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.