When the storms disabled our self steering it wasn't the steering gear that was the problem. The lines that we used to attach the steering to the rudder were light nylon which stretched when wet and under tension rendering the self steering useless. This was a surprise, a disappointment and and really put us into a potentially dangerous situation. Its funny how the little things can really ruin the day!  The lashing we use are also of a stretchy nylon to give a snubber affect to the tiller and take away the strain. I think if the rudder is lashed tightly it is inviting something to break. I have now used a braided non stretch line on the self steering and the improvement in the self steering is quite measurable. Hopefully should be able to use it to steer through most conditions now and not need to rely on a nylon snubber or bungies for tiller lashings. We do also have heavy bungies that have been used to dampen the tiller in heavy seas. 

The Pardeys recommend a bridle on the parachute anchor, led back to a primary winch in the cockpit.  That keeps the vessel at an angle of 30 - 45 degrees to wind and wave.  They have also sometimes left their trysail hoisted.  With the helm lashed down there is much less strain on the rudder.  I noticed though, in very severe weather during their Cape Horn passage, that they did not deploy it.  I have also heard of numerous people not being able to get it up again, though that has happened with larger vessels and series drogues too.  The only time I put out a drogue, (in the same stormy autumn that Roger Taylor was crossing the Tasman in 1974 aboard Roc), my vessel, Poeme, continued to lie ahull but was held into the crests and took far heavier blows from breaking crests, so I pulled it in again.  The wind was independently verified as blowing at 70 - 80 knots.  I was 22, on my first passage and have often reflected on what I could have done better.  Perhaps a storm jib sheeted flat to keep the bows off.  I was too scared to sit in the cockpit and steer downwind and my homemade windvane was useless.  Perhaps my drogue, just a 100m 25mm dia warp, towed in a bight, did not have sufficient drag.

There is also some danger in running too fast, even with several crew to steer.  In the Southern Ocean in 1980, enroute from New Zealand to Tahiti on the 55 foot, 32 ton schooner, Ishmael, we ran under bare poles in a severe blow with huge breaking seas.  We prepared a drogue with tyre and chains but never deployed it.  The three of us hand steered under bare poles at 7 knots and nearly pitchpoled on one wave.  I was steering at the time, standing at the wheel, and was thrown off my feet.  The bowsprit and jibboom, 22 feet long, and 15 feet of foredeck up to the foremast were buried in the trough as the ship came to a shuddering halt.  We hung there for what seemed like an eternity, then the bows reared up, sending tons of water aft and the schooner was flung onto her beam ends, then almost as far the other way, each time bringing lots of green water across the decks.  Down below, the bilge water was flung up into the accommodations, ruining my camera and soaking my pilot berth (five feet above the sole) with filthy, diesel soaked muck.

I intend sailing Arion back to Tahiti before I die and often wonder how I will cope with such a storm in a small boat.  Hopefully my JSD will be the answer but until I deploy it I won't really know.  It is always fascinating to hear of other sailors' heavy weather experiences.  I am also finding a lot of food for thought in Roger Taylor's books about the heavy weather handling of small yachts under junk rig.  I am a bit astonished, and encouraged, to discover how well Ming Ming could lie to under one or two panels of sail, with the windvane set at 40 degrees and the sail well eased, just nosing up into it, in moderate gales (force 7 - 8).

I agree with keeping the vane gear connected, Bob. I always keep my vane gear active under bare poles, and the effect is like a boxer riding the punches. A lashed helm is just standing there waiting to be hit, like a bad boxer, and a free helm is in danger of being thrown hard against it's stops.

Polyprop for the bridle may well be the answer, Annie, or those little round polystyrene floats, or a sturdy bumpkin to hold the bridle clear of the transom, or maybe just stream it off one quarter as many ocean sailors have done with other types of drogue, though the vessel will probably yaw a bit more that way.  Anyway, I have ordered my JSD (being too impatient to build one), it has 107 cones, a 16mm double braided nylon warp tapering to 12mm for the last 25m and cost me $1450 Aus.  By the time I sail out into the Tasman Sea in November/December, I should have worked out how I am going to deploy it!  I am reading Roger Taylor's marvellous books at the moment, and learning a great deal about handling small junk rigged yachts at sea.  I have not yet got to the section where he deploys (and eventually loses) his JSD, but judging by the content of his books so far, I expect to have a better informed idea of how to deploy it when I do.

Graham Cox wrote:...  Go out in 35 - 40 knots (not an easy thing to force yourself to do) and test it.  ..

haha, I can imagine the sea rescue guys having a fit when they see an odd looking (to them) boat steaming out through heads on a strong wind warning day..