T&T: Stabilizer issues

[Milt Baker]

I don't know where David got his information on the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally, but he's not correct.  I was a member of the rally's organizing committee and headed of the rally advance team, meeting the 18 rally yachts when they arrived in Bermuda, the Azores and Gibraltar, and I worked closely with every captain on the rally.  It's simply not true that all but one Nordy had some kind of stabilizer failure.   About 30% of the yachts on the rally experienced some kind of stabilizer problem, and most did not cause the yachts to lose stabilization--though one notable one spotlighted in the NAR video did.

As Jeffrey points out, using stabilizers on ocean-crossing passages amounts to continuous or commercial-duty, a different kettle of fish from using them for coastal cruisers.  One of my personal lessons learned from the NAR was that the database on ocean crossing with stabilizers was painfully thin, and stabilizers intended for ocean crossing need to be spec'd at much higher levels than those for, say, a trawler makaing coastal runs up to a few hundred hours a year.  Based on what we know now, many of the stabilizer systems on the rally yachts were indeed under-spec'd. 

The rally stabilizer problems notwithstanding, I cannot think of a NAR skipper who would tell you he'd give up his stabilizers, though the two who used paravane systems only were more than satisfied with their choice.   But then paravanes have their own set of problems.   

When I spec'd Naiads for my Nordhavn 47, I went for a robust 254 system usually specified for much larger yachts, and they've been virtually trouble free in 8,000 NM of mostly ocean passagemaking over the past 13 months.  I had one problem which did not cause the loss of stabilization and which Naiad repaired quickly under warranty. 

Count me as a big fan of stabilizers!  I center them behind their "kelp cutters" when cruising in lobster pot country (about two months this year) and have yet to snag a pot warp with them.  

--Milt Baker


David wrote:

 . . . my experience and observation is that stabilizers (I call them flippers)
malfunction quite often.  A case in point, the Atlantic Rally where all but
one Nordy had some type of flipper failure.