Sea anchor

skipper681

skipper681

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I like to have safety gear and hope I'll never need it. Can I have your thoughts on a sea anchor for a 19ft sailing boat, if it's handy to have and if so what size and have you ever needed one etc.

I've done some research on the web and some sites recommend a 6ft parachute, I've never needed one before on the larger ships and boats so this is new to me. I've found one on Ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEA-ANCHO...tEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item337ba9efba but dosen't look like it's up to the job.

Thanks all
 
if these have been removed from liferafts, they are simply to stop the raft being blown along the surface rather than holding a fairly stable position. I think its easy enough to predict drift from the tides (so the rescue services can work out where you will have got to since the last know position) but being blown about by the wind is a different and much less predictable issue.

doubt if they would have much effect on a 19ft boat.
 
Burnham Bob said:
if these have been removed from liferafts, they are simply to stop the raft being blown along the surface rather than holding a fairly stable position. I think its easy enough to predict drift from the tides (so the rescue services can work out where you will have got to since the last know position) but being blown about by the wind is a different and much less predictable issue.

doubt if they would have much effect on a 19ft boat.
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Thanks, but do I need one :confused:
 
Firstly decide whether you are looking for a sea anchor or a drogue. I struggle to see how you would need to lie to a sea anchor in a 19ft boat unless you consider that you may be caught offshore in some pretty nasty weather.

Furthermore they are difficult to deploy and even more so to recover, and take a bit of getting used to and tweaking to ensure that the boat will lie at the correct angle to the waves.

However if you intend to dampen the ride and reduce drift whilst fishing then it is a useful tool. Perhaps you could tell us a little more about why you think you need one and the replies could be a bit more relevant.
 
I'd suggest that very few people in 19 foot boats need a sea anchor. Frank Dye used one, but he was sailing a Wayfarer dinghy to Iceland, which is hardly normal behaviour.

It would help if you gave a bit more information about the kind of boat and what you're planning to do with it.

Pete
 
prv said:
I'd suggest that very few people in 19 foot boats need a sea anchor. Frank Dye used one, but he was sailing a Wayfarer dinghy to Iceland, which is hardly normal behaviour.

It would help if you gave a bit more information about the kind of boat and what you're planning to do with it.

Pete
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Agreed this would be very helpful and informative.
 
As I understand it you need or use a sea anchor when wind and waves reach a height where you can not safely continue sailing. (towards a safe Port). It is used when there is plenty of sea room to leeward and where you are resigned to spending time possibly days in the cabin waiting for the storm to abate.
All of these normally equate to long ocean passages.
Is this the kind of sailing you envisage.
If you only do short voyages where you can rely on useful forecasts and where you can return to a port before a storm really pipes up and where you are not likely to have sea room then you would not use a sea anchor.
Having said that TV this morning is full of story of a rescued sailor on New South Wales coast. He was doing a coastal voyage. Went out to sea because of bad weather and was rolled over in a breaking sea. (about 30ft sail boat). (rig lost) Had he been lying to a sea anchor he may not have rolled. But if he had one would he have decided to lay to the sea anchor anyway?
So you decide. good luck olewill
 
What kind of sailing are you considering doing in your boat, where you think a sea anchor will be required?
Personally, I don't think a sea anchor is really desirable for typical small yacht coastal sailing.
 
I know this may be slightly different, one of my boats is Greek registered, it is also registered for fishing. Greek law regarding safety equipment is very strict, ie you can get a serious fine if flares are out of date etc, one of the requirements is to carry a sea anchor, actualy it is a drogue. The idea is if you break down and the sea gets up, (which it does here in the afternoon) you can dump the drogue off the bow and lie with bows to the wind. I tried it once in about a F6 with a 1 metre short chop, once the length of line had been ajusted, it worked very well, it was far safer held like this. It would have been very worrying beam on to these seas in a small boat. I can see the logic in it, it is worth having one in the situation i mentioned.
The drogue is about 3 feet diameter.
 
A builders bag makes a realy good sea anchor / drogue. The ones that hold 1 m3 of sand or gravel. Available free from most builders merchants. Rated at 2.5 tons with a good safety factor.

Will work deployed from the bow in most seas but I prefer from the stern so the rudder still keeps the boat running downwind.

easy to recover if you have a reverse gear on the engine. just take in the slack and then tip out the water.
 
Monique said:
You may want to research a Jordan Sea Drogue.
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And if you google for Jordan Series Drogue you're more likely to find it ;)

I certainly find the concept convincing, and it's what I'd have on a yacht. It is designed to be deployed over the stern, though, which may not be suitable for a very small boat (and we still don't know whether the OP's boat is a dinghy, an open dayboat, or a pocket cruiser). We also don't know whether he's planning to follow in Roger Taylor's footsteps to the Arctic, or just pootle around Chichester Harbour and has an overactive imagination :)

Pete
 
prv said:
And if you google for Jordan Series Drogue you're more likely to find it ;)

I certainly find the concept convincing, and it's what I'd have on a yacht. It is designed to be deployed over the stern, though, which may not be suitable for a very small boat (and we still don't know whether the OP's boat is a dinghy, an open dayboat, or a pocket cruiser). We also don't know whether he's planning to follow in Roger Taylor's footsteps to the Arctic, or just pootle around Chichester Harbour and has an overactive imagination :)

Pete
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19ft hurley Alacrity, for coastal cruising :D
 
If you can afford the £19 buy one if it gives you piece of mind as would have uses. Being taken on a tow in a running sea this size at 500 mm opening will provide enough drag to keep her stern straight. If you lost your rudder you can rig one on a bridle and use it to steer by shortening one off bridles to produce more drag off centre. If you buy two you can hang one on the end of the boom, one on the end of a whisker / spinnaker pole, such that they are in the water by a couple of feet; your yacht will not rock from side to side when anchored or moored in a swell. If you needed to use a sea anchor then for a 19' boat I believe that at 500 mm diameter it would provide adequate relief from large waves if suspended from the stern.

Coastal Cruising can be quite exposed around all of the UK coastline, which I assume is where you will be sailing from. I don't think it's really necessary, but at £19 its cheap enough to pack away as I also don't think it would be useless either. If you do get one, at least have a play about with it and see how it fares, after all thats what messing about in boats is all about.
 
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