JORDAN SERIES DROGUE

[Tales]

Phillip,
I have made a bit of a study of heavy weather sailing in our type of boat.
Have had limited prolonged experience and that was enough to get me thinking seriously about the matter.
Last year we had to mark time out side the Rip (Port Philip) for 3 hours waiting slack water. We had 30 to 35 knots with some breaking seas to contend with. Onshore breeze. Packed away the main and reached with the #2. Later found I had streached it that day (and it is a heavy one).
The way I see it, this is the routine.
If you have sea room as the wind gets up one can heave to. The sails must be the ones you would use sailing in the same conditions. In 30 knots I would have a storm jib and 3rd reef.
As the wind picks up, pack up the sails and and lay ahull with bare poles.
Breaking waves could force the decision then to run off (assume storm boards over the side windows early in the piece). With wind that strong you can run off with bare poles. Nick was getting over 12 knots boat speed in those conditions in the Trans Tasman.
That will be very hard work and dangerous. A breaking wave can take the boat with it at over 20 knots.
A drogue will sort all that out.
This is where science and technology helped me make the decision to go for a Jordan Series Drogue.
Single component drogues can collapse or be accelerated by braking waves. The idea of the Series Drogue is that it will span more that wave so that if some individual cones collapse the others will hold.
The next aspect is where to attach it. Sailboats have more area in front of the centre of rotation so the bows will blow off if there is no forward motion. You will probably have noticed that your boat will yaw from side to side when it is anchored in a bit of a blow. When the wind gets up boats have been measured to yaw 40 degrees and more - so not very comfortable, healing over at extreme angles and lots of fluctuating loads (chafe will also become a problem). Boats with a bluff bow will rise better to the waves but with a fine entry (Top Hat) will dig in with the decks awash.
If however the drogue is attached to the stern (by a bridle) the yawing is decreased remarkably (10 degrees each way) and the stern being more buoyant will rise. The companionway stormboards and supporting structure must be really sturdy to take a boarding wave but you will be safe inside.
As you say, planning the trip could avoid all the drama with a good weather forecast and length of journey to suit.
Down our way we have a stretch of water called Bass Strait. It can get pretty nasty with little warning. Relatively shallow, it produces some incredible seas at times. I just reckon that, like the storm jib, 3rd reef, radio and EPIRB a series drogue would be a good bit of kit to have on board.
You can download the US Coast Guard report of the testing of the device as well as Jordans notes on it.
Cheers,
Tom

[Phillip]

Michael,

Your prayers may be answered soon.

Jamie, about 3 months ago wrote an article on using sails to steer in light airs.

Its in this issue of Cruising Helmsman.

We may get lucky and get one on heavy weather sailing.

Phillip
SEAKA

[Shaun]

Hi Tom (Tales)
Thanks for the excellent post above!

Im just starting to look at this now for my TH.
Did you buy/make one of these 'series drogues" yet?
If so, have you had a chance to use it, in practice or otherwise?
What attachment points do you have for this (on the stern)?
What does the bridle consist of?

They seem surprisingly easy to make: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30uvlq9- ... re=related

& wondering if you can give us some details as to its length, number of cups etc

cheers
Shaun

[Tales]

Hi Shaun,
Sadly my boat preparation is way behind and I don't need the Jordan drogue yet. Only going costal when I get the chance.

In May 2009 I contacted Bryan Glover at,

www.seriesdrogue.com

and he quoted me $897 for a set up suitable for Top Hat consisting of

75 ripstop nylon cones attached
14 meters 12mm double braid with 25 cones
50 meters 14mm double braid, 25 metre leader and 50 cones
14mm double braid bridle with 1 splice in each leg

which I thought pretty good value.

Cheers,
Tom

[Shaun]

Gday Tom,
Thanks for that info on the series drogue, good stuff.
I may revisit this thread months(probably years ) in the future, first i'll experiment with the Burke "Sea Brake" that i have(but never used), to see if it has the bad tendencies of slipping through the troughs of the waves etc.
cheers
Shaun

[scott]

Instead of a drogue, how about a warp? I guess not as effective in so far as slowing a boat down, but it would (or should?) help with pointing the right way, ie stern to the waves. Wouldn't it? I don't know as I've never used both.

As for the drogue, I'm concered with the stress it will put on wherever it is connected to. Anyone have any tips here?

Scott.

[bornfreee]

The Jordon series drogue was designed for hurricane conditions that was what the USA Coast Guard commissioned Jordon to do. There is a web site called http://www.thesimplesailor.com he uses one, i highly recommend his two books which you can order on line great read and cheap.
the one thing i have against the drogue is it cant be deployed in shallow water and that is were you find the worst waves so now i think i will go with a chute made by coppins in New Zealand deployed over the stern on a bridle it can be deployed in shallow water and will also stop me drifting onto a lee shore in a worse case scenario