In a message dated 9/8/04 12:01:10 AM, Ron Barr writes: << Larry: At first glance your computation results for the drag area of your boat and the Nordhavns seem very low to me - can you advise the numbers you are using for beam and height? >> My Willard Horizon has an 11 ft. beam and about an 8 ft height above the water. Adding mast and stays, I estimate about 100 sq. ft. of frontal area. The Nordhavn 40 has a 14 1/2 ft. beam. I don't have the exact height of the superstructure, but using the beam times .75 of the beam algorithm, the frontal area comes out close to 160 sq. ft. The N47 has 16.1 ft. beam so it should have an area of about 200 sq. ft. The N72 has a beam of 21 ft. and a frontal area of 330 sq. ft. The wind drag estimates I gave are based on each 100 sq. ft. of area. Remember that you have to multiply the wind drag figure by frontal area/100. Thus, in a 100 kt. frontal wind, the Willard has a drag of 3990 lbs., the N40 a drag of 6384 lbs, the N47 a drag of 7980 lbs, the N72 a drag of 13,164 lbs. The Nordhavns have a lot of masts, booms, etc. and forward sloping pilothouses so it is likely that the actual wind drag is higher than for the average trawler. These figures assume that the wind is hitting the trawler dead on. In reality, unless held by several anchors, a moored trawler is likely to sheer back and forth, exposing much more area and increasing the wind drag considerably. The strain on the anchor rode would go up and it is likely that the anchor would drag or be pulled loose. On the other hand, the use of several anchors impedes the ability of the boat to swing to face a changing wind. Larry Z