Jordan Series Drogue

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PhillM

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Channel or Coastal sailing only, single handed or 2 up ....

Do you carry one or something similar?

Have you ever needed one (or similar) in Channel / Coastal

Is it worth £400 to have one aboard?

If you could only buy one and had to choose, would you buy a Liferaft or JS Drogue?
 
Carried a drogue (a basic cone shaped drogue about 3' in diameter x 6' long) on a 41' sail training yacht that sailed coastal waters around the UK, mostly Scotland. It was used once in 8 odd years off the Scilly Isles.

I do not carry one in my own yacht. If I had to choose to spend £400, it would be on a Liferaft.

For short handed sailing I would now purchase a PLB and survival / drysuit and would not buy a liferaft or drogue, assuming I have a rubber dinghy. For longer passages or more crew you could hire a liferaft.
 
I have a Jordan drogue, and like most of them it is yet to come out of the bag.
But I was in a bit of a blow recently and I'd just read Lynn and Larry Pardey's 'Storm Tactics'. They are great advocates of heaving-to, which I did, with great and comfortable success.
I don't want to drift this thread, but if anyone wants to discuss heaving-to experiences, then let's start another thread.
 
lots of new thread ops, including one about chucking oil out, another bout the wisdom of chucking anything out with ropes knected to the boat all ready for your props to wrap round, and another about sailing anywhere near the Pardeys who really seem to kop it bad eh?
 
I carried a drogue, and used it fairly regularly for ocean sailing. In a big swell with maybe 30kts of following wind, I found it very good for holding the stern up to the wind, lowering any risk of a broach resulting from a breaking wave, so allowing us to take it easy at night.

But it's not appropriate for coastal sailing. It would rarely be a suitable heavy weather strategy when within 50 miles of land. Given a straight choice the liferaft is by far the better safety purchase.
 
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We have a Jordan Drogue - built it ourselves as a safety device for passages beyond a reliable forecast - essentially 3+ days. I wouldn't bother for shorter passages, and would probably prioritise a liferaft over one for (eg) channel sailing.

VO5 will be along in a minute to tell you to get a Seabrake.

- W
 
A builders bag does the same job and free from Jewsons!

and they really work well. slow down to 1/2 knot . breaks up any cresting wave from behind. Great
 
Most of us are well aware that many distance sailors - such as the remarkable Roger Taylor in his 21' Corribee 'MingMing' - would not go offshore without their trusty Jordan Series Drogue setup. And there are as many arguments over whether and what to drag in heavy weather as anchor spats on here....

Certainly, when working coastwise, heaving-to is a valuable option, but there are circumstances when that just isn't possible. Proximity to reefs, rocks and hard sticky-up coastline mean that there may be very little time before being stranded/set on somewhere inhospitable, at night, in heavy seas and the means to reduce drift and buy time could be paramount.

I'm thinking, for example, of the mast coming down and the prop being entangled just off Cape Cornwall or near The Smalls, the water being deeper than the anchor warp, and the priority is to reduce drift/buy minutes until help can arrive from Newlyn or St Davids.

Perhaps in such circumstances having a fairly-new One Tonne 'builders bag' - or two - rolled up in the cave locker might do the needful, without the requirement to fork out £400. There should be enough anchor warp to cope in such inshore circumstances. You can buy these ( called 'Hippo' ) or you can scrounge the much-cheaper version from almost any builders' site. Get an intact one.....
 
If your never going to be more than 40 odd miles off-shore then the forecast shouldn't be catching you out - so you will know whether you need it or not.

I can attest to it's value as a parking brake however - one of my fellow YM Offshore candidates used it when sailing onto a buoy - the instructor commented that he'd never seen that done before but agreed it was VERY effective!
 
nightmare to recover these things, same as parachute anchors, another thing i carted about and almost never used.

Best thing is to stop reading Pardey books cos unless you’re a loon you won’t find anywhere near as as many storms as they seem to happen across. This means you can then get rid of drogues and parachute anchors too.

I’d be fine about sailing with no Jordan drogue, but sailing with a liferaft is a different matter. Liferaft first, jordan series drogue er maybe.
 
tcm said:
Best thing is to stop reading Pardey books cos unless you’re a loon you won’t find anywhere near as as many storms as they seem to happen across. This means you can then get rid of drogues and parachute anchors too.
Click to expand...

Actually I'm reading Hal Roth's "How to Sail Around the World" at the moment. :)

The point of the thread is that all these books (Taylor / Pardey / et al) spend a lot of time talking about very heavy weather. Also, when we did a RNLI Sea Safety in the spring there was a question about carrying a drogue. So I wanted to know who had actually used on, because as is becoming clear in this thread it seems that a lot of people have them but they get used very little. Also, it seems that most people agree that it is inappropriate to use one close to land.

Thinking ahead, I could see a time when perhaps a storm comes in when we are mid channel. I was wondering about the potential of being hove to or running under bare poles close to the shipping lanes and how I could avoid getting swept into them, so wondered if a drogue would be something to consider.

Thanks all for your replies. Very helpful and appreciated.

EDIT: Reminder to self, must write that letter to FC asking for a liferaft this year.
 
tcm said:
Best thing is to stop reading Pardey books cos unless you’re a loon you won’t find anywhere near as as many storms as they seem to happen across.
Click to expand...


Wrong! You should read the Pardeys/Taylor/ Adlard Coles and all the rest, and then make your own mind up. But totally ignoring the experience of others is an arrogance sailors cannot afford.
 
In the confines of the channel if you plan on ignoring forecasts and ending up in some severe weather then the ability to sail even though it will be uncomfortable would be my priority. When I raced regularly and you just went with the starting gun, we often crossed in weather that any right minded person would have staid at home in. The boats had a set of sails to cope with almost anything. If you are going for comfort then I'd heave to, run with warps or other drag, but I don't feel there is that much space in the channel to be able to relax, maybe a couple of hours to get some food and rest and then crack on to a safe haven.

Liferaft would be my first choice for channel or ocean in case the boat sinks, many yachts will survive extreme weather as long as the hatches are closed and they don't reach land.
 
oldbilbo said:
....

I'm thinking, for example, of the mast coming down and the prop being entangled just off Cape Cornwall or near The Smalls, the water being deeper than the anchor warp, and the priority is to reduce drift/buy minutes until help can arrive from Newlyn or St Davids.

..........
Click to expand...

I used to carry a 220m coil of 12mm polythene rope.
Cost peanuts, and there are not many places I've been where that would not reach the floor.
Of course anchoring is not always going to be viable.
I have used a small drogue on a RIB after picking up a load of polythene sheet on the prop at night. I think it was useful, slowed drift and kept the bows into the weather.
 
PhillM said:
Thinking ahead, I could see a time when perhaps a storm comes in when we are mid channel.
Click to expand...

There are two reasons a drogue should not be necessary for a channel crossing.

First, because you don't have the sea room to use it as intended (stream it, go inside and batten down the hatches until conditions moderate). Too many hard thing so drift into after a few hours or run you down (possibly within minutes).

Second, because storms don't just "come in when we are mid channel". You should know, with a very very high degree of certainty, whether you will encounter a storm mid-channel. You will know this before you leave port, and make your decision (on whether to leave port or not) accordingly.

A purpose built drogue of any kind is one of the last things I would think of taking if I were coast hopping / crossing the channel.
 
tcm said:
Best thing is to stop reading Pardey books cos unless you’re a loon you won’t find anywhere near as as many storms as they seem to happen across. This means you can then get rid of drogues and parachute anchors too.
Click to expand...
They are a good read, but you're right, don't take them over-seriously. Many of the sailing old timers were real drama-queens when writing about their heavy weather experiences. I guess it's what their publishers thought would sell their books.

P.S. As I said above, I think a drogue can occasionally be useful when short-handed, even in normal brisk trade wind sailing. Plus it's best to practice your heavy weather kit *before* you face extreme conditions. Don't just leave it to rot in the bag.
 
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