T&T: Anchoring/Anti Roll Device

[Milt Baker]

Duane,

As others have shown, there are lots of opinions about using these devices.  Truth be told, my experience shows it's all about leverage.  If you can provide the leverage, a Magma boat stabilizer can do the job.  If you can't, there's no way it'll seriously reduce your rolling.

Perhaps my case is extreme because my boat is rigged to use paravanes on a pair of long poles mounted amidships, and in rolly anchorages we use the poles with Magma stabilizers.  Actually, to be precise, we use a single pole with a single Magma stabilizer because that's all it takes--we have two but we've never needed the second one because a single one interrupts the sinusidal roll and reduces rolling by perhaps 75-80 percent.  

With my boat's 16-foot beam and 24-foot paravane poles, that means my Magma "flopper-stopper" is 31 feet out from the centerline of the boat and the lever (a suspending line) goes to the top of the mast.  I can tell you from using this rig for hundreds of nights anchored around the rolly Mediterranean, IT WORKS LIKE A CHAMP.  However, if I tried to suspend the magma stabilizer from a short boom that put it maybe 12 feet out from the boat, I'd probably be writing to tell you how badly it performs.

Bottom line: find a way to get the leverage you need and a device like this will do wonders when it comes to attenuating the roll.  Put it on a short stick that's rigged as an afterthought and you'll be wasting your money.  On short sticks, depending on the rigging, perhaps two flopper-stoppers would do the job, but the real answer is getting it really "out there" for proper leverage--I think that's the only way to have devices like this really attenuate the roll.

I am very much in awe of the stabilization a single Magma flopper-stopper provides my boat at anchor.  Great investment!  But don't expect great roll reduction if you take short cuts.

One man's opinion!

--Milt Baker, Nordhavn 47 Bluewater, Fort Lauderdale, FL


Duane wrote:

Has anyone used a Magma "Boat Stabilizer" or Davis "Rocker Stoppers" or similar device? I am only interested in devices for anchoring. I don't have a boom that extends beyond the hull and would prefer not installing one? The Davis advertisement shows a power boat installation without a boom. The price is reasonable and storage would be easy but i question if the results are very good? I've never seen anyone use these. I anchor a lot in the Exumas and it seems like the bad storms in the middle of the night always come from the wrong direction.