When we first started out we practiced our man overboard drills.
Another safety aspect is sailing in heavy weather. When there are strong winds and heavy seas, the boat can pitch-pole. That is to say it can slide down the face of a steep wave, bury its nose and tip over. There is a diagram here. For various reasons this is more of a risk with catamarans than monohulls.
To mitigate this risk, you need to be able to slow the boat down; if she slides slowly down the face of the wave, she won’t bury her nose and tip-over.
To slow the boat down, you can do a number of things:
- One is to “heave-to” and sail sideways.
- Another is to deploy a sea-anchor from the bow (front) of the boat. She sits, essentially stationary in the sea.
- Yet a third is to deploy a drogue from the stern (rear). In the latter case, you still have steerage, but will be going forward much more slowly.
Tony and Pete laid out the drogue on the deck before we left St. Barts.
We deployed it while under sail, a beam of St. Kitts. The boat slowed from around 6 knots to a little less than 4 knots. We all expected something more dramatic, closer to 2 knots. We rationalized that if there were more force on the boat and on the drogue, it would have slowed us more. It’s good that we didn’t stop dead – we slowed to a speed where we still had steerage.
Jane’s biggest worry was that the drogue would be too difficult to haul in. Pete and Tony tied a trip line to the middle of the drogue to make it easier to winch in, and it worked.
We spread the drogue back on the deck where it got a good freshwater rinse in Guadaloupe where it poured rained.
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- Here is the drogue flaked on the deck ready to be deployed.
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- Tony feeds out the drogue.
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- Pete takes a turn at feeding out the drogue.
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- The drogue is out. The yellow line is part of the drogue and the white line is the trip line to make the drogue easier to pull in.
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- Putting the drogue out reduced out the boat speed to just under 4 knots.
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- Here we are pulling the drogue back on board.
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- Pete and Gayle brought the second half of it back by hand.
Sounds like you’re working on “be prepared” which we former Boy Scouts think is a fine idea. Maybe a bigger drogue? Or try it at higher speed? Either way, here’s hoping you never have to use it!
I, too, hope that you never have to use it. I love that you have drills, and make these important effort to be prepared and safe.
Maybe your need two drouges. Or just tie a line around Pete and toss him overboard.
Poor old’ Pete!
I hope you don’t need to use it but good job on putting the drill into practice. If the boys in The Perfect Storm had done that…
Pete and Gayle both look like they have lost weight.. Are you sure you are getting enough nourishment??
Hi Pat, Yes, we are eating well. Thanks for your concern. We are more active than at home; and Pete says he is not losing weight but rather shifting it around. Plus, the tans help to make us look sleek, don’t you think?