Gary King wrote:

Paul Thompson wrote: When the time for retrieval comes, I put the long 10mm line on a winch (the further the winch is from the stern the better. Most would be using a sheet winch) and wind it home. This brings the end of the bridal into the cockpit. Then I attach the short line to the drogue (with a rolling hitch) and cleat off the other end to a suitable cleat. Next I ease the long line, this line then goes lack, I undo it and reattach it to the drogue at the stern once more (with a rolling hitch). I wind it up again, detach the th short line. Reattach the short line close to the attachment point of the long line. Then ease off the long line, undo the hitch and reattach at the stern again. Wind the long line in... this cycle goes on until the drogue is retrieved.

You could, if possible, run a line from the winch through a block attached to the mast then back to the drogue. Gives an extra 2 or 3 metres of winching distance - depending how far forward of the winch your mast is.

Yes, that would work nicely.

Gary King wrote:

Paul Thompson wrote: I have used all all of the gear that I carry, the Seabrake because I needed to and the series drogue and parachute sea anchor because I wanted to test them and see if they worked as advertised. They do.

Paul, how was the series drogue to retrieve? If you tried it in windy conditions that is. I found a flame war on this subject on sailnet.com and it seemed the "against" side was solely relying on comments found on the Pardeys website - 6 strong men taking 6 hours.. or whatever it was..

Gary,

Retrieval is not a problem if you have planed for it. I use two 10mm lines, one short one around 1.5M and a longer one around 20M or so (it depends on how long your bridal is) . The longer one is attached to the centre of the bridal when the drogue is first deployed and and is allowed to be slack so it takes no load when the drogue is in use.

When the time for retrieval comes, I put the long 10mm line on a winch (the further the winch is from the stern the better. Most would be using a sheet winch) and wind it home. This brings the end of the bridal into the cockpit. Then I attach the short line to the drogue (with a rolling hitch) and cleat off the other end to a suitable cleat. Next I ease the long line, this line then goes lack, I undo it and reattach it to the drogue at the stern once more (with a rolling hitch). I wind it up again, detach the th short line. Reattach the short line close to the attachment point of the long line. Then ease off the long line, undo the hitch and reattach at the stern again. Wind the long line in... this cycle goes on until the drogue is retrieved.

The process sounds cumbersome but you get into the rhythm of it and in about 20 minutes or so the who shebang is back on board. Because the more line you have onboard, the less cones are in the water, the process gets easier and easier as you go along. At some point (depending on your personal strength) you no longer need the winch but can just haul it in hand over hand.

I did my tests in 35 - 40kts of wind when deployed and 25kts or so when retrieved in the South Atlantic. I lay to the drogue all night as I wanted to see how well it worked. Using the above method, retrieval was easy and not to tiring even though a large swell was running, you just need to be patient and plan everything well before hand.

Alan "Maddog!" MacBride wrote
Nice vid, Paul. Would have been a bit more helpful had there been some related commentary. I suppose I don't have enough sea sense to perceive the difference simply from the visuals.

Do you, or does anyone else here, have a Jordan Series Drogue?

Have you, or anyone else here, ever deployed one? Can anyone here comment?

Should I add this drogue to the links?

Maddog, Simon has already given enough links to fill an encyclopedia so I do not need to add to that.

Yes, I carry a series drogue that I made myself. I also carry a parachute sea anchor and an Australian "Seabrake" http://www.seabrake.com/ . It's different tools for different jobs. I consider the series drogue to replace the parachute sea anchor as while it is called a drogue, it is really a sea anchor as you effectively stand still while it is deployed (you typically make about 1.5kts down wind). Hence I carry the "Seabrake" which does not stop you dead in the water but only imparts a deceleration when your speed through the water goes over (for La Chica) 4kts. So you can still make progress downwind.

The difference between the "Seabrake" and the series drogue apart from what they do to your boat speed is that the series drogue responds nearly instantaneously to an approaching wave. Thus causing the boat to align itself (stern to) immediately  to the approaching wave. Just what you need when having to deal with large cross seas like you get in the southern ocean when a gale which starts in the NW then later swings to the SW often generating enormous cross seas in the process.

I have used all all of the gear that I carry, the Seabrake because I needed to and the series drogue and parachute sea anchor because I wanted to test them and see if they worked as advertised. They do.

Oh, and I under the old rig (gaff ketch) have tried anchoring from the stern. The boat (as David Tyler has mentioned else where) was very steady under that configuration. I expect that under her new schooner softwing, anchoring from the stern will become the norm. To that end, I have fitted anchor points to the stern for a bridal which will handle all the drogues and the stern anchor when needed.

My apologies for the delay in installing simon's drogue links. They and a few others are in now. It's been a busy week and at night I've been too tired to mess with Apricot.

Re the issue of Silver Strand.  We used miles of it to tie the boat into her berth when we over-wintered in Greenland.  It certainly stood up to considerable strain without any problem. Because it is so slippery, you would need to be very sure that your knots and splices were secure.  The other potential problem would be if the swivel (I assume there is one?) were to get stuck and the line unnravel.  While braid would kink badly, it would probably be salvageable, but if three-strand were to spin the wrong way, you would probably not be able to lay it up again.