On 2008-01-02 16:26:35 -0500, said:

I would like to open up a discussion on the use of Sea Anchors and Drogues.
Should an ocean going sailboat carry a Sea anchor or a Drogue or both?
When should I use a Sea Anchor or a Drogue.
From what I see at the stores a Drogue is cheaper to buy than a Sea Anchor.

Yes, this was discussed a while back, but it's topical, the water's
getting hard up here, and I'm bored. ;-)

My personal preference is a series drogue off of the bow, but that's
because I can unship our rudder and put it below. If I couldn't, I'd go
off the stern as even an large anchor or drogue will allow some motion
which, in combination with the wave action, can trash a rudder if it's
pinned to a stop.

The lower shock-loads and easier stowage of the series drogues are
compelling reasons for the equipment.

My thinking on bow-first: Xan keeps wind-driven water out much more
easily when facing the wind. We've got pretty good reserve buoyancy at
the bow, too. I'm not as worried about breaking waves on our
overly-flat deck compared to taking them in the cockpit, which isn't as
well reinforced as our foredeck. And I wonder if our half-inch
drop-boards (actually the teak trim holding them) will take a hard hit.
The one thing I don't worry too much about is the size of our cockpit
as the bridge-deck is a couple of inches higher than the transom, so
it'll capture relatively little water (though that's still 12-15 cubic
feet or maybe 1000# static weight).

Hmmm. While I'm at it, I should probably add replacing our solar vents
with their plugs to the checklist as while they're low drag and not
easily removed, they will admit water in such extreme situations and a
wave could pull one or more out, putting 4 inch holes over our head.
Probably should also improve the hatch lock-downs and weatherstripping.

If anyone's reading carefully, the above was a re-evaluation of my
previous plans, with an eye to figuring out what should be improved
just in case we find ourselves in such a situation. Highly unlikely in
this boat, but still: What *are* our weak points?

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:35:26 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-01-02 16:26:35 -0500, said:

I would like to open up a discussion on the use of Sea Anchors and Drogues.
Should an ocean going sailboat carry a Sea anchor or a Drogue or both?
When should I use a Sea Anchor or a Drogue.
From what I see at the stores a Drogue is cheaper to buy than a Sea Anchor.


Part of the problem is that you have to make that decision early in
the storm and you have to know what works with your particular boat
and crew. Difficult, as you don't know how long or how bad the storm
will be. Given enough sea room I think running off appeals to my
natural tendancy to avoid problems rather than confront them.
As far as expense goes, I bought a cargo chute for $15 from a surplus
store, not really much of an expense as things nautical go. I plan to
sew a series drogue with an expected expense of $35.
All kinds of things have been streamed as drogues; warp, tires, sails-
the mast. etc. Many ocean commuters during the 70's had a small reel
type drum with warp and drogue mounted on the stern. This has to span
the interval between 30' waves or whatever your predicted conditions
are so you need to carry miles of line and the drogue had to be
weighted so it didn't surface and lose it's purchase. On the other
hand an 80 year old woman just tossed a ring type drogue from the
stern with 25' of line and said it "slowed things down marvelously",
she continued knitting and ended up in England some weeks later.
In streaming a sea anchor from the bow traditional boats had a
provision for chaining off the rudder at the boat centerline to avoid
damage. The only reasonably recent production boat I have seen this on
is a Falmouth Cutter, an $80k, 22' boat. You would need incredible
deck gear and be dodging with the engine to survive using this method
is my guess. Others have just run off setting a wind vane while they
sleep down below. Have fun.