50M of warp as a drogue?

Have you ever towed a warp?
Even towing a shore line (20m? 25m?) in nearly flat calm, the drag was significant.
As it picked up to sailing breeze with 'slight' sea condition, the drag got a lot more.
(This was to clean the rope after it got dirty in a fishing port.)
Any waves and you will be dragging bights of the warp through the waves as they try to make the rope follow their shape.
I think the drag from a long warp could be quite high in rough water.
Hard to put numbers to it though.
That post was nothing to do with frictional forces, but looking purely at the addition forces required to accelerate the mass of the rope. Which will be next to nothing compared to everything else going on.
 
Sorry I am lost now. Can you explain this please? ( what is roughly the square of the boat speed?)

Sorry. Drag in turbulent flow without a bow wave increases roughly with the square of boat speed. If you are motoring and it feels like 50 pounds (you will be able to hold one end it in your hand), then at 14 knots (surfing) it will be 200 pounds, or perhaps 400 pounds total. Depends on diameter and any weight added. I've tested this with load cells.

A steadying hand, perhaps, but many times less than any commercial drogue unless very small.
 
Many years ago (late seventies) we used to carry a long rope and an old car tyre that also did duty as a fender. The idea was to thread the rope through the tyre and fasten the rope ends to cleats at the sterns of the catamaran. The purpose was to slow the boat when running before the wind and preventing possible pitch-poling should the bows overtake the wave in front and get buried in it. The plan was that, when no longer needed, we would unfasten one end of the rope and let the tyre unthread itself; we did not care much about the environment in those days.
 
Many years ago (late seventies) we used to carry a long rope and an old car tyre that also did duty as a fender. The idea was to thread the rope through the tyre and fasten the rope ends to cleats at the sterns of the catamaran. The purpose was to slow the boat when running before the wind and preventing possible pitch-poling should the bows overtake the wave in front and get buried in it. The plan was that, when no longer needed, we would unfasten one end of the rope and let the tyre unthread itself; we did not care much about the environment in those days.

I think a stray tyre would be a lot less environmentally unfriendly than a sunken catamaran!
 
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