I held my bachelor party aboard my 36-foot Freedom, Laguz, off of California’s Catalina Island. Paradise, right? Well, not entirely. We were forced to take a mooring in the outer harbor off of Avalon because we were having engine trouble and needed to be able to sail off the mooring. The good news -- we were right off Descanso Beach, a great place for a bachelor party, the bad news – the significant swell in the outer harbor made the boat rock back and forth like a drunken pendulum. That was all the motivation I needed to find a product that would reduce the back and forth motion to an acceptable level.
Upon my return to San Diego, I contacted Magma Products about their product the Rock-N-Roll Stabilizer and the next day it arrived. I was curious to see if this product could have saved the up and downs of my bachelor party. Sadly I did not have the time to sail back to Descanso Beach, so I looked for a similar venue and found it outside of San Diego Bay’s breakwater with the historic Hotel Del Coronado in the background.
There was a 2-3 three-foot swell, no wind and it was about 90 degrees outside. We anchored in twenty-five feet of water and sat for a while to get the feel for the roll without the stabilizer. The boat creaked and rolled back and forth. I could begin to feel the frustration I felt off of Catalina – the rolling really got in between me and enjoying the beautiful day. The noise of innumerable objects rolling around in their lockers and the cries of the rigging as it swung through a slow roll began to drive me crazy. Okay, I said, enough!
I took Magma’s Rock-N-Roll Stabilizer out of the box and read the simple instructions. All that was needed was two lengths of line, it even came with its own case. We pushed our boom out 45 degrees and locked it in place by attaching a preventer, then pulled in the mainsheet tight. We then simply attached both lines to the stabilizer. One for the resistance when the boat rolls and the other to retrieve the unit. That was it -- we were ready to go. In it went. Almost immediately the rolling stopped. I was truly shocked at how well the unit worked. No more pitching and rolling. The line attached from the boom to the Rock-N-Roll Stabilizer strained as the resistance of the unit and boom slowed the roll to almost a stand still. There was no noise from the boom as it was locked in place by the preventor, which also had an additional benefit of clearing up deck space because the boom was no longer in the middle. There was blissful silence -- no more noise from the innumerable items rolling around in their lockers. Best of all it cut down on the sheer frustration I feel when anchored in swell-infested waters.
No longer will I fear being last to a boating hotspot on a holiday weekend and being forced to moor in an outer harbor. That alone is worth paying the suggested manufacturer’s price of $199.95. Overall, I would highly recommend the Rock-N-Roll Stabilizer. It is easy to deploy, well built but most importantly -- it works! Read the directions carefully about the retrival of the unit as it is metal, but then so is your anchor. Buy it! Click the link below to find out where to buy it and any more info you might need.
MAGMA Rock-N-Roll Stabilizer Website
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