Marilyn and I were the first to use the Jordan Series Drogue in full storm conditions back in '92. We laid to it for three days on our Searunner 37, Kuan Yin.
The stern of the boat has greater buoyancy than the pointy bow. We had a large (18x46 inch) window facing the breaking seas and never experienced any problems. The JSD is not a "sea anchor". It is a drogue. Unlike a sea anchor (para anchor?) It yields to the seas instead of holding fast. This reduces the strain on fittings and allows the boat to become part of the wave action, not in opposition to it. When we first deployed it I thought we'd lost it because the boat slowed down from 12 kts to less than a knot slowly and evenly, not the rapid deceleration i had expected. I have fond memories of sipping a hot cup'a cocoa while looking up at breaking waves tumbling towards our stern. Best way to enjoy a storm. Ever! Wrote it up for MultiHull mag if you care to look it up. Called "Maiden Voyage" Philip -- S/V ORYOKI Philip & Marilyn Lange AE4OV KD4JRC Currently on the hill - Beaufort NC "There's no point in making a plan if you're not going to pretend to follow it!" On Sat, 2012-10-27 at 18:01 -0400, Ben Okopnik 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
_______________________________________________ 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
