[PUP] Heavy Weather tactics

[Ken Williams]

Bob:

Great post. 

I must confess that I've never personally seen either a drogue or a sea
anchor, so forgive my rookie questions about them. 

I'm commissioning my new boat now, and deciding what safety equipment to
buy. I take it from your post that you recommend carrying BOTH a drogue and
a sea anchor? (assuming one has the budget and space required)

To verify that I understand correctly the circumstances under which I might
use one or the other: 

- The most likely circumstance under which I might use a sea anchor would be
if I found myself dead in the water and wanted to keep my nose into the
wind. 

- A drogue could be used in a following sea if I were having trouble
steering. In particular: if I find myself speeding down the back side of
waves and am worried about getting spun sideways and rolled over.

I was curious about what these things are like to deploy or pull back into
the boat, and found this link to an instruction manual for a Sea Anchor:
http://www.seaanchor.com/pdf/sea_anchor_instructions.pdf I found it
worthwhile reading, and inadvertently amusing at times.

In all of my research (googling) I found virtually no references to use of
any of these devices with a power boat. I'm not at all certain they are even
made for my boat. The tables showing recommended drogue sizes stop at 60,000
pounds, and my boat weighs nearly 200,000. 

Some interesting reading on drogues can be found at:
http://seriesdrogue.com/coastguardreport/droguereport.htm

My current thinking is to buy both, perhaps experiment once with their use,
pack them away, and then work hard to ensure they are never used again.

Ken Williams