I have a quick question regarding fin stabilizers. A friend of a mine is the captain of a 110 ft lazarra motoryacht. And he has a small problem and he asked me to post a question here looking for some second and third opinions. The boat is currently fitted with niad fin stabilizers as well as seakeeper zero speed stablizers. Apparently one of the fins was found to be missing. Fortunately. No water leakage detected. Now here is the question. The captain is planning to make the 1800 mile trip from Trinidad to Miami within the next few days, while running at displacement speeds of 12-13 kts. He wants to know if it will be safe to operate the niad stablizers with only fin and if it will cause any issues. Or should he not use the fin stabilizers and just rely on the seakeepers. Thanks in advance for the advice
As long as the missing fin shaft is intact, not bent or binding near the outer seal, there should be no issues, The working fin may swing more side to side doing the work for two. Why not run both systems anyway? A lil more speed may help but at 1800 miles, that won't work. I'm a bit reserved he wont be able to maintain over 10 knots before bingo fuel.
Hi rcrapps. The captain reported that the break was clean. He plans to run the niad stabilizer and the seakeepers. I believe the concern was the Extra stress caused to the niad system from operating on one fin. I don't think he plans to make the run without refueling. I bemeibe there are plans to stop in the BVI for a few days. So I assume they will take fuel somewhere in that area. Thanks for the quick response
Not familiar with niad but with Trac you can use only one fin The safest answer would be to call niad and ask.
Just spoke to my friend and he said he spoke to the manufacturer and they said it won't be an issue to run on one stablizer. All he has to do is deactivate the one with the missing fin. Which could be done from the control panel at the helm. So sounds like an easy fix. He just has a bit more rocking for this trip. Thanks again for the responses fellas
As calm as the ocean is this time of year, it shouldn't be much.....with seakeepers at that speed it shouldn't hardly rock at all.