where to get buord para-anchor

[ColinR]

as used by the Pardeys. There are purpose made ones available but I wondered if the original ex-military ones are still available anywhere?

Cheers, Colin

 

[beneteau_305_553]

I have a big builders sand / gravel bag as a Sea anchor., the ones that hold a ton or so. Just trail it from the stern on a 12 mm line.
Rig a trip line up inside it from the base to the top of the straps to recover it.
Works really well.

 

[twisterkai]

But how effective is it in a real situation? If it works, then great, I've got several at the moment - the builders merchants don't want them back anymore.

 

[beneteau_305_553]

I have tried it out with the boat under full sail in a F4 and it slowed the boat down to 2 kts. The bag seemed to be just below the surface and creates a tremendous turbulence which seemed to produce a kind of oil slick effect which also reuced the size of the following wave. The load on the line was also significant! especially when first dropped in to slow the boat down but no problems.

The only problem was recovery. I used a winch to pull it in over the stern through the fairlead which brought the strops up to the deck but couldn't get it any further due the weight of water in the bag. Luckily the bag did have a small hole so it did drain out eventually but the trip line resolves this problem.

The bags are designed for lifting several tons and are light , easy to stow and dont degrade so they seem to be ideal.

 

[jamesjermain]

Richard Woods had one of these on his catamaran Eclipse during his recent adventure. It shredded after a while in the water and wasn't ideal while it was whole. Mind you, his was at least 20 years old, which might have had something to do with it.

Richard is going to investigate sea anchors on behalf of YM and a report will appear in due course.

 

[ColinR]

I was thinking of a bigger parachute type sea anchor that you stream from the bow. The manufacturers recommend about 35% boat length for the diameter of the parachute and it stops you pretty well dead in the water, bows to the weather. There is a lot of discussion of it in Heavy Weather Sailing the Pardey's book Storm Tactics

 

[twisterkai]

Thanks for that. I'll get one of them down to the boat before SHMBO uses another one for garden waste.

 

[RupertW]

I must admit that I haven't got either kind but for a serious voyage I'd consider a series drogue as the total drag will be the same, but getting it back in becomes easier every few feet as each small para comes onboard. Also, it allows for a number of para failures without any significant effect, and there's no need for tripping lines.

 

[dulcibella]

But the time investment in making a series drogue is enormous - it took a friend of mine most of his evenings for a winter.

 

[beneteau_305_553]

The builders bag is about as large a resistance as I think would be good for a sinngle line however one could put several in series to get more resistance.

Alternatively several bags could be depolyed each on their own line. This has the advantage that if the line chafes through you still have the others.

Streaming sea anchors off the bow is Ok till the wind force or the waves do start moving the boat backwards in the water. When this happens the rudder starts to have effect and the boat can turn side on. Running under bare poles with warps (or drougues) trailed from the stern enables you to steer and keep the boat straight but you do need searoom.

The US coastguard have done quite a lot of reaseach into this and recomend for a 30 ft fin keel yacht a 4 foot diameter sea anchor deployed from the stern.

see http://www.sailrite.com/drogue_information.htm

 

[cadmus]

found one yet?

I realize this thread is a good 4 years old but it is unresolved.

Colin and others, has anyone found them??

I have been looking for many years with no luck.
Do we know what they are really called if one wanted to see if a surplus store could order them? “Buord”/”bu-ord”/”bureau of ordinance” has never worked for me when calling surplus stores and GSS. Is there a government number for this product? What governments had them? Does Bu-Ord refer to US or UK or NZ or what? (Pardeys are in NZ these days right?)

Thanks,

 

[serini]

BORD parachute

Hi, I have just posted about sea anchors and searched and found this thread.

I have one of these. We formed a group to cross the pond together ten years back and bought a job lot of them. Got them from army surplus in the states, they came packed into a nose-cone type of affair which presumably mounted on whatever they were dragging out of the aircraft - they are drag 'chutes not drop 'chutes. The company we used did not seem familiar with the term 'BORD' but did understand 'Drag parachute'. When they came the nose-cones were stencilled 'Bureau of Ordinance'.

 

[vyv_cox]

I realize this thread is a good 4 years old but it is unresolved.

Colin and others, has anyone found them??

I have been looking for many years with no luck.
Do we know what they are really called if one wanted to see if a surplus store could order them? “Buord”/”bu-ord”/”bureau of ordinance” has never worked for me when calling surplus stores and GSS. Is there a government number for this product? What governments had them? Does Bu-Ord refer to US or UK or NZ or what? (Pardeys are in NZ these days right?)

Thanks,

Bu-ord refers to USA. The Pardey's version is available at para-anchor.

This link sells paratech ones and has plenty of info. Paratech's own site.