Danny Fletcher, Corpus Christi, TX asks:
I have 4669 with paravanes, an I'm thinking of putting on
TRACs. Do you run with both? Are the TRACs much better than the
Paravanes?
Thanks, good luck on the trip
Danny and Kris Fletcher

Scott Flanders from Egret responds:
Danny & Kris, we don't have much experience with paravanes alone. We tried them twice in the Med with the Naiads centered in short but not definitive tests. I met an Englishman in Ft. Lauderdale who retrofitted Naiads after many sea miles with paravanes. He said the difference was that with paravanes, the boat handles like a limousine, with Naiads, like a sports car. That boat was later owned by friends and renamed Envoy (46-19). They in turn retrofitted the original Naiads to Naiad Multi Sea II electronic controls as did N46 Satchmo. (Both were on the NAR.) We did ourselves later as well. The difference is amazing and well worth doing.

As far as Trac stabilizers, I don't have any experience. Andy Lund on N46 Resolution had both Tracs and paravanes. Andy crossed the Atlantic and used paravanes for part of the trip. andylund@harbornet.com Perhaps Andy can shed more light on the Tracs and paravanes combination.

We would run both Naiads and paravanes only in VERY extreme conditions. It is easy for us to deploy paravanes with our non- standard retrieval system, however to retrieve the birds we have to have a person on the boat deck to swing the boom from side to side to ease the strain on the sailboat winches, something we prefer not to do in diminishing but still rolly seas. Paravanes deployed in addition to hydraulic stabilizers would also cost an additional .4 knot in speed, a high percentage at the low speeds we run.