para-anchor or drouge?

[maxingout]

If you have a parachute on board, you also have everything you need to make an outstanding drogue as well.

When we sailed across the Atlantic in our catamaran, we got in a gale on the run from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands. We had 18 -20 foot seas and winds up to fifty knots for several days. We needed to slow down because we were surfing down the waves and if we lost control of the yacht we could have capsized. We needed to slow down.

We dragged warps behind the yacht and slowed the boat down to four and a half knots. Here is how we did it.

We took 180 feet of one inch three strand nylon and dragged it in a big u-shaped loop behind the yacht. But it was more than just a loop of rope, because we took plastic water hose that was three feet long and slid the hose over the one inch rope, and then on this water hose we attached 35 pounds of chain in a ball. We shackled the ends of the chain to itself so we wouldn't lose it and we lashed the ball of chain to the plastic hose. The plastic water hose became the messenger that carried the ball of chain down the warp and centered it in the middle of 180 loop that we were dragging behind the yacht. We could send as many weighted hose carriers down the warp to slow the yacht down further if we needed more effect.

This particular method let us create a drogue that was powerful enough to slow us down from 10-15 knots when surfing down to four and a half knots. It really worked. We dragged two warps behind our yacht and did quite well inspite of the large seas and strong winds.

The good thing about this particular drogue is that you don't have to buy a lot of expensive gear to create a powerful drogue. You will already have the long line for the parachute on board. All you need to do is carry three lengths of large diameter water hose that you can use as messengers to carry attached chain, dingy anchor, or whatever out to the end of the loop of line that you are using for the warp.

So if I were you, I would get a parachute and 500 feet of line, and then get the plastic water hose carriers for sending things down your warps that you are dragging behind the yacht.

When it comes time to pull in the warps from behind the yacht, you simply pull it in by hand or by using a winch.

You can vary the distance of the drogue behind your yacht by letting more rope out or pulling more rope in so that the drogue is properly positioned in the following seas. The drogue water hose carriers also stay in the middle of the loop as you pull it in hand over hand or with a winch.

If you would like to see a video of the catamaran in the storm while using the drogues you can go to the following URL :http://maxingout.com/WarpSpeed.wmv and you can read an account about using the warps at: http://maxingout.com/captainslogarchive27.htm and there are pictures of the warps behind the yacht at that location.

So get the parachute, and you will also have the makings of a very effective drogue to use behind the yacht without spending any significant additional money.

Dave
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[maxingout]

After I made the last post, I remembered about a podcast on using parachute sea anchors and drogues. We used an 18 foot diameter parachute sea anchor in a winter storm 300 miles north of New Zealand, and I trailed warps on the trip from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands.

If you want to listen this podcast, you will hear what it's like to use and deploy these devices in different conditions. If you are interested, go to:
http://www.maxingout.com/podcast.htm and then click on the podcast called The Perfect Storm and the flash player will start up and tell you about drogues and parchutes in action.

I hope it helps you. It's mostly about controlling speed - either slowing down or stopping entirely if conditions are really bad. It's not rocket science - mostly common sense.

Cheers,

Dave
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[sa86]

If you have a parachute on board, you also have everything you need to make an outstanding drogue as well.