[This product has been on the market for years, and I’ve often wondered if it really works. I’d be interested in hearing from Navagear readers about their experiences with Davis’s Rocker Stoppers or other similar roll-dampening products. —Tim]
Boat roll while at anchor or drift fishing is at the least, uncomfortable and at the most, nausea-inducing. Rocker Stoppers from Davis Instruments help dampen this annoying sensation with a simple, inexpensive device that is easily configured and installed.
![dav20072-x3h[1]](http://www.navagear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/dav20072x3h1.jpg "dav20072-x3h[1]")
Rope is strung through Rocker Stoppers at equal 18" intervals with a 5-10 lb. weight attached at the bottom. Hanging amidships off each side of the boat, three Rocker Stoppers per side will steady boats up to 26′ long. For larger craft, a graduated scale of 4 to 8 units per side help stabilize boats from 27′ up to 50′. They are effective on both power and sailboats.
When used without a weight, Rocker Stoppers assist drift fishing by slowing movement substantially. They also are great to hang below the end of a floating dock to reduce swaying.
Only 14" in diameter, Rocker Stoppers nest together neatly for inconspicuous storage. Mushroom anchors make good weights for use with these devices, as they fit nicely inside the last Rocker Stopper on the string when the stabilizers aren’t in use.
Lightweight and molded of high-impact, virtually indestructible styrene Rocker Stoppers are impervious to saltwater. They deploy and retrieve in seconds, and will not damage gunwales.
The suggested retail price of each Rocker Stopper is $12.99.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Our 1972 albin 25 center cockpit power cruiser is blessed with a full displacement hull. I believe that flopper stoppers made a great deal of difference in Boston harbor anchorages.(1984-1992) My lovely wife believes that they made no difference whatsoever and that I only rigged them to amuse myself.
I rigged 4′ x 3/4″ ss tubes midship with 2 3/16′ ss cable leads from the end to the cabin top and fwd coachtop. The ss tube “outrigger” was angled about 30 degrees from which hung 3 flopper stoppers per side with a 5 lb weight at the base on 1/2′ nylon braid. I over built fearing (appropriately) the stresses.
On Lake Champlain 94-2009 they were superfluous, so they live in the shop.
We just bought a 34′ Marine Trader and I intend to try the Magma flopper stopper device using the lifting boom to give it some real leverage. I’ll let you know how that works and may finally try to make some of the designs I’ve seen in print.
Hello Tim,
I’ll be able to answer that question soon. I’m currently testing a set of Rocker Stoppers on a 25′ sailboat for a book I’m writing on anchoring in comfort. You can follow the testing on the website.
My first impression is they have a lot of advantages over all the other roll attenuators on the market, the biggest is cost and ease of deployment.
found someone who wrote up how they worked on a 16′ fishing boat – http://www.fishing-boats.info/rockers.htm
I am downsizing fomr a 9′ 3″ beam Trajan to a smaller 24′ cuddy cabin with an 8′ 6″ beam so am interested in this product – other items are too expensive.
Hi there, does anyone know where in Australia that I may buy these from ? or who may sell and post them to me from overseas ? Cheers, john.
have lived aboard most of the last 9 years in Pillbury Sound/Caneel Bay St John USVI -it is one lumpy anchorage/mooring field. We live on a hunter 42 short keel and have tried both the Rocker Flopper, which works but is slow to reset and is noisy. The other is the Davis Rocker Stopper which I have come to rely on. I have a string of 7 about a foot apart with a 3 gallon bucket of junk lead on the bottom. This you have to adjust to get it to reset quickly and not mush around trying to sink back to the next dip. I currently have about 40 lbs of lead in the bucket. The device is boomed out as far as I can get it to one side, setting a preventer forward and a downhaul to a mid ship cleat to keep it from jerking the boom up and down, which works well. I also have a line to the bucket to retrieve the bucket first for pulling the rig out. We move for fuel, water and tank pumping every 2 weeks and need to spend 10 minutes cleaning the slime off as I temporarily store the setup on deck.