Feedback on Wesmar Stabilizers

[mstailey]

Good day to all,
I'm in negoations for a 78 43 F/B MY and was wondering if any members have had experience with Wesmar Stabilizers. I've contacted Toledo Beach Hatteras dealer in MI for an installed price on the Naiads and frankly, they are out of their minds if they really think anyone would pay the price they're asking.

Thanks in advance.
Mike

 

[REBrueckner]

A friend with a 58 ft yachtfish chose Wesmar and installed them himself. He even fabricated his own oversize mounting boxes (affixed to the hull interior)to distribute stress and strain over a larger hull area. I remember he had several design preferences which the Wesmars offered relative to Niaad, but I don't recall the details..

 

[SeaEric]

I had a price from Wesmar to install stabilizers on my 1970 fiberglass 46' Matthews motoryacht (a Hargrave design boat) at $28,000.

 

[jim rosenthal]

That doesn't seem at all out of line. There have been articles recently in Passagemaker about these installs- you have to move a lot of stuff and there's a lot of plumbing. And I think the hull has to be reinforced where the fin shafts come through.
Funny you never see these on convertibles or SF boats. Am I just not paying attention or do they roll less, lower roll center or whatever?

 

[Genesis]

They cost speed all the time and are an underwater protrudance that can cause trouble when fishing.

I suspect that's a big part of why they're not popular on sportfish..... believe me, SFs do roll plenty

 

[Avenger]

Has anybody offered a gyro tied to the trim tabs? It'd probably be useless at low speeds. But in reference to the thread on chine walking and the enclosed flybridge boats having stabilizers added, maybe a set of "ailerons" could stabilize a boat at higher speeds. Probably too slow a system to be effective, but maybe there's a hydraulic engineer out there with an answer.

 

[jzanni]

I have a 1987 43' motoryacht and had Wesmar stabilizers installed about 4 yrs ago. They have worked fine and have given many smooth rides.
I had to move my 8D batteries , which was not fun. There is a reinforcing block where the fins are. There is also a lot of hydraulic hose to be run. I would never think of doing this myself even though I do all my own maintenance. Leave it to a professional. Make sure whoever does it has done them before and get references. The $28000 price seems about right

 

[mstailey]

Jzanni, SeaEric;
Thank you for the reply. Those prices are reasonable. I would even consider 35k for all of the work necessary (Jim R. is correct on amount of work involved) I now feel comfortable with my final price offer on the 43. I'm so looking forward to finally owning a Hatteras. I dock in Lake St. Clair MI which is the home of the SeaRay. She may not be fast but I can't wait to get into the western end of Lake Erie when it's nice and snotty (more times than not) where all those "fast SeaRay's" will be barely above an idle and jaring all the teeth out of the passengers. On those days I can just wave and call out on the radio "What a pleasent day eh boys?" as my slow boat blows by....

A quick side note to the forum members who do big water piloting; I recently moved to MI from the South shore of Long Island (Center Moriches) where I made many a run to the canyon on Hatt's, Bert's and Vikings so no stranger to some rough rides. When I got caught in my first blow on Lake Huron, though the waves were only 3-4 feet they were about 3 - 3.5 seconds apart. Got my attention real quick and took my "big" head down about 5 notches real fast. Though those waves be small they be mighty...

Thanks again for the replies.

Flat sea's and calm winds to all.

Mike

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Another forum regular just had Naiads installed last year. He had Naiad come up to Chicago to do it. I don't think any marina was involved. I'd call them direct for a price. Toledo Beach is notorious for inflating outside contract work.

 

[Ross Macdonald]

We actually have a old 79 Hatt 60 enclosed bridge sportfisher that had Wesmars on it when we bought it 3 years ago. The previous owner had a wife that got seasick and he had 9 sq. ft. fins put on! These boats were usually speced out for 6 sq. ft. fins. We usually run about 1450 RPM and get about 11 knots. These boats are top heavy and roll alot as evidenced when we turn them off. But Genesis is right, we probably lose 11/2 to 2 knots off rated speed for the small 650 hp 12V71s at any given RPM. One serious problem we had with wesmars was Radio frequency interference. On some boats, if you key the mike of a 150 watt SSB while wesmars are on, it causes the fins to move quite a bit. This happened on our boat when we keyed the VHF mike! We got no help from wesmar tech reps and they claimed they never had that problem. After searching on various websites, we found a number of other boats had a similar problem. They constantly refused to help solve the problem and told us to shut off the fins when keying a mike! I have documented every conversation we had with them. We ended spending close to 3K for two Marine Electronic techs to troubleshoot this. Many hours were spent and we finally relocated the gyro lower in the boat and the control head away from the radios and put a remote on the bridge. So we never really solved the problem, we ended up working around it. Sorry for the longwinded reply, but be advised that you might want to key your mikes while under way and the stabs are on. I'm still upset with Wesmar to this day.

 

[Nonchalant1]

I'm the guy that just had Naiads put on my 53MY this spring near Chicago. These were the 6 sq ft fins and 250 actuators. It cost $43K, so $28K may be reasonable. I'd personally go with Naiads, or at least get a quote from them before you decide. Absolutely incredible difference in roll (like no roll), no problems with keying a mike, and their customer service has been excellent, but you'll probably never need it, and they are the gold standard in stabilizers. The guy that did it, Craig Caulkins, already knew my boat in and out because he's done a ton of Hatteri. It was Stabilized Marine in Florida. They can give you a quote.

Doug Shuman

 

[jzanni]

Ross,
When I read your post it reminded me that I had the same problem with keying one of my VHF's and getting a wierd move from the stabilizers.
I don"t use that radio when they are on. What a surprise when it happened!!
Glad to hear I'm not the only one

 

[Ross Macdonald]

You were lucky it was only one radio. I have 3 VHFs on this boat and it happened with both of the units on the bridge. Scares the hell out of you when 88,000# worth of boat jerks violently to one side and you don't have a clue why it happened. (at first). As I said, I wouldn't put Wesmars on a boat after what I went through with their tech support. ( or their lack of support..) Most of the bigger boats here in San Diego go with Naiads.

 

[mstailey]

Nonchalant1, Jzanni and Ross,

I've been talking with Fred (sales manager) and he admitted to Westmar having a problem with the radio signals triggering the fins. He told me there was a bug in the software of the controller but has been found and fixed on the current units. I asked him about the people on this forum who were still having this problem and he said to give him a call at 425-481-2296. They are PST zone.

Mike

 

[SeaEric]

Mike, Very nice of you to connect the dots on this issue! Thanks from all of us. Eric