Jordan Series Drogue Usage

[longjonsilver]

In all that i've read, the Jordan Series Drogue is always deployed from the stern. Why is it never deployed from the bow or from a Pardey bridle?
anybody know?
thanks
jon

[Hydra]

jon,
The purpose of a drogue is to slow down a vessel when running downwind. The purpose of a sea anchor is to prevent a vessel from drifting too fast, coming beam to the waves and risking being capsized when hove to.

So, for a given speed, a drogue provides much less drag than a sea anchor. A Jordan Series drogue would be ineffective if deployed from the bow as a sea anchor.

Alain

[delmag]

discussion of almost the same question http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...-to-76744.html

[UNCIVILIZED]

Some Excellent reading is to be found here:
Victor Shane's Drag Device Data Base | Using Parachutes, Sea Anchors and Drogues to Cope with Heavy Weather – Over 130 Documented Case Histories
And here:
drogue device data - Bing

[Toaster]

A drogue is designed to slow the boat, not stop it, which means that it continues to have forward progress - the stable direction if deployed from the stern.

If deployed from the bow, your boat would be moving backwards - which is unstable. Just think how badly behaved most boats are in reverse! And what do you do with your rudder?

Especially when a large wave hits the boat, the drogue will allow the boat to move through the water at a speed of a few knots, possibly several knots. In that case if the drogue is deployed from the bow, your boat is going to wander badly, possibly turning sideways to the waves. Also, your rudder will get hammered unless it is strongly locked in place.

[JPA Cate]

We knew some people who did, one time, try to use their JSD for a sea anchor. It worked okay to stop their boat, a heavy displacement, full keel monohull. They tied off the tiller, to keep the rudder straight. It drifted 25 miles south in the East Australia Current, though. They had to beat back to their entry port of Brisbane, having not reckoned on the strength of the current.

Ann

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Toaster

A drogue is designed to slow the boat, not stop it, which means that it continues to have forward progress - the stable direction if deployed from the stern.

If deployed from the bow, your boat would be moving backwards - which is unstable. Just think how badly behaved most boats are in reverse! And what do you do with your rudder?

Especially when a large wave hits the boat, the drogue will allow the boat to move through the water at a speed of a few knots, possibly several knots. In that case if the drogue is deployed from the bow, your boat is going to wander badly, possibly turning sideways to the waves. Also, your rudder will get hammered unless it is strongly locked in place.

Now, I have yet to be thrown backwards down a wave going stern first, but I'd be willing to bet that tying off or locking the tiller or wheel is not a fool-proof and guaranteed way to prevent rudder damage. When and if I find myself in conditions like that, where things are so bad that I can't keep running with a drogue slowing me down, I'd want the biggest para-anchor made! (And I'd probably be willing to pay handsomely for someone else to deploy it for me!)

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Now, I have yet to be thrown backwards down a wave going stern first, but I'd be willing to bet that tying off or locking the tiller or wheel is not a fool-proof and guaranteed way to prevent rudder damage. When and if I find myself in conditions like that, where things are so bad that I can't keep running with a drogue slowing me down, I'd want the biggest para-anchor made! (And I'd probably be willing to pay handsomely for someone else to deploy it for me!)

I would rather not be in that situation ever again to need to deploy a sea anchor like that.