The best read on sea anchors I have come across is 'The Sea Anchor & Drogue Handbook' by Daniel Shewmon, copyright 1995. I don't believe he is still alive. He formed his corporation, Shewmon, Inc., in 1978 and accomplished the following: "pinned down the definitions of both sea abchors and drogues, produced the first sea anchors independent of parachute technology, discovered a simple relationship between sea anchor diameter and vessel draft, dteremined the relationship between sea anchor diameter and vessel displacement, produced the first commercial self-opening drogues, and produced the first commercial self-opening variable pull drogues" One table in his book shows the relationship between flat (Paratech) sea anchor sizes and monohull vessel displacement and descibes sizes for power vessels up to 538,000#. Another table shows sizing for his hybrid Mark 12 sea anchor for power vessels up to 3,000 tons. I have carried his sea anchors on my last 2 boats; he used to provide a copy of his book with a purchase. I doubt it is still in print but there must be many copies at large. I guess for this boat I will need to go with Florentino or Paratech.... Bill ____________________________________________________________________________________ The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php

I was talking to someone recently who'd captained at Nordhavn 62 which carried a sea anchor rigged to the bow with its line tie- wrapped along the rail with the parachute stored back in the cockpit. The theory was that if they got into heavy enough weather to need it, they didn't want to have to go forward to deploy. The plan was that the tie wraps would hold the line securely to the rail until the parachute inflated, and then the forces would tear the plastic tie wraps loose sequentially from stern to bow to deploy neatly without risk to life and limb, or risk of tangling. Basically, you just had to poke your head out in cockpit and toss the parachute overboard. Not pretty, but you would only need it on a long passage. Of course, since they had it ready to deploy, they didn't need it. One of those truisms in life. Which seems to be a good enough reason all on its own to buy one. <grin> John Marshall On Apr 6, 2007, at 1:36 PM, bill wrote: > The best read on sea anchors I have come across is > 'The Sea Anchor & Drogue Handbook' by Daniel Shewmon, > copyright 1995. I don't believe he is still alive. > > He formed his corporation, Shewmon, Inc., in 1978 and > accomplished the following: "pinned down the > definitions of both sea abchors and drogues, produced > the first sea anchors independent of parachute > technology, discovered a simple relationship between > sea anchor diameter and vessel draft, dteremined the > relationship between sea anchor diameter and vessel > displacement, produced the first commercial > self-opening drogues, and produced the first > commercial self-opening variable pull drogues" > > One table in his book shows the relationship between > flat (Paratech) sea anchor sizes and monohull vessel > displacement and descibes sizes for power vessels up > to 538,000#. > > Another table shows sizing for his hybrid Mark 12 sea > anchor for power vessels up to 3,000 tons. > > I have carried his sea anchors on my last 2 boats; he > used to provide a copy of his book with a purchase. I > doubt it is still in print but there must be many > copies at large. I guess for this boat I will need to > go with Florentino or Paratech.... > > Bill > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > ______________ > The fish are biting. > Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. > http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php > _______________________________________________ > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World > Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions. > > To be removed from the PUP list send an email with the > subject "unsubscribe" (no quotes) to the link below: > > mailto:passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com > > Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List