How it Works
Well, maybe.
There are two choices here: fight the sea, or work with it.
As nautical folk, I guess we know that fighting the sea is generally a bad idea - so the SlapStopper doesn't fight. It just helps the sea to do what the sea wants to do - to let waves travel unimpeded across its surface, even though it looks like your boat is in the way.
If you look at the surface of the water with even quite small ripples on it, you'll notice that the waves generally have a concave face on the advancing side, whether the wave is wind-blown or from the wake of a boat.
The problem is that the concave face of the oncoming wave meets the hull, seals in a pocket of air, and pressurises it. Consequently the top of the wave blows out with enough energy sometimes to squirt a litre or so of water over a metre. Then the back face of the bubble hits the hull – just like a hammer. No wonder it makes a bang…
So the trick isn’t to stop the waves meeting the hull, it is to change the surface dynamics of the water itself.
The SlapStopper in situ
- waves pass silently underneath the hull.
The SlapStopper is a pair of tough buoyant mats arranged in a vee to be floated on the surface of the water and in contact with the hull around the area where the wave impact happens. When the mats are positioned in the right place, the wave impact noise drops almost to zero, even in bouncy conditions. Why? Because there is no longer any wave impact. The waves pass unimpeded under your boat.
The effect of floating the SlapStopper on the water's surface is a bit like pouring oil onto troubled water: the waves on the surface of the water stay in a nice, flowing sinusiodal shape instead of curling over and breaking. That means the structure of the wave retains its integrity as it passes under your boat, and the energy that would previously have been released from the wave as it met the hull stays in the wave itself. And because the energy stays where it should be, the wave passes silently beneath your hull. You can still feel the boat move, but there is no noise.
And it doesn't matter how big or small the wave is: if it's rigged carefully the SlapStopper has been known to work in all sorts of conditions: flat calm but with the wake from boats passing close by; a light breeze raising small ripples; a full gale making the boat lurch and heave on her mooring. Si if you're a big fan of anchoring overnight, or you like to spend the night on a swinging mooring, or you have a berth in a marina where wash and tide make it lumpy, or you just find yourself in a busy marina overnight, the SlapStopper can help you get the good night's sleep you and your crew need.
The SlapStopper is available
exclusively from C&J Marine.
Buy Online Now
or ask for the SlapStopper
at your favourite Chandlery...