A recent posting mentioned a price of $15,000 for a pair of flopper stoppers installed on a trawler. This boggles my mind! Even counting the cost of a new mast - rigging shops usually have the remains of a sailboat mast that folded leaving an adaquate piece for a trawler. Ditto for spreaders and wire supports - recycled. The flopper stopper booms are available as spinnaker poles (also available second hand). The deck attachment fittings on the poles are modified from sailboat fittings. The only custom items are the "fish" which a good aluminum shop can fabricate. Here the commercial fishermen are a good resource - they use them in sizes larger than we need. Perhaps a marine archetect should review the setup in the planning stage to see that the various parts of the system are up to the strains. (e-mail me if you need a nameor two) Good support under the mast is one of the stress points. None of this is very expensive - at most $2500 as I see it. Where on earth does the balance of $12,500 come from? I would appreciate some enlightenment. Frank Lawlor building HOBO

Frank -- Have you ever been on a boat where you have to deploy and retreive all that junk, especially under adverse conditions and of course all that rubble looks great on a nice trawler doesn't it. Al ===================================================================== At 07:40 PM 11/12/98 -0500, you wrote: >A recent posting mentioned a price of $15,000 for a pair of flopper >stoppers installed on a trawler. This boggles my mind! Even counting the >cost of a new mast - rigging shops usually have the remains of a sailboat >mast that folded leaving an adaquate piece for a trawler. Ditto for >spreaders and wire supports - recycled. The flopper stopper booms are >available as spinnaker poles (also available second hand). The deck >attachment fittings on the poles are modified from sailboat fittings. The >only custom items are the "fish" which a good aluminum shop can fabricate. >Here the commercial fishermen are a good resource - they use them in sizes >larger than we need. Perhaps a marine archetect should review the setup in >the planning stage to see that the various parts of the system are up to >the strains. (e-mail me if you need a nameor two) Good support under the >mast is one of the stress points. None of this is very expensive - at most >$2500 as I see it. Where on earth does the balance of $12,500 come from? I >would appreciate some enlightenment. > >Frank Lawlor building HOBO > > > > Captain Al Pilvinis M/V Driftwood--- Prairie 46 2630 N.E. 41st Street Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064 954-941-2556 Fax 954-788-2666 Email CaptainAl@Juno.com Check site for color photos and info. Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain/