time. The only modification we made was to shorten them up when we anchored in shallower water. At rest they, they hung 15’ below the surface.

Did the same on my commercial trollers

Ted

 

[Taras]

Magma Flopper Stoppers work awesome and are quiet! Highly recommend them

 

[Simi 60]

Magma Flopper Stoppers work awesome and are quiet! Highly recommend them

Would have thought them a bit light for you?

We had a set made, same design but bigger from 3mm s/s plate
Worked out cheaper in Oz $$ than the genuine, which weren't available at the time anyway.

 

[Larry M]

Magma Flopper Stoppers work awesome and are quiet! Highly recommend them

I agree. On our boat before Hobo, we tried a Magnma and they are probably the best, commercially available flopper stopper out there. Not cheap but worth it imho.

 

[Larry M]

The difficult part for us was storage and switching between the fish and flopper stoppers. Each fish weighed a little over 30 lbs and was about 290 square inches. With the poles out, the fish deployed on both sides we found it comfortable and if we had to move in the middle of the night, we just went. Hobo was 42’ and storage was a premium.

 

[SIBERNUT]

Scuse my stinkin' ignorance, but what are you guys calling"fish" ?

 

[Larry M]

What I call a fish, in the paravane system, is the part that runs in the water and creates the downward force.

 

[SIBERNUT]

Tks! You make or buy?

 

[Larry M]

Bought. Englund Marine & Industrial Supply, Astoria OR 877.694.7164. You can also get them from Murray Pacific, 907.225.3135. Hopefully the numbers are still good.

 

[mvweebles]

In the US, Kolstrand is the recognized name for off the shelf fish. Guessing Fisheries Supply would have them in any size desired.

Peter

 

[Hervey]

I have paravane system on my boat but am terrified of the retrieval process. Any suggestions about how to do that so I don't beak a window or kill myself in the process?

 

[Simi 60]

I have paravane system on my boat but am terrified of the retrieval process. Any suggestions about how to do that so I don't beak a window or kill myself in the process?

Same way commercial boats do?

 

[Bmarler]

I have paravane system on my boat but am terrified of the retrieval process. Any suggestions about how to do that so I don't beak a window or kill myself in the process?

Depends on the design of the system.
How is yours configured?

 

[hollywood8118]

I have paravane system on my boat but am terrified of the retrieval process. Any suggestions about how to do that so I don't beak a window or kill myself in the process?

Stop the boat, no issue then. If we had a significant swell running the admiral kept the boat on the established course to lessen roll and kept the boat barely moving while I lifted our fish up. Most of the time the poles were left deployed until anchored.
The real danger is deploying the fish while at cruise speed... they would deep dive then arc forward. Only did this once then deployed either at 0 kts or less than 3ish kts.
Hollywood

 

[hollywood8118]

Look up the system that Nordhavn used, it tripped the fish by lifting the tail of the fish.
HW

 

[JDCAVE]

We often leave our fish in the water at anchor. No problem. We have nearly the same system as Larry except a bit different rigging. They take a bit of the roll out at anchor, but we found them a bit noisier than nothing at all.

Jim