In a message dated 4/6/2006 11:42:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
peter@seaskills.com writes:

When  should a drogue or sea anchor be attached to the bow, and when to the
stern?

Ahoy Listees,

I cannot believe the coincidence, I have just been asked to assist  with a
delivery of a 96 ft tugboat to Lima, Peru.  After I had  suggested drogue be
part of the equipment, I had to admit that I have  never used one.  Perhaps the
learned list might assist with some thoughts  about why, when, where & how to
use/deploy a sea anchor/drogue.

Thanks for the assistance,

Ciao, Joe

Good question.  In terms of timing, on AKAMA, we might deploy the drogue
if the storm were not severe enough to cause us to want to stop altogether,
but strong enough to prevent us from, being able to steer the boat, and risk
broaching.  We might also deploy it if the waves were so square that we
thought we might pitch pole.  But, I say 'might' because I am not convinced
that deploying a drogue on a power boat is safe (see previous post).  On a
sailboat, it would usually be used when running bare poles; maybe this would
apply to us too (i.e., engine off).  We would only deploy the sea anchor if
we were so tired that we could not manage the ship.  I am not convinced that
a sea anchor will stay put, despite the careful consideration we have given
to minimize chafe.  If it lets go there is a serious probability that the
boat could broach.

In terms of placement, IMHO, a sea anchor should never be attached to the
stern and a drogue never attached to the bow.  A properly sized sea anchor
nearly stops the boat dead in the water.  As Mike pointed out in his email,
this leaves the wave train zooming along and impacting you.  Thus, you want
this to happen on the bow.  A drogue, on the other hand only slows you down.
Thus it is deployed from the stern, while you continue to make progress
running before the weather.  I disagree that a drogue, including a Jordan,
might be deployed from the bow, even as a "poor choice".  Most of our boats
have significant A/B ratios, often up front.  The force of the wind on all
that "A-area" will surely spin the boat around.  This is why the
manufacturers of sea anchors, if asked, will err on the side of big when
asked for advice; that is what I was told by the owner of Para-anchors of
Australia.

So, we view the drogue as a nearly last resort, under certain circumstances,
and the chute as an absolute last resort.

There is, however, another reason we bought a chute.  We generally do not
like to travel with crew.  We anticipate that we might become tired on a
long passage when there is not storm (has not happened yet).  In this
instance, we would deploy the chute and get a good night's sleep.  We have
heard that this tactic is used by fishermen off Canada's west coast.  We
once had an insurance company that insisted we have a crew member (minimum
of three people) for passages, unless we anchored periodically.  We posed
the question of laying to a chute in such circumstances, and to our great
surprise they agreed.

Best of luck on your delivery, and may you encounter only fair winds and
slight seas.

Maurice Nunas
MV AKAMA

-----Original Message-----
From: Aquaduck336@aol.com [mailto:Aquaduck336@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, 07 April 2006 14:13
To: passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com
Subject: Re: [PUP] Storm tactics - sea anchors and such for trawlers?

In a message dated 4/6/2006 11:42:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
peter@seaskills.com writes:

When  should a drogue or sea anchor be attached to the bow, and when to the

stern?

Ahoy Listees,

I cannot believe the coincidence, I have just been asked to assist  with a
delivery of a 96 ft tugboat to Lima, Peru.  After I had  suggested drogue be

part of the equipment, I had to admit that I have  never used one.  Perhaps
the
learned list might assist with some thoughts  about why, when, where & how
to
use/deploy a sea anchor/drogue.

Thanks for the assistance,

Ciao, Joe

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