Ben & list, Our experience in the use of the Jordan Series Drogue at sea came between the Azores and Falmouth England and showed its operation to be similar to the old time practice of trailing warps and running. We slowed from 7.6 knots on bare poles to .45 knots during the next 26 hours in 20 foot seas and winds just over 40 knots. (We used a 150 mini parachutes drogue we made using a Sailrite kit and 300 feet of 3/4" Goldbraid), all fixed to the boat stern with a bridle at special attachment points. When we talked to Don Jordan prior to building it, he echoed your caution on the attachment points. We installed two tangs at the back corners of our boat with backing plates of steel and marine plywood in our boat (I believe we could lift the boat from the stern with them - in a survival storm they would get terrific loads). There is a more complete discussion of this and real stories in the sidebar at www.jordanseriesdrogue.com
It's a good read. The article and physics lesson on stern anchoring is there, along with stories on loss of many boats in survival storms. We have attended the Pardey's excellent heavy weather seminar and studied their experiences via their writing. The use of the sea anchor from the port or starboard quarter with a bridle - turning to take the sea at an angle - also negates the unstable wind load / center of loading problems of the mast that cause problems when taking the loads dead on at the bow, which the Jordan article discusses in discussing the benefits of anchoring on moorings stern to with an adequate bridle. Probably it would be better anchoring to a mooring for a hurricane force wind over one of the front quarters as Ben describes using his bridle & the sea anchor than fixing the bow to the mooring. It might also provide the freedom from chafe and instability of sailing at anchor that higher winds cause. Interesting physics comparison. Ed On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 1:01 AM, Ben Okopnik <b...@okopnik.com> wrote: > On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 12:08:23AM +0300, Ed Kelly wrote: > > > > Jordan's work discovered many boats could more easily survive a > hurricane if > > they were anchored with a bridle in a STERN TO position in a hurricane.═ > > A note from personal experience: fairly early in my cruising career, I > deployed a sea anchor off the stern of my boat, S/V Recessional, in a > gale off the east coast of the Dominican Republic. Within 30 seconds, it > almost sunk my boat by holding the (admittedly fine) stern down to the > oncoming seas; the following wave immediately filled my cockpit to the > brim, and if it had been any larger, we would have gone done instantly. > I managed to slash the bridle away before the next wave, and I am > utterly certain that had I not done that, we'd have gone down in > seconds: the next wave would have stove in the main companion boards. > (No, the sea anchor was not oversized for the boat.) > > Some years later, I deployed a sea anchor in a strong NW winter gale in > the Gulf Stream, on a roller running on a stem to stern bridle, the way > the Pardeys recommend. The boat I was on, S/V Ulysses, slid around to a > comfortable position - taking the seas ~40 degrees off the bow, as I > recall - and stayed that way for the two days that it took the weather > to ease. > > These were two completely different boats, but whether it's just a > personal preference or otherwise, I find that I'm very hesitant to > recommend deploying a sea anchor off the stern without a sharp knife > close at hand. If you do own one and plan to head out to sea with it, > I'd strongly recommend testing it in calmer weather just to familiarize > yourself with it. > > (N.B. If you do not have a cleat or another securing point aboard your > boat which you can trust to hold at least a couple of tons, you have no > business taking that boat to sea; one each fore and aft if you wish to > use the Pardey technique. Check you friendly nearby "horizontal anchor > loads" table for why this might be important. :) > > > Ben > -- > OKOPNIK CONSULTING > Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business > Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming > 443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com http://twitter.com/okopnik > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > Liveaboard@liveaboardonline.com > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to liveaboard-j...@liveaboardonline.com > > To unsubscribe send an email to liveaboard-le...@liveaboardonline.com > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/liveaboard@liveaboardnow.org > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html -- Ed Kelly sailing vessel ANGEL LOUISE - Catalac 12m Skype to AttyEdKelly or Skype-in phone: 202-657-6357 attyedke...@gmail.com
_______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list Liveaboard@liveaboardonline.com To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to liveaboard-j...@liveaboardonline.com To unsubscribe send an email to liveaboard-le...@liveaboardonline.com The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/liveaboard@liveaboardnow.org The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
