wrote in message
...
On Jan 3, 11:26 am, "Capt. JG" wrote:
... A drouge off the stern slows the boat as well, but I see your point
and
agree with it. It seems that the rudder would also be under similar, but
perhaps not quite as much, stress with a drouge. ...

Running off is much easier on the boat and the crew than riding to a
sea anchor or even heaving to. The faster you go the easier the
ride. However, you must not broach and you must not pitch-pole. A
relatively small drogue and a bit of sail forward will keep most boats
from broaching even in pretty horrid conditions. I know of a very
fast catamaran that sailed under drogue and spinnaker during a stormy
bit of a Noumea to Auckland race with very good results. I set a
drogue and storm jib and ran off quite comfortably in force 8ish
conditions while a low passed north of me on my way from New Zealand
to Tonga one year. On the other hand, if you meet up with a wave that
can pitch pole your boat you want it to pass you as quickly as
possible and you want your drag device to provide enough drag to keep
you from flipping. So, the ideal drogue would provide just enough
drag to keep you under control most of the time but would dramatically
increase its drag very quickly during a breaking wave encounter.
There have been attempts to make dynamically variable drag drogues (I
recall the seabrake (?) and a ladder foil device who's name escapes
men now). I think the series drogue is popularizing the idea of using
a much draggier drogue and going slower and thus being hit harder by
the seas but also gaining more protection from pitch poling. I
suspect for cruisers going with more drag and at a slower pace is a
good idea since the pitfall of trailing drogues is that it makes
everything seem quite comfortable even when there might be a
significant danger of capsize. But, the slower you go the more sense
it makes to have the strong end of the boat pointed at the weather and
at some point a sea anchor states to look like a less bad choice... I
carry both on my boat.

-- Tom.


My understanding is that the point of the drouge is to slow down enough so
that you don't run into the back of the wave in front of you. Perhaps you
said that.... Just thinking out loud.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com