Fixed Fins worth doing? Existing Wilcox SeaBrace system shot to hell ...

[Buccaneer]

I've got a 1988 70 CPMY with old - and dead - Wilcox SeaBrace fins.
Before I pull the trigger on replacing the stabs (a $125k experience) I figure to run the boat up and down the ICW (FL to MA).
Not having fins reduces my weather windows for going outside and along the coast.
Would it be worth keeping the old fins and locking them in place?
I know it creates more drag, but I'm going to be cruising the boat at hull speed most the time anyway.
I figure the speed cost is .5 to 1.5 knots?
Is the roll inhibition (whatever amount that turns out to be) worth the speed cost?

I now turn this over to the peanut gallery.

 

[Timeless72]

No clue but great question. So many of these old boats with dead stabs.

 

[jmooney]

We have Naiad stabilizers on our boat . Last time in the yard , I completely rebuilt them at a cost of about $7,000 , doing everything myself . They worked okay before, but seals and bearings get old . In most of the conditions we use the boat, they are not needed. But come time to sell the boat , if you don’t have stabilizers , $50,000 will be removed from the value of the boat .

 

[Captain Ralph]

Would it be worth keeping the old fins and locking them in place?
I know it creates more drag, but I'm going to be cruising the boat a hull speed most the time anyway.

They take aweigh the same MPG active or correctly locked in place.
At hull speed, this is near nil.
Lock them in place. Even if not "active" they will help roll reduction.

One suggestion, underway at your normal cruise speed, calm water, wind and a long straight course line, un-pin the fins and let them sail free.
They will find a neutral position. Here is where you want the fins locked in place.
Micro drag. Zero rudder effect.

When you haul the boat, you may be surprised as to where the fins found zero vs what you would think should be that position. Mark these lines also for a starting position for your new fins.

I have done this on other boats. On some when active, found that the fins were not positioned (centered) correctly.
This may help AP pump motors last longer also.

 

[JD5652]

I installed Naiad 252 fins about 2 years ago now. I traveled up the ICW from Daytona to CT, around New England and then from CT to AYB without stabilizers. It was never unsafe. However, even along that route, you will get some less than courteous vessels that will rock the crap out of you with a 3 foot wake that will challenge your ability to keep a straight course at slow speed...not to mention picking everything and anything up off the floor that was formerly on a counter top or any other flat surface above the floor.

You constantly have to be on guard to slice the wake of oncoming vessels at a 30 or 45 degree angle that gets tiresome after a few days. Again, not unsafe, but a PIA???.. absolutely.

I had the Naiads installed at AYB and left there and took the boat to Tampa/St. Pete area. Again, on the inside down the ICW, across Lake O and then back up the GICW. It was much more of a pleasurable and less taxing ride with the stabilizers.

We often have large parties aboard (25 +- people) on day trips. I don't have to worry about less than boat savvy guests leaving a glass of wine or cocktail on a table poised to land on the deck or carpet due to a sporty's boat wake overtaking us or oncoming in our direction.

My cost to install all in was about $75K.