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Skip Novak’s
Storm Sailing
Techniques
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PART 8
drogues and
sea anchors
Skip Novak has sailed in some ferocious weather, but
is no fan of drogues and sea anchors. Others would
not sail without them. We take up the debate
A
sk about a controversial subject
within the cruising community and,
if not immediately, surely soon after
you will get a heated debate about the pros
and cons of drogues and sea anchors.
If you Google the subject, prepare to get
comfortable for a few hours as you follow
the debate online. The most amazing thing,
your realise, is that so many people have an
opinion about a piece of heavy weather gear
that they have never actually used in anger.
This is all about storm survival when
tactics like lying ahull, heaving to and sailing
on cannot be considered. The approach is
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either to deploy a sea anchor to try to keep
the bow into the sea and hold position, or
to run with the wind trailing tackle astern
to slow the boat down.
The variables in the discussion are
complex: which type of sea anchor and
drogue (both homemade and proprietary),
when to deploy it, the type of boat itself and
how it would react, the sea conditions and
attachment points on board and
deployment and retrieval methods.
But before I get carried away with this
lecture, I have to admit to something: I have
never tried a sea anchor nor a drogue. If
Most yachts are ill-equipped to make
this gear fast and less so to retrieve it
I have to stop the boat for any reason in
heavy weather (and I often have), I would
heave to or even lie ahull, or simply run
before the storm and hang in there given
enough sea room.
I have been in some pretty ferocious seas
running downwind, but mainly while racing
at speed with a crew, and on bigger rather
than small craft. My expedition vessels
Pelagic are heavy boats and in all these
years I have never felt threatened enough
to resort to methods that involve deploying
gear over the side.
One storm I remember particularly well
(there have been so many) occured while en
route back from South Georgia on Pelagic in
2002. Only 100 miles out of Port Stanley in
the Falklands we got hit with a violent Force
10 westerly that lasted for 20 hours.
We simply hove to and rode it out: sure,
we were rolled on to our beam ends now and
then, but we were fairly comfortable. If we
had been going downwind, I would have
turned the boat around and done the same.
5Above: beware
using primary
winches to deploy a
drogue – a bad lead
can lay waste to gear
The thought of deploying tackle over the
side while running at speed in those
conditions makes my hair stand on end.
For smaller boats and those that are
single- or short-handed, however, using
a sea anchor or drogue might be an
interesting, possibly lifesaving procedure.
But it is one that must be practised, so that
when you do it for real everything is spot on.
In my case, on medium to larger craft (say,
above the 50ft range), I consider the idea
not worth the risk – and the risk can be high.
Sea anchors or drogues require you
to deploy a substantial amount of tackle
overboard at the height of a gale or storm.
Anyone who has lost a sheet or piece of
running rigging overboard knows the
alarming rate at which it is sucked over the
side. The force on a single line immediately
becomes enormous and usually requires a
winch to retrieve it. Now imagine the forces
involved in a more complex tackle with
harness, cones and weights – it becomes
a potentially lethal piece of equipment.
Most yachts are ill-equipped to make this
gear fast and less so to retrieve it, even when
the weather softens to the point where you
can sail on. Cleats are usually inadequate in
strength and size, so it would be better to go
straight to cockpit winches. But beware a
bad lead because the line can easily lay
waste to stanchions, pushpits and more.
A tangle is always possible and any human
limb or appendage in the mix could spell
disaster. Have a knife to hand!
The US Coast Guard has made an
exhaustive study of the merits of two
popular systems, the parachute anchor and
the series drogue. It is published online and
is worth reading: go to http://
seriesdrogue.com/vs/. The striking thing
about its recommendations is the amount
of tackle required to make it effective. I rest
my case about why I don’t use them.
Instead, I will leave the first-hand reports
to those sailors who have used drogues
or planned to use them (see page 86).
USING DROGUES
– do they work?
Skip Novak’s
view is clear:
although
drogues could
be a lifesaver on
small boats of,
say, less than
50ft, he would
feel nervous
about deploying
the gear on
bigger, heavier
vessels. For smaller yachts, however,
there is anecdotal evidence that series
drogues, in particular, are valuable.
Drogues might also have value on
light-displacement boats that won’t
heave to or are running downwind
under bare poles near wave-speed.
The only detailed independent
report to have been published was
prepared by the US Coast Guard
(report CG-D-20-87) in May 1987.
This sought to address the pros and
cons, and concluded that the best
possible option may be the series
drogue, in which a series of small
drogues are streamed astern through
several wavetrains.
The report notes ‘that most storms,
even severe storms, do not create
dangerous breaking waves. Sailors who
survive such storms may conclude that
the tactics they employ, such as
heaving to, lying ahull or running off,
are adequate to prevent capsize.
‘This is a serious mistake. There is
very compelling evidence to show that
while a well-found boat will survive a
storm in non-breaking waves, none of
the above tactics will prevent capsize in
a breaking wave strike.’
YACHTING WORLD may 2014
87
drogues
Types of drogues
Download
our new Storm
Sailing app
Parachute anchors
help a yacht hold
station, but produce
hazards of their own
Parachute anchors
The US Coast Guard report raises some serious issues
about these types of drogues streamed from the bow.
It ‘questions the veracity’ of claims that they offer
bulletproof protection in storm survival conditions.
They may help a boat hold station in moderate weather,
it says, but when a wave hits the bow the boat can be
shunted astern, potentially causing damage to the
rudder, breaking the line, rolling the boat or forcing
water through the exhaust system and into the engine.
The report also notes that ‘in the trough of a wave/
swell [when] the para anchor rode goes slack, the yacht
will commence to yaw, wanting to lie ahull, thereby
leaving it partially or totally beam to the sea with the
possibility of being knocked flat or rolled.’
Series drogues
This is the type of drogue that the report found the most
effective. Though not named specifically in the report,
the best known of these types is the Jordan Series
Drogue (see overleaf).
It comprises a series of small drogues connected
into a long series and deployed astern. The number of
these will depend on the displacement of the yacht –
typically, as many as 90 or 100 cones may be needed in
series – and ideally the drogue needs to be made up and
coiled ready to deploy from points at the stern that are
strong enough for the very considerable loads.
Additional chainplates may be needed.
The report concludes that ‘a series type drogue
provides significant advantages over a cone or
parachute type drogue/sea anchor… Since some of the
cones are near the boat where towline stretch is low,
[the drogue] will build up load faster than a conventional
cone or chute at the end of the towline/bowline.
‘A computer study shows that two seconds after
wave strike, the series drogue will develop 40 per cent
more load than an equivalent cone or chute.’
It notes that another advantage is that if one or even
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YACHTING WORLD may 2014
several cones are damaged, the whole drogue is not
rendered totally ineffective.
If and when a drogue is working effectively, no action
is required of the crew, who can simply go below, put the
companionway boards in, make all items secure and try
and get some rest.
However, it should be pointed out that even
proponents of the series drogue, such as small-boat
solo sailor Roger Taylor, who has used a Jordan Series
Drogue on several occasions while voyaging in his
21-footer Mingming (see page 87 for his comments),
say sufficiently strong attachment points are necessary
and that the drogue must be conveniently stowed and
arranged for immediate deployment.
But one of the main points of this report, which Skip
Novak also makes, is that you need the right equipment,
attachments and anti-chafe gear all set up and ready to
go reasonably quickly and easily, and ideally you need to
have practised using the drogue well in advance.
Elaine Bunting
You can download the
first two chapters of our
Storm Sailing app
completely free and get
the complete-series app
for just £4.99
on the iTunes store
Next month
Part 9: Sounding an
uncharted bay
Left: the series
drogue got the nod
as the best in a US
Coast Guard report
Going off soundings to uncharted
areas is a desirable part of cruising and
enables you to gain shelter on a hostile
coastline, possibly saving vessel and
crew. Skip explains the techniques
Drogues
‘AJordan Series
Drogue was
a lifesaver’
When seas are huge
the Jordan Series
Drogue comes out
Could a series drogue be useful on smaller yachts? Skippers
who have had to use one in anger share their experiences
Single-handed sailor
Jeanne Socrates has
circumnavigated three
times alone. After her
last non-stop round the
world voyage she was
named runner-up in the
Yachting Journalists’
Association Yachtsman
of the Year Award and won the Cruising Club
of America Blue Water Medal. She carries
and has successfully used a Jordan Series
Drogue on her Najad 380, Nereida.
T
he Jordan Series Drogue (JSD) was
the one that came out best in tests
by the US Coast Guard, which would
have pleased its inventor Don Jordan – he
designed the drogue in order to save lives in
storm conditions, especially breaking seas.
It consists of small cloth cones spliced on to
a tapered line with a small weight (often a
length of anchor chain) at its end.
The maximum design load of the drogue
and the number of cones is determined by
the displacement of the boat. Precise
specifications are online at www.jordan
seriesdrogue.com, but in general, 100-200
5in (13cm) diameter cones are attached to
the line and the bridle is attached to strong
points on the stern quarters by a bridle. This
is a better system than winches – on a winch
the load is applied above the deck line and it
tends to overturn a winch and pull it out.
On Nereida, I attached the bridle to
specially designed strong points on the
quarters. Attachment points should, in
general, be as far outboard and aft as
possible and through-bolted, preferably
using a strong steel backing plate if the
deck is made of glassfibre.
I have a dedicated bag strapped near the
base of the stern arch/pushpit, close to the
port quarter. The line on my drogue – 207ft
of 3/8in tapered Dyneema braid with a 75ft
leader – has 124 cones and is flaked with the
10-15lb chain into the bag for immediate
deployment. The bridle is attached with big
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YACHTING WORLD may 2014
shackles to the strong points at each
quarter whenever bad weather is likely. I use
cable ties to hold the bridle out of the water.
I find a polypropylene retrieval line
useful. It is a bit longer than to the end of the
port bridle leg and cleated off before the
drogue is deployed. I winch it in first to bring
the leader line beyond the bridle to within
reach. Some people prefer an arrangement
with one leg of the bridle led to a winch from
one of the strong points inorder to keep the
stern at a slight angle not full-on to the seas.
Clearly, the companionway area must be
tightly closed against any ingress of water.
In April 2011, I lay safely for three and a half
days off the Falklands in breaking seas when
caught between two low-pressure systems
(I actually had two sets come by close
together, so waited for the second to finish)
and eventually winched in the drogue after
conditions eased. It took me a long time
because I was solo, but it was not difficult.
Now I have a cleat with horns pointing
forward at the stern to act as a fairlead and
allow the cones to come in easily without me
needing to be there. They then pass around
a winch with very little trouble.
Writing this, I decided to seek the
opinions of other sailors who had used a
JSD successfully. Steve sails Silas Crosby,
‘I would never go to sea without it’
A severe gale and the threat of capsize in high latitudes forced
singlehander Roger Taylor to deploy a drogue from his Corribee 21
Edvin Buregren
Jeanne Socrates
The drogue on 38ft
Nereida is 207ft long
We rode safely to a drogue for three
days in winds of up to 60 knots
a 36ft steel yacht with twin keels and 4ft
draught, double-handed. Having made his
JSD from a kit, he has used it three times,
twice off Chile in galeforce winds.He says
that seas were beginning to break, with the
yacht running at five to six knots under bare
poles, before he deployed the drogue for six
hours and 12 hours respectively.
“I used a retrieval line, making a rolling
hitch to transfer it to the main line. The third
deployment was in June 2013, 90 miles off
Adak (Aleutians) in a far worse gale. We rode
to the JSD for three days in winds up to 60
knots with lots of breaking seas. We had
seas aboard, but down below was dry and
there was little rolling. We never even came
close to being knocked down or broaching.
“Once when I was in the cockpit, the boat
began to fall down the front of a wave and
was arrested quite forcefully by the drogue.
It was dramatic and confidence-inspiring.”
Single-hander Greg sails Alcidae III, a
40ft steel cutter. He used his drogue seven
times in 49 days on passage from Kerguelen
to Hobart in 2012, mostly in seas of 8-12m.
But in one vicious gale lasting over five days
he saw seas up to 14m. He finds it best to
deploy the drogue while hove-to and flakes
the JSD in the cockpit ready for deploying.
Interestingly, he now dispenses with
a bridle and uses a single line off the port
quarter, saying the boat “seems to like” seas
coming on to the quarter.
He notes that 15 per cent of the cones
had become frayed and were replaced after
this passage. The aft cockpit was pooped
regularly, so he says that it is essential to
have a well-dogged down companionway
door. “I hope this information may be useful
to other sailors who may find themselves in
similar conditions. I am of little doubt that
I would not have safely arrived in Hobart if
I had not had a suitable JSD onboard, but
would have suffered multiple rollovers.”
On Taonui, a 42ft steel cutter, Tony sails
double-handed. His JSD set-up uses 1in
braid drogue line that’s 200ft long and has
120 cones, with 20ft of ½in chain attached
via cleats to the quarters using a sturdy 1in
braid bridle with a heavy duty swivel shackle.
He has used this in anger eight times in
the past 16 years, when it was no longer safe
to lie hove to or ahull. His preference in
storms is to run before the wind in winds up
to 50 knots, but that is impossible for long
when single-handing, if there is a lack of sea
room or if he needs to make repairs etc.
“I wish that we had used the drogue
when we were off the coast of Argentina in
1997,” he notes. “We tried heaving to, then
lying ahull. Big mistake. We were turned
upside down by a rogue wave and lost the
mast and had other damage. If we had been
lying to the drogue with our stern to the seas
we would have just been pooped.”
A
ll my ocean sailing is done single-handed in
small yachts. This has two implications for
heavy weather sailing. First, the boat cannot
be helmed manually for long. Second, it will tend to
lie beam-on to the seas – a very dangerous attitude.
My Windpilot self-steering gear is fine for holding
the boat to windward or running at an oblique angle.
But very occasionally the sea states are simply too
dangerous to sail in – the risk of capsize is too great.
In my last yacht, Mingming, a 21ft junk-rigged
Corribee, this happened twice during 20,000 miles
worst was nearly over by then and a homemade
B&Q sandbag sea anchor saw us through the rest,
although without the smoothness of the JSD.
The second deployment of my replacement
homemade drogue was south-east of Greenland’s
southern tip, Cape Farvel. This short-lived storm had
already built up a fine old sea and created the highest
waves I had seen in the northern hemisphere. They
were not especially steep, but they were truly
monumental and were starting to break.
The ride this time was not as comfortable since
the wave trains were bisected by a
residual swell. The drogue did its
work of defusing the threat, but we
rolled heavily as the swells passed
under the beam. This was more of a
discomfort than an annoyance.
Manual retrieval of the drogue was hard because
I had no winches on board. I have since added a
floating line to the end to pull it in backwards.
On Mingming II, a junk-rigged Achilles 24, cockpit
space has already been allocated for stowage of
YW
the JSD. I would never go to sea without it.
The sensation was extraordinary,
like a horizontal bungee jump
of sailing in the high North Atlantic and Greenland
and Norwegian seas. Both times I deployed my
ultimate yachtsaver, my Jordan Series Drogue.
The first time was during a severe gale off
south-west Iceland. For some reason this storm
generated some of the steepest waves I have seen.
Occasional wave faces looked nearly vertical.
Once the drogue had been deployed it seemed as
if all the potential danger had been defused. As the
drogue is set from the stern, the boat lay quietly in its
natural attitude, absolutely stern on to the waves,
with just a few degrees of yaw either way. We moved
gently downwind at up to one and a half knots. As
each crest passed under the yacht we accelerated
gently forward until the drogue applied its force.
Tailored to the displacement of my yacht, the
drogue applied its force softly; not too much and not
too little. It was an extraordinary sensation. As I lay
on the cabin sole I felt the boat surge forward then,
with a loud creaking as the braking started, gently
slow. There was a moment of near weightlessness as
I was lifted off the sole then placed softly down again.
It was like a kind of horizontal bungee jump.
I rode to the drogue for 17 hours, in total comfort
without a hint of a broach or a capsize. Retrieval was
not a problem as I lost the drogue through chafe (an
error of seamanship on my part). Fortunately, the
Roger Taylor on his
Corribee Mingming
YACHTING WORLD May 2014
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