Patrick,

First I’ve heard of them on sailboats – I guess I must be out of the
loop – but your email made me curious so I Googled around a bit and
found this on a sailnet.com blog:

“I’ve used a home-made version of the “flopper stopper” on my 38′
full-keel sailboat while anchored in Key West. You’ll need three or four
five-gallon pails (available at the nearest “Dumpster Marine” outlet
store), a 20′ piece of 1/2″ line, two old rubber door mats, some dive
weights and a 2″ hole saw.

“Cut five 2” holes in the bottom of each pail, then cut a circular piece
of doormat to fit in the bottom of each pail. Drill a hole through the
middle of each pail so you can string them with about 8″ of space
between each one on the 1/2″ line. Attach some sort of weight (e.g. 15
lbs of dive weights, rocks, etc) on the bottom end of the bottom bucket.

“This rig is deployed over the side at the end of your whisker pole
swung out abeam of your boat. As the boat rolls down, the weights pull
the pails down and the doormat “valve flaps” allow water to rush in
easily. As the boat rolls back up the valves flap shut and the upward
pull on the pails is quite considerable. Multiply by the length of your
whisker pole, and you have a pretty good “lateral sea anchor” to help
reduce rolling.

“IMPORTANT NOTE: Use your main halyard or other sturdy line to support
the outboard end of the whisker pole. Most topping lifts are not made
for the heavy load that the pails will put on the up-stroke.”

Another way to deal with a rolly anchorage is described at
http://www.tor.cc/articles/rode.htm

Tor

I have used my drogue to act as a flipper stopper with great success.
Run the main boom to windward out almost perpendicular to the hull. Secure it with preventers fore and aft.
Rig the drogue on a snatch block off the outer most bail with a bit of weight (I use my dingy anchor) off the bottom of the drogue and let out enough line to get the drogue 8-12 ft below the surface. It greatly reduces the Rick factor.

Eric Lorentzon
EFI Sales Development Manager
412.352.1941
Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 30, 2012, at 4:27 PM, “Silverheels” wrote:

Smart!

Tor

I am with Tor on this one…I spring the rode a lot down here. Easy to do and easy to undo. No junk to carry around….
Alan

— On Mon, 1/30/12, Silverheels wrote:

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